DUST MANAGEMENT —
AIR QUALITY — PORT HEDLAND
730. Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE to the Minister for Regional Development:
I refer to the acknowledged problem
of industrially generated dust at Port Hedland's West End and the
Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage document. I will not go into the
whole email stream for that document.
(1) Can the
minister reconcile the population projections in the document with the fact
that the government is currently buying back abandoned properties in the West
End?
(2) Given that
page 77 of the document states that noise and dust levels have historically
been above currently accepted recommended levels, can the minister please
elaborate on the use of the word ''historically'' and explain how
such levels were monitored historically?
(3) Can the
minister comment on the schematic on page 73 that suggests the entire town will
be surrounded by strategic/heavy industry?
(4) With
reference to (3), can the minister confirm that surrounding the town with heavy
industry will in no way exacerbate the existing dust issues?
(5) Does the
minister think that the beautification of footpaths is really a concern of
residents of Port Hedland, given that many have had to abandon their properties
due to the dust problem?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
(1)–(5) The
document the member refers to appears to be an extract from the ''Pilbara's
Port City Growth Plan'', which was adopted by the Town of Port Hedland
in December 2012. The growth plan was prepared at the height of the mining boom
when significantly higher population targets were projected. Importantly, the
plan was developed before the Department of Health's Port Hedland Dust
Management Taskforce report, which was finalised in 2016. In 2018, in response
to the dust report, our government committed to cap residential growth in the
West End. The Town of Port Hedland is currently calling for submissions on a draft
local planning strategy based on more realistic goals for population growth in
Port Hedland. The WA state government, through the Western Australian Planning
Commission, is developing an improvement scheme for Port Hedland's West
End. The improvement scheme will provide land use and development controls over
the scheme area, including powers for the WAPC to determine development
applications and prepare improvement scheme policies, structure plans and local
development plans.
With
regard to the industry-funded voluntary buyback scheme, we are committed to
developing the West End as Port Hedland's buzzing maritime and
commercial hub, backed by our investment in the Spoilbank marina. Delivery of
the voluntary buyback scheme will not in any way lessen industry and state government responsibilities for noise and
dust mitigation in the West End. Approvals and compliance under the Environmental
Protection Act 1986 will continue to apply.