Thursday, 24 March 2022

Western Metropolitan Region

Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) (12:42:062:): (1716) My constituency question is to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. Yesterday Sunbury suffered its first major spill from a truck carrying sludge from the West Gate Tunnel Project. We do not know if the sludge was contaminated by carcinogenic PFAS material, but even if it was not, it is a sign of things to come. It is not just residents near the toxic soil dump who are endangered by this material but motorists, pedestrians, residents and traders right along the route between the tunnel and the Sunbury Road toxic soil dump. More than 800 extra trucks per day will be a threat on wheels to the health and wellbeing of tens if not hundreds of thousands of people in Melbourne’s west. This is an intolerable situation. We should not be put in such a position. Minister, this is a major threat to the environment that my constituents live in. What are you going to do to protect the people of the west from this threat?