Page 444 - Week 02 - Thursday, 11 February 2021
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that will result in further certainty about our waste strategy to business, industry and the community.
This legislation represents the most effective and efficient way to address the development of large-scale waste facilities in Fyshwick and are in line with the needs of the community and delivers on what was a tri-partisan public commitment to address community concerns regarding the development of large-scale waste facilities in Fyshwick.
Responding to Minister Vassarotti’s comments in relation to the circular economy, this legislation is supported by the actions under the parliamentary and governing agreement, and it should be no surprise to anyone in the Assembly that this legislation has been brought forward to address the issue that was identified both at the election and then in the subsequent parliamentary and governing agreement.
In relation to looking at waste facilities and their regulation, we actually require all waste facilities to be licensed under the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Act 2016, which includes a range of environmental objectives. We seek to build on that further with the agreed legislation that we will be bringing forward, to build a circular economy into the future in consultation with the community under the parliamentary and governing agreement.
We will continue to ensure that the ACT develops a sustainable waste industry that is appropriate to meet our local needs and to support our goal of building a circular economy. I am pleased to support this legislation and the further development of planning and waste management policies that will ensure that waste facilities are built in the most appropriate location in the ACT.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Manager of Government Business, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety, Minister for Planning and Land Management and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (10.48), in reply: I thank members for their contribution to the debate on this bill. Building on the discussion of the important elements of the bill, which I dealt with when introducing it, I will now speak further about the current waste facilities operating in Fyshwick and the government’s plans for a policy review to investigate the types of waste facilities which could be developed in Fyshwick in the future.
These are important matters to explore further. As we have heard, the bill contains regulation-making provisions to carve out sites from being affected by the ban. Eight facilities in Fyshwick currently operate under a waste licence and these are all small to medium operators processing waste streams such as electronic and computer waste; the container deposit scheme; construction and demolition; commercial and industrial waste; and metal recycling. The largest of these facilities processes about 30 tonnes of waste per year, with conditions on the waste licence about the amount of waste which can be stockpiled on the site at any one time.
As I noted when introducing the bill, the Capital Recycling Solutions proposal is for a facility processing up to 300,000 tonnes, while the Hi-Quality proposal is for a facility processing up to 1.1 million tonnes of waste. The proposed facilities are significantly
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