As an owner of a small bus company based in Melbourne that travels through Colac returning from the Ocean Road, I find it amazing that heavy vehicles must travel through the centre of Colac, is their any discussion/planning/works in the pipeline to divert traffic away from the main thoroughfare. As a visitor it does not do anything having such a stream of unsightly trucks and busses tracking through your CBD?
LETTERS The Labor Government is quick to burden industries amidst claims of a supposed "climate emergency" by raising the renewable energy target to 50 percent by 2030, while it chooses to ignore more urgent and genuine emergencies like our waste and energy crises. Greens MP Dr Ratnam (to no surprise) echoed this sentiment when she recently called for a moratorium to be placed on any approvals for waste incinerators in Victoria. This antagonism towards combustible waste incinerators lacks any basis in reason or knowledge of the matter. Recently I visited waste-to-energy plants in the UK and Scandinavia which have been operating successfully for years. All of these projects are extremely productive and offer a clean way of dealing with domestic combustible waste. Given our energy and waste crises, with 1.3 million Victorian households at risk of blackouts this coming summer and China ceasing to import our waste, waste-to-energy plants are a common-sense solution. Instead, we continue to bury our waste in the ground and export it to less-developed nations, rather than exploring innovative and modern solutions to energy and recycling issues. I suggest that we should explore all of these alternatives, including other methods of recycling used overseas such as turning glass into road making material and old clothing into the carpet. When I asked the Energy Minister about waste-to energy plants in Parliament, she insisted that "it is better to reduce the amount of waste we produce in the first place" rather than use it to power the homes that suffer blackouts under her watch this summer. I urge the government to work with local councils and waste to energy companies seeking to incinerate Victoria's excessive domestic combustible waste. Waste should be seen as an opportunity, not a problem. Beverley McArthur, Member for Western Victoria Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence.