Disallowing D'Ambrosio?
Western Victoria MP Bev McArthur has welcomed an Opposition move to disallow Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio’s Environment Protection (Management of Tunnel Boring Machine Spoil) Regulations 2020 which took effect on 30 June this year.
She said: “Documents tabled today are shocking proof that this Government will cut any corner necessary in ramming through proposals to dump contaminated soil from the West Gate Tunnel Project on the doorsteps of the Bacchus Marsh community.”
“It is absolutely right that we do everything possible to oppose these changes, introduced in such an anti-democratic way.”
Minister D’Ambrosio’s decision to disallow parts of the Environment Protection Act 1970 was given form in Statutory Rule (SR) 62/2020 which took effect on 30 June this year.
The decision to amend the effect of the EPA 1970 by delegated legislation – which does not require full parliamentary process – had already attracted criticism.
Mrs McArthur said: “I have said before I think it is an abuse of process to use an SR to bypass full Parliamentary process when the matter at hand is as controversial as this. It is even less acceptable at a time when Parliament is unable to exercise its normal oversight.”
“Today’s release confirms the approach was either desperate or cynical. The Minister’s excuse for exempting the change from public consultation is laughable, and the documents further confirm that this process was undertaken purely to reduce obstacles to dumping the soil, to make the life of the Government and WGTP contractors easier.”
The Subordinate Legislation Act 1994, builds in the safeguard of public consultation on Ministerial decisions to introduce Statutory Rules and other legislative instruments which do not require explicit Parliamentary approval.
In this case, however, Minister D’Ambrosio used a clause of the SLA to exempt this SR from that scrutiny, certifying that: “There has not been consultation with sectors of the public because no sectors of the public were identified on which a significant economic or social burden may be imposed by the proposed Regulations.”
The documents tabled in Parliament today are available at https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/file_uploads/Documents_under_s_15_in_relation_to_SR_62_TX7ZzPcm.pdf
Mrs McArthur said: “These Regulations are a significant watering down of longstanding environmental protections surrounding the storage of potentially contaminated soil. They include removing the existing licensing process, and the reduction from 500m to 200m of the buffer zone required between sensitive land use and houses, health services and schools. It is inconceivable that varying them – so clearly for the purposes of the WGTP – will not have a direct ‘social burden’ on those living less than 500m from dumped soil.”
Mrs McArthur drew attention to the Minister’s Exemption Certificate, which claims the “…existing regulations [i.e. disposal in licensed landfill sites] are disproportionately onerous in comparison to risks to human health and the environment.”
It continues: “… the proposed Regulations and EMP provide a simpler, faster process…” which is “therefore less burdensome on industry…”
Most significantly, it states: “the proposed Regulations do not provide for public consultation regarding development of EMPs, nor review of EMP decisions by VCAT (both of which would be available for works approval or licensing decision making processes required…)”
Mrs McArthur continued: “It is deeply regrettable that any delegated legislation should come into force at a time when Parliament is unable to react for an extended period. The introduction of SR No.62 is even less acceptable, given its huge potential consequence for the people of Victoria, the secrecy and speed of its introduction, and the consequent total lack of consultation with communities which may suffer as a result.”
“What we can see from these documents is that even this shortcut process has been treated in a cavalier manner. The Minister has exempted herself from the public consultation it requires, on the flimsiest grounds.”
“My worst fears have been confirmed. The Minister’s own paperwork shows that these rules remove public consultation on licensing new dumping sites, and preclude any legal remedy against sites approved.”
“It isn’t just creating a ‘simpler, faster process’ for dumping - the new system also allows constructors to avoid paying the landfill levy on soil removed. This is simply a subsidy to the contractors, and a face-saving exercise by the Government to disguise further funding being granted to private companies engaged on the project. It gives a lifeline worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to private contractors on the otherwise-failing West Gate Tunnel Project.”
Mrs McArthur concluded “I am delighted that David Davis confirmed today that the Coalition will bring a motion to have this dangerous legislation disallowed. I look forward to making the case to my cross-bench colleagues that this is a shoddy and transparent effort by Ministers to play fast and loose with law and our democratic conventions, in a desperate attempt to stop their flagship infrastructure project sinking beneath waves of mismanagement and incompetence.”
4 August 2020