❓ A parliamentary question regarding the time taken to develop a strategy for hazardous waste disposal after the Minister discovered unapproved waste disposal at Brookdale. The Minister defends the timeline by highlighting the need for thorough investigation and secure alternatives.
AnsweredQoN 437Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I have a supplementary question. As the minister has said that she was shocked when she found out that these wastes were going to Brookdale without the necessary approvals, can she explain why it took her nine months to come up with a strategy? Dr J.M. EDWARDS
AnswerView source ↗
It takes nine months to make a baby; however, perhaps that is not relevant. It is interesting to note that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was on the radio talking to Gary Adshead back in January saying that there were no alternatives. Clearly the minister in the previous Government was told at that stage what I also was told initially. However, rather than just accepting the letter my department had sent suggesting the problem be rolled into a public environmental review or a consultative environmental review, I said that there must be alternatives and we should look for them. Believe it or not, it takes time to put alternatives into place, particularly alternatives for dealing with hazardous waste. I do not take lightly my responsibilities to do with hazardous waste. I had to ensure that the companies putting up their hand to deal with the waste - quite a few put up their hand at that stage - could handle hazardous waste and would not leave a legacy such as we were left with at the Bellevue site. It therefore took some time to find alternatives, but I am happy with that because it enabled us to work through those alternatives properly to ensure that the places to which the wastes would go were licensed and had the capability and capacity to deal with them. We also warned the companies that we would regularly audit them, and that is what we have done.
Dr J.M. EDWARDS replied: It takes nine months to make a baby; however, perhaps that is not relevant. It is interesting to note that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was on the radio talking to Gary Adshead back in January saying that there were no alternatives. Clearly the minister in the previous Government was told at that stage what I also was told initially. However, rather than just accepting the letter my department had sent suggesting the problem be rolled into a public environmental review or a consultative environmental review, I said that there must be alternatives and we should look for them. Believe it or not, it takes time to put alternatives into place, particularly alternatives for dealing with hazardous waste. I do not take lightly my responsibilities to do with hazardous waste. I had to ensure that the companies putting up their hand to deal with the waste - quite a few put up their hand at that stage - could handle hazardous waste and would not leave a legacy such as we were left with at the Bellevue site. It therefore took some time to find alternatives, but I am happy with that because it enabled us to work through those alternatives properly to ensure that the places to which the wastes would go were licensed and had the capability and capacity to deal with them. We also warned the companies that we would regularly audit them, and that is what we have done.
It takes nine months to make a baby; however, perhaps that is not relevant. It is interesting to note that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was on the radio talking to Gary Adshead back in January saying that there were no alternatives. Clearly the minister in the previous Government was told at that stage what I also was told initially. However, rather than just accepting the letter my department had sent suggesting the problem be rolled into a public environmental review or a consultative environmental review, I said that there must be alternatives and we should look for them. Believe it or not, it takes time to put alternatives into place, particularly alternatives for dealing with hazardous waste. I do not take lightly my responsibilities to do with hazardous waste. I had to ensure that the companies putting up their hand to deal with the waste - quite a few put up their hand at that stage - could handle hazardous waste and would not leave a legacy such as we were left with at the Bellevue site. It therefore took some time to find alternatives, but I am happy with that because it enabled us to work through those alternatives properly to ensure that the places to which the wastes would go were licensed and had the capability and capacity to deal with them. We also warned the companies that we would regularly audit them, and that is what we have done.
It is interesting to note that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was on the radio talking to Gary Adshead back in January saying that there were no alternatives. Clearly the minister in the previous Government was told at that stage what I also was told initially. However, rather than just accepting the letter my department had sent suggesting the problem be rolled into a public environmental review or a consultative environmental review, I said that there must be alternatives and we should look for them. Believe it or not, it takes time to put alternatives into place, particularly alternatives for dealing with hazardous waste. I do not take lightly my responsibilities to do with hazardous waste. I had to ensure that the companies putting up their hand to deal with the waste - quite a few put up their hand at that stage - could handle hazardous waste and would not leave a legacy such as we were left with at the Bellevue site. It therefore took some time to find alternatives, but I am happy with that because it enabled us to work through those alternatives properly to ensure that the places to which the wastes would go were licensed and had the capability and capacity to deal with them. We also warned the companies that we would regularly audit them, and that is what we have done.
