BY TAMARA PEARSON
SYDNEY — Fancy-suited councillors grumbled about feeling "intimidated" when protesters packed into an Auburn council meeting on November 19 to oppose the construction of a waste compacting plant at the former Clyde rail yards, near Auburn.
The meeting was held after two local residents had won a year-long case to prevent the building of the waste compacting plant, which would compact all of Sydney's waste into freight containers for transport to Woodlawn, an enormous abandoned open-cut mine near Goulburn.
John Drake and Allan Brzoson, with no legal qualifications, pitted themselves against four barristers including a QC, solicitors from the NSW planning department and the giant law firm Freehills in the case, heard before the NSW Land and Environment Court.
Drake and Brzoson objected to the Collex company's planned Clyde waste transfer station on the grounds that it would greatly harm air quality in the Auburn area and cause enormous transport problems and costs to taxpayers across Sydney.
A consultant's report prepared for the state government last year found the existing five landfill sites would run out of room by 2006. To avoid this, Woodlawn needed to be operational as soon as possible, it concluded. But Collex has an interest in not recycling waste, as it is paid on a per-tonne basis. The amount of waste would also be a lot less if municipal councils like Auburn provided their residents with recycling bins.
Addressing the Auburn council meeting, Drake accused the councillors of supporting the waste dump development. He revealed that the council had spent $500,000 on the case and that Collex and Auburn council held illegal secret meetings. Auburn's solicitor had assisted Collex, despite the council's official position of opposing the waste dump.
When Drake finished speaking, the public gallery applauded for several minutes, ignoring the "be silent" signals from the mayor. One man jokingly yelled out a motion to dismiss Auburn council, which was greeted with "ayes" from the audience.
NSW Labor Premier Bob Carr wants to overturn the court victory using special legislation. Ensuring the viability of the billion-dollar contract between the NSW government and Collex "might involve an act of Parliament" to ensure that the project goes ahead.
This suggestion comes amid warnings of a "catastrophic waste crisis" for Sydney if the government is forced into a long appeal process. But the crisis would be well averted if waste disposal was planned along environmental and social lines rather than for the commercial gain of waste handling companies.
From Green Left Weekly, November 26, 2003.
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