Lock the Mid North Coast

30/12/2025

🚨 THIS IS HAPPENING WHILE YOU’RE NOT LOOKING 🚨
Behind closed doors, NSW is being pushed towards a toxic incinerator future that could lock communities into pollution for the next 30+ years.
While most people are focused on the holidays, a parliamentary hearing on waste incineration was quietly held. Most committee members weren’t even in the room. Some appeared online. This is how decisions are being made about projects that will poison our air, water, soil and food systems for generations.
Communities are being sold the same tired line
👉 “Safe”
👉 “World’s best practice”
👉 “No alternative”
But critical evidence, past parliamentary findings, and international warnings are being brushed aside.
Once these incinerators are approved, there is no undo button.
The pollution doesn’t stop at the fence line.
The toxic ash doesn’t disappear.
And the health impacts don’t magically go away.
NSW has already been here before. An incinerator was rejected in 2018 because of health risks, pollution and lack of social licence. Now the same plan is being rebadged, rushed through, and pushed onto regional communities and drinking water catchments with even less scrutiny.
This isn’t transparency.
This isn’t consultation.
This is a deliberate political choice being made out of public view.
🔥 The public deserves to know
🔥 Communities deserve a say
🔥 We deserve better than being locked into a toxic nightmare for decades
Media are being alerted. The truth needs daylight.
Share this. Talk about it. Don’t let this be decided while NSW sleeps.

Media Release: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jE-K0EvRe9D0j6HULlOOqX2HAQRR-29RXkvx6Z1pxxU/edit?usp=sharing

Backgrounder: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sjc5fJ0aXNK1DgNqdpS4bbc5dBT4u4vQ9iXNxvNiFlE/edit?usp=sharing

30/12/2025

Demand Truth on Incinerators – Email the Inquiry TODAY! - Letter You can use below

Email all members of the Select Committee on Incineration at the following emails:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]

HERE IS A LETTER YOU CAN COPY AND PASTE INTO YOUR EMAIL PROGRAM AND SEND.