Believe it or not, it takes time to put alternatives into place, particularly alternatives for dealing with hazardous waste. I do not take lightly my responsibilities to do with hazardous waste. I had to ensure that the companies putting up their hand to deal with the waste - quite a few put up their hand at that stage - could handle hazardous waste and would not leave a legacy such as we were left with at the Bellevue site. It therefore took some time to find alternatives, but I am happy with that because it enabled us to work through those alternatives properly to ensure that the places to which the wastes would go were licensed and had the capability and capacity to deal with them. We also warned the companies that we would regularly audit them, and that is what we have done.
Dr J.M. EDWARDS replied: It takes nine months to make a baby; however, perhaps that is not relevant. It is interesting to note that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was on the radio talking to Gary Adshead back in January saying that there were no alternatives. Clearly the minister in the previous Government was told at that stage what I also was told initially. However, rather than just accepting the letter my department had sent suggesting the problem be rolled into a public environmental review or a consultative environmental review, I said that there must be alternatives and we should look for them. Believe it or not, it takes time to put alternatives into place, particularly alternatives for dealing with hazardous waste. I do not take lightly my responsibilities to do with hazardous waste. I had to ensure that the companies putting up their hand to deal with the waste - quite a few put up their hand at that stage - could handle hazardous waste and would not leave a legacy such as we were left with at the Bellevue site. It therefore took some time to find alternatives, but I am happy with that because it enabled us to work through those alternatives properly to ensure that the places to which the wastes would go were licensed and had the capability and capacity to deal with them. We also warned the companies that we would regularly audit them, and that is what we have done.
It takes nine months to make a baby; however, perhaps that is not relevant. It is interesting to note that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was on the radio talking to Gary Adshead back in January saying that there were no alternatives. Clearly the minister in the previous Government was told at that stage what I also was told initially. However, rather than just accepting the letter my department had sent suggesting the problem be rolled into a public environmental review or a consultative environmental review, I said that there must be alternatives and we should look for them. Believe it or not, it takes time to put alternatives into place, particularly alternatives for dealing with hazardous waste. I do not take lightly my responsibilities to do with hazardous waste. I had to ensure that the companies putting up their hand to deal with the waste - quite a few put up their hand at that stage - could handle hazardous waste and would not leave a legacy such as we were left with at the Bellevue site. It therefore took some time to find alternatives, but I am happy with that because it enabled us to work through those alternatives properly to ensure that the places to which the wastes would go were licensed and had the capability and capacity to deal with them. We also warned the companies that we would regularly audit them, and that is what we have done.
It is interesting to note that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was on the radio talking to Gary Adshead back in January saying that there were no alternatives. Clearly the minister in the previous Government was told at that stage what I also was told initially. However, rather than just accepting the letter my department had sent suggesting the problem be rolled into a public environmental review or a consultative environmental review, I said that there must be alternatives and we should look for them. Believe it or not, it takes time to put alternatives into place, particularly alternatives for dealing with hazardous waste. I do not take lightly my responsibilities to do with hazardous waste. I had to ensure that the companies putting up their hand to deal with the waste - quite a few put up their hand at that stage - could handle hazardous waste and would not leave a legacy such as we were left with at the Bellevue site. It therefore took some time to find alternatives, but I am happy with that because it enabled us to work through those alternatives properly to ensure that the places to which the wastes would go were licensed and had the capability and capacity to deal with them. We also warned the companies that we would regularly audit them, and that is what we have done.
Believe it or not, it takes time to put alternatives into place, particularly alternatives for dealing with hazardous waste. I do not take lightly my responsibilities to do with hazardous waste. I had to ensure that the companies putting up their hand to deal with the waste - quite a few put up their hand at that stage - could handle hazardous waste and would not leave a legacy such as we were left with at the Bellevue site. It therefore took some time to find alternatives, but I am happy with that because it enabled us to work through those alternatives properly to ensure that the places to which the wastes would go were licensed and had the capability and capacity to deal with them. We also warned the companies that we would regularly audit them, and that is what we have done.
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