NSW Labor refers Gosford council to ICAC

A NSW Central Coast local government will be referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption by the state opposition.

Penny Sharpe

Labor MP Penny Sharpe is to refer Gosford council to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. (AAP)

The NSW opposition will refer a council embroiled in an illegal waste dumping scandal to the state's corruption watchdog.

Labor's Penny Sharpe says she will refer Gosford council, now part of the Central Coast Council, to the Independent Commission Against Corruption following accusations it was complicit in illegal dumping.

"There are allegations of corruption, there are allegations of the mismanagement of landfill ... the community has been blowing the whistle on this for a very long time," Ms Sharpe told AAP on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the state's legislative council has agreed to extend an existing investigation into dumping to include the allegations aired by this week's ABC's Four Corners program into waste management, Ms Sharpe said.

The opposition's referral comes a day after the state's Environment Protection Authority referred itself to the corruption watchdog, following allegations of corrupt conduct through inaction within the organisation.

Four Corners revealed waste companies were shipping tonnes of rubbish over the border and dumping it in Queensland to avoid NSW's waste levy.

This was followed by the publication of alleged recordings of EPA Waste and Resource Recovery executive director Stephen Beaman mocking the government's own interstate waste-tracking system.

"We (NSW) take their mangoes, they (Queensland) can take our waste. So that's the reality of it," Mr Beaman allegedly says in the recording.

NSW EPA chief executive Barry Buffier on Wednesday said Mr Beaman would be taking four weeks "recreation leave" effective immediately.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday said the state's EPA was leading discussions with other state environment protection authorities on the issue of waste transportation.

"The NSW government takes the protection of the environment and our community very seriously," Ms Berejiklian said.

"The EPA has referred the matter to the ICAC."

Ms Berejiklian noted the government had announced regulatory reform in relation to waste movement in late 2016.

She said a draft regulation was expected to be released in coming weeks "which will include minimum standards for managing construction waste across the state".


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Source: AAP



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