Select Committee on Proposed Energy from Waste Facilities
Parliament of New South Wales
Macquarie Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Dear Chair and Committee Members,
Re: False sworn evidence at Waste to Energy Incinerator inquiry must be corrected
As a resident of NSW who cares deeply about the place we live, the food we grow and the water we drink, this letter is written with deep concern and disappointment. Many in the community hoped this current waste to energy incinerator Inquiry would be a safeguard, a fair and careful process that listened to evidence and protected people, not a pathway to push through two mega incinerators and a legacy of toxic risk. Instead, what we have seen so far leaves us disappointed, worried and feeling let down by a Parliament that seems willing to forget its own earlier warnings.
NSW is being steered toward a long term waste to energy disaster while the 2018 Energy from Waste findings and growing international alarm about incinerators are treated as if they barely matter. If this continues, regional communities, farmers and the whole of NSW will live with the consequences long after the current decision makers have moved on.
It was shocking to hear evidence given under oath that some pollutants “cannot be measured on a continuous basis (because the technology does not exist anywhere)”, and to watch that claim used to reassure the Committee that periodic checks and a few criteria pollutants are sufficient. This sworn evidence clearly clashes with what is already happening overseas, and it feels as though the community’s trust is being taken for granted. It is absolutely disgraceful that such statements would be put forward as fact and then left uncorrected, and it is hard not to feel genuine anger and disappointment that this has been allowed to happen. The 2018 inquiry called for international best practice emission standards and monitoring, overseen by a Chief Scientist chaired body, because it understood how much was at stake, yet now updated European Best Available Techniques requiring continuous mercury monitoring sit in stark contrast to claims that such technology “does not exist anywhere” while NSW is described as “world’s best practice”.
PHAA’s 2025 submission, Toxics Free Australia’s evidence and objection all set out concrete gaps between NSW standards and EU BAT, from weak or missing limits for mercury and some metals to PFAS, microplastics, brominated dioxins and limited continuous monitoring, yet these gaps are glossed over while “best practice” is claimed. I ask the Committee to recall or rigorously question EnRiskS about its sworn statements that continuous monitoring technology “does not exist anywhere”, to require a transparent gap analysis comparing NSW standards with EU BAT and the 2018 recommendations, and to state clearly in your report where sworn evidence has been false or misleading and how that will be prevented from shaping future decisions.
It was also disappointing to watch the 15 December 2025 hearing and hear witnesses tell you, under oath, that once recycling is maximised “the only options that you’re left with are landfills and energy from waste”, and that incineration is the “much lower risk option”, while industry voices described it as “safe, clean, modern” and “world’s best practice”. Hearing such sweeping claims made on oath, when they erase proven zero waste and non-incineration solutions, feels not just wrong but disgraceful, and they cannot be allowed to stand without correction. The 2018 NSW parliamentary inquiry into Energy from Waste specifically rejected the idea that incineration is the only end of pipe option and carefully laid out a full waste hierarchy of avoidance, reuse, high quality recycling, composting and advanced residual treatment, and it is baffling to see that work brushed aside.
There is something unsettling about hearing health risks described as “negligible” under oath when PHAA’s systematic review finds consistent links between incinerator exposure and increased risks of some cancers, congenital anomalies, adverse reproductive outcomes and infant deaths. For families raising children, for people with loved ones already dealing with illness, this is personal, and it hurts to see these concerns dismissed so lightly. PHAA has been clear that there is not enough evidence to declare any incinerator safe, particularly near food production, and its 2024 policy says incinerators should not be located near agriculture or places where food will be grown. Farmers are held to strict National Vendor Declaration, Livestock Production Assurance, MLA and DPI NSW rules to keep food safe. Watching them carry that burden while heavy industry is allowed to wave away health evidence and call risks “negligible” is unfair.
Many of us remember the Eastern Creek fight vividly, and we remember that the 2018 inquiry and the Independent Planning Commission found that project was not in the public interest because of health risks, air quality, uncertainty and lack of community support. That refusal mattered, it showed that when communities spoke up, and when evidence was taken seriously, harmful projects could be stopped. What is disgusting now is seeing Parkes and Tarago pushed forward as if those hard won lessons do not apply, and watching this inquiry give limited time to social licence, cumulative impacts and the views of host communities. Eastern Creek has been quietly rebadged and moved into regional communities and a drinking water catchment, with weaker safeguards and less respect for the people affected.
The situation at Woodlawn is very worrying. The site is in a drinking water catchment with a record of repeated licence breaches, including odour and leachate problems, yet these have been dismissed as “technical” even though section 129 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act makes offensive odours beyond the boundary an offence. For people who rely on that catchment, this feels like their concerns are being minimised and their safety treated as an afterthought, and the idea that this track record could be rewarded with a large incinerator proposal in the same catchment is completely unbelievable.
Listening to evidence that chemicals of concern like PFAS, dioxins and heavy metals are found “everywhere”, even in soils around Parliament House, was unsettling, but what alarmed many of us was the way this was used to imply that future contamination near an incinerator might just be “background”. Communities have heard this kind of argument before from polluting industries. If baseline contaminant levels and chemical signatures are not set before an incinerator is built, operators can always say “those chemicals were already there” and try to dodge responsibility, and after everything we have learned about PFAS, dioxins and heavy metals that is simply not good enough. A fair safeguard would be to require baseline soil sampling and clear chemical signatures for key chemicals of concern, aligned with existing NVD, LPA, MLA and DPI NSW requirements, so that “confounding factors” cannot be used as a shield.
The international evidence proves there is reason for concern. Reports from Europe and the UK of hundreds of permit breaches, and biomonitoring projects finding dioxins, PFAS, PAHs and heavy metals in school air filters, eggs, soils and vegetation kilometres from “best practice” plants, are terrifying for any parent. It is even more distressing to learn that incinerator bottom ash and fly ash are so contaminated that Basel Convention guidelines treat them as hazardous waste, while here in Australia that ash is being promoted for use in roads and construction under a “circular economy” banner, which feels like the word “circular” is being used to hide the movement of toxic materials into everyday environments.
NSW cannot honestly claim it “did not know”. Parliament has its own 2018 Energy from Waste Inquiry, PHAA has raised clear health concerns, and international experience is sending loud warning signals about breaches, hazardous ash and toxic fallout, so if this inquiry is used to fast track Parkes and Tarago it will feel to many of us like a deliberate choice to look away from the evidence and from the people who will be most affected.
I ask the Committee
To recommend that the NSW Government explicitly anchor the Parkes and Tarago inquiry in the 2018 Energy from Waste report (including Recommendations 15, 16, 19 and 20) and
Publicly explain how each recommendation is being applied;
Recall or rigorously question EnRiskS, Veolia and the EPA on Woodlawn’s breaches, continuous monitoring technology, European BAT, international health and ash evidence, and the need to establish baseline chemical signatures at any proposed site.
Clearly correcting all false sworn claims on the public record; and
declare an immediate moratorium on new large scale waste to energy incinerators in NSW, especially in food producing regions and water catchments, until the 2018 recommendations are fully implemented, baseline chemical signatures and monitoring are in place, and strong zero waste and producer responsibility laws have been enacted.
People across NSW are not asking for special treatment. We are asking you, as our elected representatives, to listen to the evidence your own Parliament has already gathered, to protect safe food and water, and to spare our communities from irreversible harm. Please let this inquiry be remembered as the moment Parliament stood with its people, not with incinerator spin.
Yours sincerely,
[Your name]

