No Dump score important Court victory

Peter Parker

The No Dump Residents Association in the Sydney suburb of Auburn 
has scored an important victory in the second round of its legal 
battle with transnational giant Collex. After a three-day hearing 
the Land and Environment Court ruled that while Collex had 
permission to build a waste transfer building they had no 
authority to perform waste transfer activities outside the 
building — basically making operation of the facility 
impossible.

David versus Goliath

Collex is a division of the French conglomerate Vivendi. Its 
legal team included two gowned barristers and a raft of 
solicitors and helpers. In contrast residents were represented by 
two locals, Alan Brzoson and John Drake, everyday Auburn 
residents with no formal legal qualifications.

Instead of a bloated legal team, Alan and John were given moral 
support by local residents, businesses, councillors and activists 
who provided an overflow audience for the proceedings.

This is the second time John and Alan have faced Collex in the 
Land and Environment court. Back in November 2003 they won a 
historic victory, when the court ruled that the development of 
the waste transfer terminal was unlawful. Justice Bignold based 
his ruling on the "unsuitability of the development site to 
accommodate a waste transfer station because of its adverse 
environmental, economic and social impacts and its adverse 
precedental planning effect".

Bob Carr's "Special" legislation

Instead of appealing against the decision in the courts, NSW 
Labor Premier, Bob Carr and Collex decided to rush legislation 
through State Parliament to overturn the court's decision. But 
the No Dump Residents Association argued that although the 
legislation gave Collex the right to build the facility, it gave 
them no right to actually operate it. In Alan's words "it let 
them build a multi-million dollar shed, but nothing else". And it 
was on this key point that the court ruled against Collex.

Environmentally Sensitive?

Before the verdict Auburn's Local Paper, The Auburn Pictorial 
Review, included good coverage of the court case. Collex's 
contributions to the article tried to highlight how 
environmentally sensitive the company is, but residents say this 
is just another example of corporate spin.

Collex's parent Vivendi, is a French multinational with an 
environmental record that hardly supports Collex's position. In 
1998, the UK Environment Agency listed Vivendi subsidiary, 
Tyseley Waste Disposal Ltd as the year's second worst polluter. 
Another of Vivendi's subsidiaries, waste management company Leigh 
Environmental received the fifth highest fines of #87,500 with 
seven prosecutions for pollution in 2000.

Adelaide's "Big Pong"

Australia has already suffered from Vivendi's environmental 
mismanagement when its United Water International (UWI) 
consortium engulfed Adelaide in a "Big Pong" after equipment 
failures and inadequate monitoring allowed raw sewerage to be 
pumped directly into settling ponds. UWI consists of Vivendi, 
Thames Water and a five percent holding by Adelaide's Kinhill 
Engineering.

While residents complained of mood swings, nausea, sinus 
problems, asthma, headaches and sleeping disorders, the company 
and State Government blamed the weather!

Water treatment expert Ken Hartley of the University of 
Queensland blamed UWI's failure on cost cutting saying "It was 
dollars driving everything; the big emphasis was on minimising 
costs. The [Adelaide] incident is an illustration of what can 
happen when things like monitoring and maintenance are cut to the 
bone."

Political Donations

Collex is a major donor to Bob Carr's Labor Party. Greens MLC 
Sylvia Hale stated in the NSW Parliament on November 13, 2003, 
that "Collex, a company whose international record is one of 
total disgrace and discredit, and whose executives have been 
jailed for bribing State political and municipal officials, has 
embarked on the same program in this country: what you cannot get 
by virtue of the value of your proposals you get by handing over 
vast sums of money. Between 1998-99 and 2001-02 Collex donated 
$88,950 to the Labor Party."

These donations continued in 2002-2003 with the Australian 
Electoral Commission web-site showing Collex donating another 
$12,000 to the NSW Labor Party.

The Sydney Morning Herald on November 30, 2003, reports 
that Collex "contracted Belinda Neal, a former ALP Senator and 
the wife of Labor powerbroker and Special Minister of State John 
Della Bosca. It also used the services of a former electoral 
adviser to former Premier Barrie Unsworth, Shane Easson. He is 
the twin brother of former NSW Labor Council Secretary Michael 
Easson".

Profits drive corruption

Since the 1980s there has been a massive wave of privatisations 
of formerly government run services — this includes power 
generation, telecommunications, water and sewerage, waste 
collection and other environmental services.

Where governments used to run these services for the benefit of 
society as a whole they are increasingly being sold off or 
awarded as contracts to private companies. These companies don't 
collect our garbage, run our telephone systems, and generate 
electricity to make our lives better — they do so for the sole 
purpose of making a profit.

Providing these services in a near monopoly position is massively 
profitable; just imagine how profitable when the OECD estimates 
that corruption linked to privatisation generates some US$80 
billion in bribes per year.

People before profits

Public services run for the benefit of the community can redirect 
corporate profits into better services, improved health and 
safety for workers and better pay and conditions for employees. 
What's more, there is a clear democratic link between the 
services provided and the councils and governments that provide 
these services — privatisation removes this link and is 
fundamentally undemocratic.

Mobilise to defeat Collex

While not having a crystal ball, we think that more legislation 
by Bob Carr is likely if the residents win the next round in the 
courts (sometime in 2005). But Bob Carr only managed to pass the 
last raft of special legislation with the support of cross-bench 
members of the upper house. After the Liverpool Orange Grove 
fiasco and a second defeat in the courts for Collex this support 
cannot be guaranteed. Auburn residents have already started to 
mobilise to demonstrate their opposition to the plans of Carr and 
Collex.