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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 730 asked in the Legislative Council on 11 August 2020 by Hon Robin Chapple

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

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.