Brimbank administrators want to know why a state levy used to remediate old tip sites has been allowed to stockpile, with little spent on clean-ups and new recycling technology.
Administrators want the state government to spend more from its Sustainability Fund, which the Bracks government created in 2005, on Brimbank’s old tips, and which is financed by Victorian landfill levies.
In May, Fairfax Media revealed the state government had amassed more than $440 million for the fund, with a Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning spokesman telling Star Weekly just $136 million had been committed in the state budget for remediation works over the next four years.
The landfill levy is currently $62.03 per tonne of waste dumped, and it accounts for more than 55 per cent of Brimbank’s landfill budget.
“It is amazing that … governments have been accumulating this [money],” administrator John Tanner said.
“It’s an issue we do need to take up.”
Brimbank has 29 former landfills on public and private land, including two large former council tips at Energy Park, Albion, and Green Gully Reserve, Keilor Downs.
There are also two active landfills in Brimbank, one at Kealba and one at Brooklyn.
Mr Tanner said he was shocked to learn this month there would be little change to Victoria’s waste technology over the next four years.
“There is that amount of money sitting in treasury and there are no improvements in technology? It’s an absolutely ludicrous situation,” he said.
“At the end of the day, the west is copping most of the rubbish, and the other side of Melbourne is actually closing landfill sites.”
