Thursday, 18 August 2022

Adjournment

Hampton Park recycling centre and transfer station

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (17:08): (6496) My adjournment tonight is to the Minister for Planning, and the action I ask is for the Minister for Planning to come to the Narre Warren South electorate and visit those communities out there that are concerned around the impact of the tip that is in Hampton Park that is affecting many in that community. There have been issues raised from the local community around some of the things like smell from the tip that is impacting people’s communities and the change of the boundaries for the buffer zone through that area, going from 100 metres to 500 metres. Disappointingly there was a community meeting recently to which I know the government were invited and opted not to attend, including the member for Narre Warren South. The candidate for Narre Warren South, Annette Samuel, joined me and the community to talk about some of the issues that were happening there and the impact, particularly on some of the houses that were built in the 1980s and 90s on the condition that the tip was going to be across the road but that by 2020 the tip was going to be closed or it was going to be a transfer station for a short period after.

However, what has happened now is that there is an application to extend and make an additional area for a further transfer station. This will impact the site because it will not need to have the same works done to regenerate it and put the landfill back to what should be and what everyone was promised was a park. If this continues and that boundary is changed, it means people who bought their houses in the 80s and 90s will now have to have on their section 32s that they are within that buffer zone, so the impact on the price of their houses will be dramatic, with a decrease in the value of their homes because of the impact of the tip across the road. Some of the long-term residents who, as I said, have been there since the 80s and 90s are very concerned about not just the effect of that on their section 32 but the impact on their lives, when they were promised this would be turned back into a park after a period of time.

We understand it goes to council and the council will have to make a recommendation, but it will come to the government to make that final decision on what is going to happen with that site for the future. We all understand and everybody there understands that we have to put our waste somewhere. They also understand that the tip was going to be there for a long period of time, and they have gone through what they would say is a fair stage with what has happened with that tip. What they are concerned about is if you make changes to the transfer station or make an additional transfer station there, then you are going to make an addition to the time they need to keep that site open, which could, instead of being in the 2020s, end up in 2042 or indefinitely if those transfer stations stay open. This is a very big concern in Narre Warren South. I invite the minister to come out, and if the minister would like, I would also encourage her to bring out the member for Narre Warren South to meet his own community and to find out the issues that they are concerned about.