Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Monsbent

Ms RYAN (Euroa) (19:05): (6408) This evening I wish to raise a very urgent matter for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change regarding a local manufacturer in Benalla, a mainstay of our local economy. Monsbent is a subsidiary company of D & R Henderson. It is a Benalla-based particle board manufacturer. They employ 110 people. It has operated since 1985 in Benalla and is one of our town’s largest employees—

Mr Wynne: Employers.

Ms RYAN: Employers—thank you, Minister. In the past 20 years the company has struggled with compliance with its licence, as it believes the licence limits that were set by the EPA were too low for technology to be able to achieve. As a result, the company has sought on a number of occasions a review of its licence, but the EPA would not agree to undertake that action. They have since sought to work with the EPA to fix non-compliance with their emissions licence. The company sought external advice, and in 2020 they proposed to install technology—best practice air filtration and wet scrubbers—which I am advised would have seen them actually be able to comply with those licence limits in 2021. That solution was rejected by the EPA on the basis that it was not best practice. After rejecting the company’s solution to comply with its licence conditions, the EPA prosecuted Monsbent and its director in 2021 for a breach of its licence. Monsbent agreed to the EPA’s preferred solution of installing a wet electrostatic precipitator. In discussions with the EPA the company was led to believe, and they understood, that they would not be prosecuted as they were actually in the process of installing that technology, which was going to take 18 to 24 months, in order to achieve compliance.

On Friday Monsbent’s owner and director, David Henderson, was advised by the EPA that the regulator would no longer be providing regulatory cover or any assurances regarding prosecution, is now considering options and that changes to the EPA’s environmental legislation could result in criminal charges against individual directors. Monsbent has asked the EPA to amend its licence to combine the limits of both chimney stacks on the site in order to create an overall site limit that would enable them to keep operating one chimney while they install that technology to comply. My request to the minister is that she reviews this situation with the EPA urgently to see what can be done in order to, quite frankly, save this company and the jobs that it provides in Benalla. If that cannot occur, Monsbent will look to permanently close next week, putting 110 people in Benalla out of work and threatening the viability of D & R Henderson’s entire operation in Benalla.