Tuesday, 7 June 2022

Bulla tip

Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) (19:32): (1958) I wish to raise a matter this evening for the attention of the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. The minister might be pleased to know that I have no intention of raising with her this evening the matter of the Ombudsman’s report into the EPA’s dereliction of duty on the dumping of carcinogenic PFAS material near Sunbury and Bulla, but I can assure her that is coming. That is coming; you can put the house on that.

I wish to raise with her tonight the matter concerning an issue just down the road at the Bulla tip. At the Bulla tip there have been a number of fires in recent times, one as late as just last week, and we know that there has been over a period of time asbestos dumped at that tip. As Sunbury grows closer to the tip and the number of vehicles using Sunbury Road grows ever more by the day—in fact more by the hour, as it were—we must be very concerned about what any smoke or any fire impact would have on people who are passing or people who are living nearby. We are very, very concerned about the environmental disaster that the minister and this government have allowed to occur in Sunbury Road. It is a disgrace. It is a disgrace what this government has been allowed to do.

Mr Ondarchie interjected.

Mr FINN: Have I been there? I have been there. Has she been there? I tell you what, if the minister went there, she might not get back. I tell you what, such is the anger of people in Sunbury and Bulla that if Lily D’Ambrosio came out to Sunbury and Bulla she might not get back to wherever the hell she lives—in Brunswick or wherever it is.

I am livid at what has happened there, and what I am asking the minister to do—apart from her job, which would be a good start—is to give us an assurance that she has this situation under control, that the safety and the health of people in Sunbury and Bulla and those travelling past on Sunbury Road is her first priority and that she has the matter under control. We want guarantees that these fires in the Bulla tip, which seem to be ongoing, are not impacting lives and are not impacting health. We need to know. We need an assurance from the minister that she has all of this under control. I have no confidence, I have to say, in the minister. I do not think there is anybody in this state who has any confidence in the minister. But I ask her at least to tell us what the hell is going on.