David Ettershank MP has called on the state government to reject a proposal by waste management company Hi-Quality to build a waste-to-energy incinerator at Sunbury Rd site.
Speaking in Victorian Legislative Council, the member for the Western Metropolitan Region directed his appeal to the Minister for Planning, highlighting what he described as serious environmental and health concerns associated with the project.
“Recent community consultations by Hi-Quality have done little to reassure residents,” he said. “Locals are rightly alarmed about the environmental risks, potential health impacts, and the thousands of additional trucks that would be forced onto already congested local roads.”
Mr Ettershank criticised waste-to-energy incineration as a “high-risk, low-reward” technology. He argued that such facilities lock in continued waste generation, require intensive water usage, and do little to reduce carbon emissions.
“It slows down the transition to a circular economy and hampers efforts to improve the recyclability and longevity of products,” he told Parliament.
Citing a peer-reviewed study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Mr Ettershank noted the research found increased rates of cancer and reproductive dysfunction among populations living near waste incinerators. The review recommended a precautionary approach to such facilities.
“They have already been banned in the ACT and in parts of Sydney. “The government seems to be embracing waste-to-energy as some kind of cutting-edge technology, while the European Union is moving to decommission these plants, and jurisdictions like the ACT and parts of Sydney have already banned them,” he said.
Mr Ettershank also raised concerns about Hi-Quality’s regulatory history, noting that the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has laid 33 charges against the company in the past 12 months for breaching landfill licence conditions and failing to comply with remedial notices.
“Approving this project is akin to leaving the fox in charge of the henhouse,” he said. “The west is sick of being treated as Melbourne’s dumping ground.”
He concluded by calling on the Minister for Planning to confirm that the government will rule out approval of what he described as an “atrocious project.”
Below… Listen to David Ettershank’s full speech.
