By Charlene Macaulay
A Greens MP has dumped on the state government for leaving more than half a billion dollars collected by the landfill levy sitting in state coffers despite an ongoing waste management crisis.
Western suburbs upper house MP Huong Truong called on the government to “urgently address their failure to invest funds collected by western suburbs landfills to adequately address the state’s waste crisis” following last week’s release of an Auditor-General’s report that found $562 million collected through the landfill levy was unspent.
The report also found there was no satisfactory process to ensure the money collected was spent according to legal requirements and that activities funded through the levy were not always achieving the goal of better waste management.
“The Daniel Andrews government is profiting from large corporations using our community as a dumping ground,” Ms Truong said.
“This money should be used to stop the expansion of landfills and allow our communities to be part of a true transition to climate change.”
Wyndham mayor Peter Maynard said the council, on behalf of its residents, had contributed more than $18.01 million to the levy in the past five years, with “significantly” more collected through the Werribee tip.
He said the only return the council had received was $393,900 to support the increased recycling costs associated with the government’s China Sword policy and the extra costs to process recycling.
Cr Maynard said the council would like to see some of the levy go towards feasibility studies and support for business cases, preliminary and detailed design for alternate waste treatment and research, developing and commercialisation of emerging waste treatment technologies, among other projects.
“We’d also like to see less of the money collected through the levy going to state government departments and … more going back into local communities,” he said.
– with The Age
