TOUGH new laws have been passed through the NSW Legislative Assembly to crack down on illegal waste dumpers across the State.
Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall spoke in the debate late week on the Protection of the Environment Operations Amendment (Illegal Waste Disposal) Bill 2013, which introduces jail terms for repeat illegal dumpers, a new offence for providing false or misleading information about dumping, powers for the EPA to seize and impound vehicles used for dumping and enabling the courts to take into account the potential profit from committing a waste offence as consideration of an additional penalty for a conviction.
“These new laws will assist in the fight against illegal dumpers and will be the strongest in the country,” he said.
Mr Marshall told Parliament that councils struggled under the cost of cleaning up the work of illegal dumpers and that smaller councils sometimes struggled also to find the human resources to undertake the necessary remediation.
“That is why councils in the Northern Tablelands electorate and the New England region more broadly have expressed to me their support for tougher measures not only to discourage illegal dumping, but also to more harshly deal with those who perpetrate it,” he said.
