Thursday, 6 March 2025

 Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:06): Something stinks in Hampton Park, and it is not pleasant. I have been meeting with a myriad of stakeholders about the proposed Hampton Park waste transfer station, and residents are not happy, and rightly so. The Veolia project is set to be Victoria’s biggest waste transfer station, processing half a million tonnes of waste. It is close to residents, with homes some 200 metres from the boundary, well under the 500-metre buffer required by the EPA, and more than 500 trucks will come and go 18 hours a day from midnight to 6 pm. Administrators at Casey council approved the project two days before elected councillors were sworn in. This made the locals feel like they were not heard and do not matter. The EPA are doing their due diligence and have received 751 submissions raising concerns, only to be challenged by Veolia at VCAT to expedite their licence application. And Veolia’s reputation is not great. They have breached licence conditions more than once. Now the Lynbrook Residents Association, along with other ratepayers associations opposing this unsavoury development, are calling on residents to go to their MPs and express their concerns. I am standing here today to implore you to listen to the people of Hampton Park, Lyndhurst, Narre Warren South and Cranbourne North.