Greens call for action on Altona petrol spill

 “Dangerous industries in the west have ageing infrastructure and poor records, and Mobil is one of the worst,” said Greens MLC Colleen Hartland, at the site of this morning’s massive petrol spill in Altona.

“The government only takes notice when an event is big enough to affect other areas, like this one, or there’s a by-election, like this week. Labor and Liberal governments have the same attitude.  They expect us to put up with it.”

“These are dinosaur industries with ageing infrastructure.  Mobil is sacking workers in Altona because they’re not going to make bitumen any more, and they’re sacking workers in Yarraville because they’re not going to make lubricant. ”

 “ You have to ask yourself why the government didn’t act in 1991 when the explosion and fire in Coode Island blanketed half of Melbourne with a toxic plume. There was the United Transport fire, the chlorine explosion and fire a couple of years ago.  It’s got to the stage where I flinch when I hear a siren.”

“How long was the tank leaking for this morning, because residents tell me they heard three blasts on the siren at about 4am.”

“Mobil leaked petrol in a residential area of Newport in 2006, with sickening fumes in people’s houses for months and months in 2007.”

“If this was in the eastern suburbs, or a marginal electorate, they wouldn’t be storing petrol in a leaky tank,” said Colleen Hartland

For comment – Colleen Hartland 9689 6373