Page 3255 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
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MS LAWDER: Minister, how will you be working with the Minister for Regional Development and other relevant ministers to ensure a coherent strategy for the environmental management of the Riverview area will be in place?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Lawder for her question. I look forward to working with other ministers and other locations and geographical areas in dealing with the Riverview proposal, but we have not met with them at this time.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Berry.
MS BERRY: Minister, when will the Riverview development commence?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Berry for her question. It will commence once approvals are all in place and the community consultation has been worked through.
Environment—waste management
MR WALL: My question is to the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services. Minister, it has been reported in the Canberra Times this week that the Mugga Lane tip is nearing capacity; so about half of the ACT’s rubbish will be sent to the west Belconnen tip instead. It has also been reported that work to extend the operational life of the Mugga Lane facility has been brought forward because the tip has reached capacity faster than expected. Minister, why did the government not have contingency plans in place to ensure that the tip had sufficient capacity at all times?
MR RATTENBURY: Yes, there has been a temporary arrangement put in place to handle the ACT’s waste. As Mr Wall has touched on in his question, for a period of some several months, commencing from 13 October until early 2015, around half of the ACT’s waste will be diverted to the Belconnen landfill site. In some ways, that goes to the contingency plan. The Belconnen landfill site is available as a contingency plan in the event that other sites are not available.
As members know, the government has been working on providing new landfill sites at Mugga Lane. Unfortunately we are in a situation where the existing cells have been filled faster than had been anticipated by the previous modelling. TAMS has been successfully working with the contractor to bring forward the completion of one of the new cells earlier than expected, by about four months, with no additional cost to the territory, simply by working with the contractor to adjust the timetable. I think that is a positive development.
Nonetheless, there has been an error in the calculations of how soon a new cell was needed. I am obviously very disappointed that that is the case. TAMS is now undertaking an investigation to ascertain why those errors were made and ensure that lessons are learned from those errors that have been made.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Wall.
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