Posted on Thursday, 22 August
Victorian Socialist members have been busy in the western suburbs organising alongside members of the community in response to the disastrous Derrimut Chemical factory fire that occurred on 10 July, which spewed toxic smoke across the west and resulted in chemicals polluting local waterways.
On Saturday 3 August Catherine Robertson, Victorian Socialists candidate for Maribyrnong Council (Braybrook ward), and Colleen Hartland of the Anti-Toxic Waste Alliance, co-organised a community protest at the EPA’s Western Metro office in Sunshine to demand action.
The demands of the action were:
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Fully fund Fire Rescue Victoria, so that they can safely respond to major incidents. Fire Fighters are the first line of defense for our communities - they are currently dealing with an aging fleet and equipment failures.
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Protect workers rights, and ensure workers affected by fires receive the financial and health support they need.
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Fully fund the regulators responsible for keeping us safe, like the EPA, who are currently toothless against toxic industries.
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Set up a western suburbs toxic waste taskforce to carry out an immediate, well-resourced audit of every faculty and a health study on the effects of these repeated toxic exposures.
The demonstration was also endorsed by the United Firefighters Union, with local firefighter and UFU member Matthew Morgan speaking on the dangerous challenges firefighters in the west have to deal with in responding to these major incidents. With some trucks over 25 years old (Fire Rescue Victoria policy is to retire trucks at a maximum of 15 years) and without the necessary equipment, chronic under-resourcing by the state Labor government is leaving both themselves and residents in serious danger.
The west has long been a dumping ground for dangerous industries and facilities. As a result, these toxic fires and disasters are commonplace, putting workers and residents' health at risk. Whilst the Derrimut fire was the largest in several years, it is by no means the only toxic disaster that Melbourne's west has had to deal with. In the fortnight following the blaze there were two other major fires, one at a plastics manufacturing plant, in surrounding suburbs that lead to more black, polluted smoke over our homes.
Yet locals and firefighters have long been ignored, and the regulators responsible for keeping us safe seem both unwilling and unable to hold the companies responsible to account. Just nine months prior to the factory fire in Derrimut there was a fatal blaze in the same workplace, killing one worker and severely injuring two others. Despite the EPA and Worksafe visiting the site multiple times, the company continued to operate. These bosses should be in jail and their dangerous operations shut down.
The fight to change this toxic status quo in the west has been going for years, and community action like the rally held in Sunshine is are important to continue to raise the issue. But we also need more unionists in these workplaces organising against unsafe conditions, supported by socialist councillors, to put our communities health and safety before the profits of business.