Councillors clash over how to solve City’s waste management crisis

By SHARLOTTE THOU

A motion that the City’s CEO work with the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee to ensure that “current and future waste contracts are fit for purpose and that adequate resources are provided to manage them” was passed at a council meeting last Monday.

It was also determined that the CEO would develop and brief Council on the proposed community engagement process that will “provide Council with community information on the best ways to manage and monitor domestic waste”.

In their deliberations, councillors appeared to disagree over several key matters.

The first is over the quality of the City’s waste services.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore stated that the City has always had a “high level of service” up until the recent strikes, which has been “consistently praised” by the auditor general. However, in her remarks Cr Jarrett said there is a “crisis of garbage and rats that has been affecting residents for a number of years…before COVID [and] before the industrial dispute”.

The next was whether it was appropriate for the City to intervene into what is essentially a dispute between the Transport Workers Union and Cleanaway. Deputy Mayor Sylvie Ellsmore and Councillors Yvonne Weldon, Linda Scott and Shauna Jarrett called for council to step in.

“I don’t have the confidence that the track we are on is going to lead to a resolution that would mean we don’t need to be actively involved and make those policy decisions that only we are allowed to make as an elected council,” Cr Ellsmore said.

The Lord Mayor, Cr Jess Scully and Cr HY William Chan maintained that it was not appropriate for the City to intervene; this is contrary to the view expressed by Richard Olsen, Secretary of the Transport Workers Union.

Cr Scully argued against a motion put forward by Cr Jarrett – that an external review into the City of Sydney’s domestic waste collection services be commissioned – for this reason, calling it “[un]necessary and [dis]proportionate”.

Legal questions on the table

The question of whether council is currently meeting its legal obligations in relation to waste management was also raised.

Monica Barone, the City’s CEO argued that Council’s obligation to collect domestic waste has been met, as rubbish has still been collected, albeit late.

“Because of the industrial action we’ve had a higher number of missed services, but we’ve gone around and collected it, so I think we’ve met our obligation,” she said.

She also believes the “real question is what do [waste services] need to look like in the future”. The current contract was drafted in 2018, before the pandemic, which Baron says brought “real behavioural and environmental changes”, such as the influx of takeaway containers.

Cr Weldon advocated for the use of in-house services, saying “we’d be in a very different situation” if waste collection was not outsourced. She acknowledged that the City of Sydney was affected by “high unemployment and Covid related staff absenteeism”, like other LGAs, but these LGA’s were “not impacted to the same extent as the City of Sydney”.

She maintained that the current industrial action “exacerbated long term systemic issues with waste management”.

Cr Weldon said she was “surprised” the Lord Mayor supported the strikes, “considering we contracted this out to Cleanaway, yet their staff and also our staff were put on lower award wage conditions and for any new staff that we have employed, the rates of pay have dropped”.

“Just as a certain [Prime Minister] did not hold a house, Lord Mayor, we know that you don’t personally empty the bins. It’s important that you are prominent in our response,” Cr Weldon said.

Councillors will meet next Monday (27th February) to discuss the contract in detail.