Pollution Licensing

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (15:46): Last month the annual release of figures under the National Pollutant Inventory was a wake-up call to many South Australians. As members might know, you can search the National Pollutant Inventory by company, suburb or postcode to find out what are the emissions of companies in your area. What we find when we look in South Australia is that some of the biggest polluting companies are ones that we have known about for some time. Clearly, we have the power stations at Port Augusta and the lead smelter at Port Pirie. The steelworks at Whyalla has been a frequent flyer, although that appears to be on the improve, which is good. When it comes to Port Adelaide, we see that Adelaide Brighton Cement, despite all the attention that has been paid to that company in relation to its pollution over the years, has gone from bad to worse.

I will just quote four particular pollutants. If we look at the figures, we see that when it comes to oxides of nitrogen, over the last four years they have gone up 12 per cent. Particulate matter of size 10 microns or less—the so-called PM10s—have gone up 59 per cent. PM2.5s, which are smaller particles, have gone up 175 per cent, and sulphur dioxide has gone up 289 per cent. What we see in Port Adelaide is that the figures from that particular plant are getting worse and worse. Those percentage increases that I have quoted are from the year 2009-10 up to the year 2012-13.

We know that heavy industry in Port Adelaide is one of the main barriers to the revitalisation of the Port and to the construction of new housing. For example, the location of the Incitec Pivot fertiliser plant effectively killed dead the redevelopment of Dock 1. The government has now negotiated for that plant to be moved, which is a good thing for the revitalisation of the Port, but we still have problems with companies such as Adelaide Brighton Cement.

The problem with pollution in Australia generally is that it is little known that it is a major killer of Australians. A report that came out just a month or so ago from Environmental Justice Australia shows that each year 3,000 Australians are killed prematurely by pollution, and it will be no surprise that most of those people are from disadvantaged and low socioeconomic backgrounds. That is 3,000 avoidable deaths per year caused by pollution. So, when it comes to the regime for pollution licensing in South Australia, we know it is the Environment Protection Authority that is responsible. When we look at the licence to pollute issued to Adelaide Brighton Cement, we see that it is a 10-year licence that is not due to expire until 2017.

In addition to the licence there is also an exemption, because the EPA recognises that, in some circumstances, that company will never achieve acceptable pollution standards, so they are given an exemption so they do not have to comply with those standards. The problem with the EPA pollution licensing regime is that, apart from the very first time a company is given a licence when public consultation is called for, at every subsequent stage in the process, at every renewal or revision of the licence, there is no obligation on the part of the EPA to consult with affected communities.

So, the Greens are calling for the EPA to review the Adelaide Brighton Cement licence as a matter of urgency. We ask them to involve the community in that review, even though, under their act, they are not legally required to. We believe they should do it, because the community of Port Adelaide is the main stakeholder in relation to pollution from the plant.

Finally, we would ask that the state government revise the Environment Protection Act to make it a legal requirement for consultation on pollution licence reviews. It is not good enough for a company to be given a 10-year licence to pollute and for the community to have no say in what the conditions should be under that licence.