Community
15 May, 2026
Community sentiment clear on proposed Energy from Waste facility
Speaker after speaker lined up at a public forum in Goulburn late yesterday (Thursday) to express concern over the potential impacts of the incinerator on human health, air and water quality, livestock and produce.
Community sentiment on the proposed Energy from Waste incinerator at Tarago is clear: ‘we do not want it here’.
Speaker after speaker lined up at a public forum in Goulburn late yesterday (Thursday) to express concern over the potential impacts of the incinerator on human health, air and water quality, livestock and produce.
The forum was part of an inquiry being conducted by the NSW Select Committee on Proposed Energy from Waste Facilities.
It will be followed today (Friday) by a formal public hearing - also at the Goulburn Workers Club – commencing at 9am.
Members of the public are welcome to attend.
As previously reported by The Southern Wire, Veolia is proposing to build an ‘Advanced Energy Recovery Centre’ at its Woodlawn Precinct converting waste trucked from Sydney into electricity.
One speaker at yesterday’s forum said describing it as an ‘Advanced Energy Recovery Centre’ (as opposed to a waste incinerator) was like ‘putting lipstick on a pig’.
“It’s still a pig,” he said.
More than 20 speakers were given two minutes to address the committee – all of them speaking against the proposal.
It is unknown if any Veolia representatives were present at the forum.
The NSW Waste and Sustainable Material Strategy 2041 – released in 2021 – identified the need for at least four ‘Energy from Waste’ facilities in NSW by 2041.
Under the Energy from Waste Infrastructure Plan, the Southern Goulburn Mulwaree Precinct (Woodlawn) is one of only four designated precincts across NSW where Energy from Waste facilities will actually be allowed.
The other precincts are located in Parkes, Lithgow/Wallerawang and the Richmond Valley.
The Select Committee was established on August 6 last year to inquire into – and report on – proposed Energy from Waste facilities.
It received more than 1400 submissions before the October 31 closing date and has advised that due to the high volume, there will be a delay in processing, reviewing and publishing submissions online.
Speakers at yesterday’s forum accused the NSW Government of “lazy policy” and of attempting to shift a Sydney problem out of sight by making the Goulburn area a “dumping ground” for metropolitan waste.
Others said Veolia had a long history of non-compliance and licence breaches and simply couldn’t be trusted.
Most agreed that more should be done to encourage re-use and recycling before the NSW Government starts handing over Sydney’s waste to a private company for profit – to the detriment of the wider Goulburn region.
Deputy chair of the Select Committee and Greens MLC, Dr Amanda Cohn, said the turnout at yesterday’s forum and the number of speakers wanting to speak against the proposal was a “powerful display of community sentiment”.
She said it had been practically the same in Parkes – although a couple of people had been brave enough to speak up in favour of waste incineration.
Dr Cohn said the Greens’ positions on waste incinerators was simple: they shouldn’t be located anywhere in NSW.
“The risk is real,” she told The Southern Wire after the forum.
She said the NSW Government hadn’t explored all of its options – including legislated Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which would help place the burden of responsibility back on producers by forcing them to a make a whole range of products including white goods, textile products and plastic packaging with a longer lifespan.
“Corporations are profiting from producing wasteful items and it needs to change,” she said.
Dr Cohn doesn’t believe the ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’ message had been lost on NSW residents.
“People largely want to do the right thing,” she told The Southern Wire.
- More reports to follow from today’s public hearing
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