Mount Isa Mayor Joyce McCulloch says the state government is yet to answer questions as to why a waste levy should apply to Mount Isa.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Her comments come after the Minister for Environment Leeanne Enoch said the Mayor had refused to apply for grant funding assistance for the waste levy.
The Palaszczuk Government has been in contact with councils across the levy zones to encourage them to apply for grants.
The waste levy was introduced to stem the amount of waste being transferred from NSW to Qld.
Cr McCulloch said the levy being applied to Mount Isa is a ridiculous notion, due to the city’s location and distance from other centres where processing is easily accessible or more economically viable.
“The fact of the matter is, we would either have to transport our waste to the coast for processing, or build our own processing facilities here,” she said.
“The scale and demand for the services here simply doesn’t make either option practical or feasible.”
Cr McCulloch said council is still in the process of requesting to be excluded from the scheme.
Minister Enoch said Cr McCulloch ‘has been playing politics with this very important issue’.
However Cr McCulloch said Minister Enoch will still not answer why Goondiwindi is excluded and Mount Isa is not.
“Most of the councils included in the levy scheme are in coastal and larger metropolitan areas – it appears that every council with a population of greater than 10,000 has been included.
“And yet Goondiwindi, for instance, which has a population of almost 11,000 and is significantly geographically closer to Brisbane than Mount Isa, is exempt.”
The start date for the Queensland waste levy has been pushed back to July 1, 2019.
It was originally scheduled to start on March 4, 2019.
Cr McCulloch said this decision to postpone the implementation of the waste levy until July 1, 2019 still does nothing to address the problem of council being unfairly slugged with up to $2.5 million in waste fees from 2022.
Previously Minister Enoch had commented that it was disappointing the Member for Traeger Robbie Katter and the Mayor had been talking down the region’s capacity to recycle.
“Mount Isa could see a growth in the recycling industry, creating more jobs and investment if local politicians recognised the region’s potential.”
“The Palaszczuk Government has put $5 million on the table to assist councils with infrastructure to become levy-ready,” Ms Enoch said.
RELATED STORIES: No excuse for rates increase in Mount Isa
RELATED STORIES: Council fights against new waste levy
