POLL: State proposal a load of rubbish: council

Dubbo’s civic leaders say expanding the charge across the state would be another “cost-shift” and a “double hit” on a city that has funded its own tip and associated assets.

The council plans to argue against any moves by the state government to hit it with the Section 88 Waste Levy paid by metro landfill operators.

One councillor said the people of Dubbo would “never see the benefit” of funds collected through the levy. 

The expansion was recommended by an independent consultant commissioned in 2012 but the government agreed not to extend the levy at the time but instead undertake a consultation process.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) recently began the consultation with potentially-affected councils, releasing an options paper and inviting submissions.

Dubbo council staff estimated $430,000 would be added to the organisation’s annual burden if a fee of $10 per tonne was imposed.

Ratepayers would feel the impact through increased tipping fees and steeper hikes in waste management charges while the council forecast the fee could rise over time to achieve parity with the metropolitan area. 

The levy is designed to encourage tip operators in the most populous areas not to landfill waste but to instead look at recycling, reprocessing and re-use - resource recovery.

The council will argue in its submission to the NSW EPA it is not appropriate at Dubbo.

“In the most populous areas of the state where the need to contain landfilling activity can be justified on the basis of the spatial and environmental constraints . . . and their relative proximity to markets for resource recovery industries all helps to make waste diversion more feasible,” council civil infrastructure and solid waste manager Steve Clayton said in a report to a council committee.

“In regional NSW waste management is conducted in a distinctly different environment.

“Put simply, by extending the regulated area, regional councils are being required to contribute to the state an amount that is arguably more than what is required to support their own waste management services.”

Councillors accepted Mr Clayton’s recommendation to express a strong preference for no expansion of the levy at the most recent works and services committee meeting.

They also moved to make representations to Dubbo MP Troy Grant and seek the support of Local Government NSW. 

“There has always been the argument in local government that money collected never seems to come back,” Cr Allan Smith said. “(It is) taken to Sydney and the people of Dubbo never see the benefit.”

He said councils in Sydney did not have a tip, but at Dubbo the community had funded its waste services.

Cr John Walkom agreed, saying it was a “double hit”.

“It’s called a levy, but it’s a tax,” he said. “For regional areas, there is enough cost-shifting. We should dig our toes in and send a message back to Macquarie Street.”