Wednesday, 30 October 2019

Jackson’s Earthmoving

Mr TILLEY (Benambra) (09:49): I want to talk up a Wodonga family business and call for the support of this government. Jackson’s Earthmoving has now diversified into recycling. They take bottles and crush them into pipe bedding, plumbers grit, road base and a surface for hundreds of kilometres of bike trails. They anticipate a significant increase and ongoing demand for this terrific alternative to sand. This should be great news for Wodonga—Wodonga’s expansion, investment and more jobs. But they continue to be overlooked by this government.

Melbourne is facing a critical shortage of sand, and extractive industries cannot get approvals to keep up. Without sand there are no metro tunnels and no suburban loop. It is a key to building and construction. I do not need to remind anyone about the recycling bungles of the past two years that have seen hundreds of thousands of tonnes of glass and bottles end up in landfill. So it would seem an absolute no-brainer for the government to get behind this great Wodonga business. I get that this government does not have any money left for country Victoria, but for the sake of jobs, the environment, regional Victoria and the construction industry, it is time to use some of the $500 million in the Sustainability Fund to support communities beyond the tram tracks.