Western Metropolitan Region
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (13:04): (1009) My constituency question is for the Minister for Environment. My constituent is a Sunshine West resident. During the recent Derrimut fires she was, like all her neighbours, incredibly distressed to see plumes of toxic smoke drifting towards her home a bit over a kilometre away from the fire. The fact is that few locals know where toxic chemicals are stored until they explode, but they do know that most of Victoria’s toxic chemicals are parked somewhere in the western suburbs. My constituent wants an independent contamination taskforce established to look into how chemicals are stored and how state services respond to dangerous chemical fires that contaminate the air and pollute the waterways of the west. She asks: when will the government set up a contamination taskforce?