Locals March With Farmers In Parkes To Say “NO WASTE INCINERATOR”

NSW Farmers say plans to pollute rural and regional communities with Sydney’s rubbish should be immediately rejected.

The proposed Parkes Incinerator would burn 700,000 tonnes of Sydney’s red-bin rubbish each year if approved, and NSW Farmers Vice President Rebecca Reardon said it was totally unacceptable to force any regional community to be the dump­ing ground for Sydney waste if they did not agree.

The Parkes region contributes signifi­cantly to NSW’s wheat, barley, oats, canola and pulse crops. Its mixed farming systems also support substantial sheep grazing for wool and meat.

The significant number of heavy vehicles on council roads, or more freight move­ments on rural rail infrastructure already in need of major upgrades will decimate our regions and agriculture’s economic return to the state budget.

Mrs Reardon spoke at the Parkes Farm­ers & Community March and said the peo­ple of Parkes felt they were being forced to become Sydney’s dumping ground.

“When these projects were proposed for Western Sydney, there was a chorus line of Labor MPs very vocal in their opposition,” Mrs Reardon said.

“Why should rural communities be forced to host projects that are considered unac­ceptable for urban centres, particularly when these same regions produce a lot of the state’s food and fibre?” “There’s also significant concerns for public health, and the impact on the food and fibre grown in these communities.

These projects should be immediately ruled out without question.”

Phil Donato MP marched alongside local farmers and said “It’s critically important that people power unites in Parkes to op­pose this project because the Government will take that into account.”

“We really need to continue and persist with that pressure to push back on this pro­posal and send a message loud and clear to the state government that Parkes does not want this facility in their community.”