30/12/2025

The Willow Point Road and Aerodrome Road fires south-east of Nabiac on the Mid North Coast are burning on either side of the Wallamba River. Both fires remain at an Advice alert level. Fire activity is increasing across both firegrounds, as firefighters on the ground, supported by aircraft and heavy machinery, work to identify and strengthen containment lines.

Southerly winds is pushing smoke and ash over the areas of Nabiac, Failford and the M1 Pacific Motorway. People in these areas should continue to monitor conditions in case the situation changes.

Make sure you download the Hazards Near Me app and set Watch Zones for the areas you live in or are travelling through. www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/FNM

📸 Darrin Briggs - NSW RFS

16/12/2025

Santos Ramps up the Pressure on
https://nwprotectionadvocacy.com/santos-ramps-up-the-pressure-on-pilligapipeline
For the 2nd year in a row community has been asked to respond at the busiest time of year to over 1,000 pages of documentation for the Narrabri Lateral Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This timing seems a deliberate tactic by Santos to decrease meaningful engagement and evade thorough scrutiny.
via NWPA NW Protection Advocacy

This timing seems a deliberate tactic by Santos to decrease meaningful engagement and evade thorough scrutiny.

09/12/2025

ℹ️ DOWNGRADED TO ADVICE ℹ️ Stroud- Tuesday 9/12 👉 See the post on ABC Newcastle for more info https://ab.co/Stroud-Bushfire

📻️ Listen to ABC Mid North Coast 684AM, or on ABC listen: abc.net.au/listen/live/midnorthcoast

📷 Bushfire burning at Bucketts Way Stroud, December 2025. Credit NSW RFS.

09/12/2025

‘It came from everywhere’: NSW town counts the cost after bushfire hits
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/08/it-came-from-everywhere-nsw-town-counts-the-cost-after-bushfire-hits
As Bulahdelah mourns dead firefighter, residents recall lucky escapes and say they have ‘never had fires like this’

As Bulahdelah mourns dead firefighter, residents recall lucky escapes and say they have ‘never had fires like this’

07/12/2025

"All fires across the state were under control by Sunday evening, with authorities saying there was no longer any threat to lives or property.

