Secret recording reveals NSW EPA director joking about interstate waste transferral
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Four Corners can reveal a damning recording of a closed-door meeting between prominent waste industry figures and the NSW EPA's director of waste management, chief regulator Steve Beaman.
The meeting was held in June 2017 in Sydney and involved about 70 industry representatives.
In the recording Mr Beaman is heard comparing the interstate transferral of waste from NSW to Queensland to swapping fruit for rubbish, much to the amusement of the industry representatives in the room.
Mr Beaman to waste industry: "We [NSW] take their mangoes, they [Queensland] can take our waste. So that's the reality of it."
Industry figure: (Laughter)
The Government's chief waste regulator can also be heard joking with industry and mocking the Government's own interstate waste-tracking system.
Industry figure: Are you confident that everyone uses the interstate waste-tracking system for more than 10 tonnes?
Mr Beaman: God no, no.
Industry figure: (Laughter)
Industry figure: At least he's honest.
Industry figure: (Laughter)
The NSW regulator's comments to industry figures behind closed doors are very different to the answers he gave to Four Corners to be broadcast to the Australian public.
Contradicting what he told industry in that June 2017 closed-door meeting, in an interview with reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna in July 2017, Mr Beaman said the online waste tracking system was working well and the industry was using it.
Meldrum-Hanna: Do you have confidence that transporters and waste companies are using that online tracking system?
Beaman: Yes, we do, and our data correlates quite closely with other jurisdictions that also record waste coming in. That gives us confidence in that data set.
Meldrum-Hanna: That online tracking system is working?
Beaman: Yes. We have implemented waste-tracking requirements for waste leaving the Sydney metropolitan area to be tracked, so we can understand where waste movements are happening across all the jurisdictions.
In the recording, Mr Beaman can also be heard telling industry representatives that multiple ministers support community calls for a ban on plastic bags following the ABC's War on Waste series broadcast earlier this year, but that there was an internal government 'ban on bans' in place, following the Four Corners explosive investigation into greyhound racing in 2015.
Industry figure: Plastic bag bans?
Beaman: Yeah I don't know what to say.
Industry figure: Is it being discussed by government?
Beaman: Yes. Which is making me cry. (Laughter)
Industry figure: We'll make you cry with a couple of other questions. (Laughter)
Beaman: All ministers are keen for it. They see the community expectation. It got caught up with the greyhound ban, so we've done a lot of work last year on it and then the greyhound ban, a sort of bushfire of policy outcomes went through government and there was a ban on bans.
Industry figure: (Laughter)
Palaszczuk says Queensland will not be a 'dumping ground'
The NSW Government is under fire today after the Four Corners exposed widespread scamming and rorting in the waste and recycling industry.
The investigation revealed at least one local council was complicit in illegal dumping on the NSW Central Coast and revealed inexplicable delays in response time from the NSW EPA to community tip-offs about illegal dumping.
It also revealed an organised sophisticated syndicate of interstate transport companies sending NSW waste to Queensland to be dumped down old mine sites located closed to residents.
On Tuesday, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk expressed her "horror" at the revelations.
In a statement, Ms Palaszczuk said she would discuss the allegations with the NSW Premier Gladys Berijiklian as a matter of urgency.
"[Monday's] ABC TV Four Corners program has raised alarming allegations about the movement of waste," she said.
"Queensland will not be the dumping ground for New South Wales Waste."
Ms Berijiklian responded by defending the government-funded regulator, the NSW EPA.
"Of course and that's why we have the EPA in New South Wales and every state has their own agencies to look at those issues," she said.
"Clearly we have some of the most stringent guidelines here in NSW. I'm proud of that fact and I expect every other state to have those stringent guidelines as well."
Calls for inquiry, federal intervention
But there are mounting calls for a special commission of inquiry to be established in to the waste industry and the conduct of the regulator, with the NSW Greens calling for immediate action.
"What is clear from the Four Corners program is that the whole waste industry in NSW stinks," NSW Greens MP and environment spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi said.
"There is a culture of illegal dumping, cover-ups, mismanagement and dismissal of community concerns.
"In light of the very serious concerns, including for personal safety of whistleblowers, I am calling for a special commission of inquiry with the power to hold hearings, compel witnesses and demand answers.
"Quite frankly, the NSW Government has not cleaned up the mess in the waste industry. They have no political will to deal with the realities of waste. They dropped the ball and that's why an independent special commission is a must."
There are now calls at a federal level for Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg to intervene.
The head of the Australian Council for Recycling, Grant Musgrove, said both Queensland and NSW had failed to regulate and monitor the waste industry.
He is now calling on Mr Frydenberg to step in.
"We require leadership and we need it now," Mr Musgrove said.
"The states are continuing to pass the buck. There is only one person who can show leadership and take responsibility, and that person is Minister Frydenberg.
"He has the power the responsibility to change things and fix the system up."
Topics: recycling-and-waste-management, environment, australia, qld
