Wendy Bacon Journalist, activist
Menu№ 3 in Wading through greenwashing
The NSW EPA ordered Bingo Industries to install a gas plant to remove unhealthy hydrogen sulphide odours. Two gas flares were lit but the odours continue. Western Sydney residents, backed by local Labor MPs, are calling on the EPA to close the plant down. In this blog post, I reveal long term weaknesses in the landfill's environmental record, management and regulation.
№ 2 in Wading through greenwashing
Bingo Industries is still causing terrible odours in Western Sydney. The EPA has not used its powers to shut the site down but has restricted Bingo's landfill licence and ordered it to install a gas burning plant. Local MPs, Blacktown Council and residents say they won't stop campaigning until the odours are gone for good.
Yesterday, in a dramatic backdown, the Australian government agreed to allow 56 Tamils asylum seekers who were due to be deported to Sri Lanka to make applications to be granted asylum as refugees. Today, the Australian government is once again planning to deport another group of Tamils who have been subject to a "screening out" process which denies them the right to proceed with a a full refugee application.
A former adviser to the federal government on mental health in detention has slammed Labor's immigration policy. Louise Newman says the majority of asylum seekers on Nauru will develop psychiatric disorders.