NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

Waiting for the Barbarians

                                                                                    

Attentive readers of the local press will have seen on page 10 of last week's Avon Valley Advocate a report headed 'Royalties rolled out'.  It tells us that from a Royalties for Regions investment package amounting to over $9 million, $305,000 has been earmarked for three projects in the electorate of Central Wheatbelt.

One of those projects is a feasibility study costing $50,000 to be conducted by the Shire of Tammin 'into the suitability of Tammin as a waste management site away from the Swan Coastal Plain and out of the Perth peri urban fringe'.

For those who haven't been keeping up, 'waste management site' is corporate jargon for 'rubbish dump' or 'tip'.

According to Mia Davies, MLA for Central Wheatbelt—anyone remember Mia?—the study’s report ‘will offer strategic direction for the future of waste management in the Southwest, and given the challenges we’re currently facing in the Avon Valley it will be an important piece of work to inform future decisions’.

Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?  What does Mia mean by ‘strategic direction for the future of waste management’?  Why doesn’t she say what ‘challenges’ she has in mind?  Do those challenges include SITA’s designs on Allawuna?

To my surprise, some of my friends seem to have taken this report as an indication that SITA may drop its Allawuna proposal in favour of installing a rubbish dump in the Shire of Tammin.  I commend their optimism, but regrettably I can’t share it.  I wish I could.

Perth needs more than one new dump away from the coastal plain.  I’m told Tammin is keen to host one.  There are logistical problems, though; Tammin is a lot further from Perth than is York, which could mean either reduced profits for SITA resulting from increased transport costs (yeah, right) or (much, much more likely) a greater imposition on the public purse.

Hence, I suppose, the need for a feasibility study, though these days you don’t get much worth having for $50,000.  If you don’t believe me, ask Commissioner Best what the City of Fremantle had to pay him for Visioning 2029, and read Roel Looper’s comments, posted recently on this blog, on what the City got for its money.

My guess is that what SITA and the state government have in mind is two rubbish tips in the Central Wheatbelt, one in York and the other in Tammin.  Householders in York received in their letterboxes last month a ‘landfill project update’ from SITA stating that its latest plan for Allawuna ‘reduces the landfill footprint by almost a third’ and ‘the total volume of waste received’ from 10.1 to 4.6 million tonnes.  That missing 5.5 million tonnes will have to go somewhere.

If I’m right, SITA should be paying for the Tammin feasibility study, not WA taxpayers via Royalties for Regions.

Conspiracy Theory

In December of last year, in public question time, I asked Shire President Reid if the Minister’s decision to suspend the Council might have something to do with the Shire’s opposition to the proposed tip.  I remember very well his reply that what I seemed to be suggesting was of the order of a ‘conspiracy theory’ and therefore by definition highly improbable.

Maybe.  I hate to disagree with Matthew Reid, but I’m not so sure.  I suspect the state government has been in on this business from the beginning; hence the failure of our local parliamentary representatives to come out against SITA’s plans. 

Moreover, I suspect that SITA may be a generous donor to all three major political parties, thus discouraging any of them from making a public show of opposition.   All we’ve heard on the topic from ALP members of parliament has been a polite yawn followed by a deep, complacent snore.

Unfortunately, despite earlier assurances from Commissioner Best, York’s ratepayers shouldn’t be too confident that as the Shire’s representative on JDAP he will be as earnest in putting our case as we’ve come to expect, or as Shire President Reid would certainly be.

During PQT at the May Ordinary council meeting, my friend Jane Ferro asked why the Commissioner and the Shire’s planning consultant, Jacky Jurmann, appear to believe that SITA’s proposal will go ahead.  This was his response as recorded in the minutes:

“The Commissioner stated that it is important for Council to keep an open mind on the new proposal.  The perception that SAT are considering approval comes from the tone set by the Presiding Officer at the last SAT hearing the Commissioner attended, with the focus on smaller footprint and moving of the landfill away from the creek.  The Commissioner said he hoped he was wrong and encouraged residents to make submissions.”

The people of York have made it unmistakably clear more than once that they don’t want a ‘landfill’ (read: rubbish dump) at Allawuna.  The size of the proposed dump is only one aspect of their aversion to the project.  Other aspects include the likelihood of traffic problems, the impact on local agriculture and tourism, the dangers of siting a rubbish dump in an earthquake belt, and concerns about implications for water and wildlife. 

Like many other giant corporations, SITA’s parent company, Suez-Lyonnaise, is not an ideal corporate citizen.  In 2005, it was nominated by the International Labor Rights Forum as one of the ‘fourteen worst corporate evildoers in the world’ for its role in water privatisation in poor countries, including Bolivia and the Philippines.

For its part, SITA’s operations are by no means trouble-free, either in Australia or overseas.  In Victoria, having previously fined the company, the EPA in 2012 issued a ‘Final Enforceable Undertaking’ regarding offensive odours at SITA’s Hallam Road tip at Hampton Park.  It was estimated that putting matters right would cost the company the best part of a million dollars. The EPA continues to enjoin nearby residents to report odours as they occur.

In the UK, problems of various kinds, including odour, have arisen at SITA landfill sites near Glenfarg and Peterhead in Scotland, at Path Head near Gateshead in the north of England and at Connon Bridge in Cornwall.

No, Commissioner Best.  In this instance, an open mind would be no better than an open mouth, of the kind that lets in flies.  It’s not an open mind we need from you as the current embodiment of the Shire Council. 

What we need from you—and Ms Jurmann—is a steely determination to ensure that an unscrupulous multinational company, and a state government frantic to find a convenient destination for millions of tonnes of metropolitan junk, don’t dump on the people of York. 

 A 'mentor' for President Reid?

Until a few days ago, I was fairly sure that James Best would be departing this parish in time to allow President Reid to resume his position as a member of JDAP representing the Shire.  It seems I may have been wrong.

The latest news from my source in the Department of Local Government is that Mr. Best will remain in situ for the foreseeable future to ‘mentor’ Matthew Reid.

It appears that the Minister and his entourage are not persuaded that honest Matthew Reid can be trusted to do their bidding when they permit him to return to office.

In my opinion, it is Matthew Reid who should be doing the mentoring, and James Best who should be on the receiving end. 

The Minister doesn’t seem to understand that Matthew is a popular and highly respected figure in our Shire who over many years has earned a reputation for getting good things done. 

By contrast, James Best’s sojourn here, as even he must recognise, has been a gigantic flop.

I know that Matthew and his family have been under enormous pressure since the Minister, egged on by the panjandrums in his department, irrelevant old guard councillors and self-serving snitches working for the Shire, launched an unfair and dishonest attack on Matthew’s integrity as a prelude to suspending the Council.

My fear is that Matthew has had enough and may decide to resign from Council.  If that happens, we could end up with a commissioner for two years followed by something horribly akin to the Hooper-Boyle-Hooper ascendancy, because good people would be afraid to stand for election. That would suit the Minister, his department and the Shire administration no end.

If resignation is on your mind, Matthew, please don’t do it.  Remember that you have strong support in the York community.  We haven’t forgotten you.  Stay in office, and, as the saying goes, don’t let the bastards grind you down.