Tuesday, 18 March 2025

 Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (12:55): I rise to put on record some concerns I have about pollution smokestacks being built at the North East Link site, the location of which many of my local residents and I, certainly over the last week, have had a number of conversations about. These stacks will be around 18 storeys high, or the equivalent of. They will be unfiltered, these pollution stacks which will feature on the North East Link Program. They are very, very close to Marcellin; Trinity college; Carey sports field; Belle Vue Primary in the member for Kew’s electorate; Bulleen Park, where there are a number of sports played from soccer to AFL to cricket – a whole range of sports; the Yarra River walking tracks; the local Indigenous area, where there is a billabong; the Veneto; and not to mention hundreds and hundreds of homes. This has been a feature of a number of contributions from me in the state Parliament and the member for Menzies in the Commonwealth Parliament about the impact that this will have on residents. What residents are seeking is that these stacks be filtered in the same way that they are in Sydney and in other cities overseas. Again I put on record my absolute concern that both the North East Link and the state government are not listening to local residents, who simply want the same treatment that others get in other cities around Australia and internationally when something so large should be filtered.