No update has been provided on the number of properties lost at Bulahdelah, with authorities earlier saying it currently stands at four.

But the NSWRFS says that numbers could go up after crews are due to return to the fireground on Monday.

After a weekend of intense heat that fanned up to 75 blazes, many burning out-of-control, a cold front and light rain brought relief to firefighters.

By Sunday evening, all fires were "under control", according to the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS), with no further threat to lives or property."

Natural disasters are declared in six areas across NSW, as the number of homes destroyed rises to at least 20, with the majority concentrated on the Central Coast.

03/12/2025

Australia's new nature laws could be better!
Fast-tracking of developments could see more loss of koala habitats with no avenue for local community process.

ARE POLITICAL PARTIES DEAF TO THE CRIES OF KOALAS ?
THE GREAT ENVIRONMENTAL SELL-OUT...

Koala Crisis has carefully read the outcome of the Albanese government’s effort to ram the updated EPBC Act through the Senate this week. The details remain obscure.

Whilst we are grateful to the Greens for getting many changes, the reality remains grim.

With no climate trigger, the updated Act ensures literally no focus on climate change and biodiversity loss, the two greatest threats facing Planet Earth.

Think about that. Australia has been experiencing catastrophic consequences of climate change with bushfires, drought, floods, yet the Federal government, the Prime Minister of Australia and state governments reject, refuse to address the issue.

What kind of government ignores reality ?

Nor has there been mention of any greater protection for the rapidly disappearing koala designated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature ( IUCN) as one of ten species globally significantly impacted by climate change.

An article in The Conversation says: ‘The Greens are claiming their major concession is the removal of a longstanding exemption for the logging industry for areas of native forest covered by Regional Forest Agreements. Forested areas under these agreements currently have no protection from federal environment laws.

Under the changes, these agreements will have to comply with the laws and meet higher standards within 18 months.”

How will these changes be implemented? Does this mean, for instance, that the Forestry Corporation in NSW must obtain Federal compliance under the provisions of the EPBC Act before they log compartments with endangered species habitats?

Have any provisions of the EPBC Act provided adequate protection for threatened, endangered and critically endangered species? The short answer is NO.

The Greens were unable to get a climate trigger inserted in the updated Act. Albanese’s government is relying on its “ renewable energy program” to somehow justify the continued approval of fossil fuel projects.

There’s an abundance of evidence demonstrating catastrophic ecosystem damage, biodiversity loss and horrendous outcomes for endangered fauna as a result of the renewable projects.

According to the Conversation, "The Greens were unable to remove Labor’s new “pay to destroy” from the laws. This is a significant concern, as the controversial ability for developers to pay into a restoration fund will likely be seen as the easy route. This mechanism is already up and running in New South Wales, with poor outcomes."

Did any party raise the helicopter shooting of over 1000 koalas in Budj Bim National Park at the Senate hearings on the EPBC Act update ?

Nope.

Or ensure that one of the demands to Labor included an immediate moratorium on ALL REMAINING KOALA HABITAT ?

Nope. How about the useless National Koala Recovery Plan ? Any action to make this pile of paper work ?

This is the Albanese government’s attitude to the environment. States’ powers to continue their destructive practices are unlikely to be limited.

In short the changes, aside from the few wins by Greens, demonstrate how a first world country drove its wildlife and environment to extinction. Highlighting the political ignorance of our leaders who have the nerve to claim their environmental policies reflect the global concerns over climate change and biodiversity loss.

There's no win for our wildlife or environment.

03/12/2025

Coffs By-Pass update.

03/12/2025

Theft of community assets that serve to keep all of us safer is extremely disappointing to volunteers who give up their time to make our world a better place.
Please respect public assets that have been provided by volunteers with community donations of time and money.

03/12/2025

Death by a thousand cuts for Mid North Coast Koalas. 😢