The subject of bins kicked off a fiery shouting match between the newly elected mayor and a group of disgruntled ratepayers at the Rockingham council meeting on Tuesday night.
After Mayor Lorna Buchan shot down a motion to resume weekly bin collections, locals began shouting from the public gallery.
One woman began yelling: “What about the hygiene?”
Ms Buchan was forced to call order, telling the group to please leave quietly.
“Enjoy your one-term sitting,” a man shot back on his way out.
“It’s a shame we’ve got a council of sycophants,” another man yelled.
“You are interfering and disrupting this meeting, please leave quietly,” Ms Buchan told them.
But as the shouts from the gallery continued, Ms Buchan raised her voice, telling the group: “Please leave the meeting quietly without interfering or interrupting this meeting. If this continues, I will adjourn this meeting.”
FOGO has been riling up ratepayers in Rockingham since it came in last year, including the decision to collect the red general waste bin fortnightly.
On Tuesday night, prompted by complaints from the community, newly elected councillor Dylan Mbano raised the motion to resume weekly bin collections.
Five councillors voted in favour of resuming and five against, this resulted in a tie, forcing Ms Buchan to use her casting vote, shutting down the motion.
During a debate regarding the motion, Cr Mbano drew applause from the public gallery at the end of his speech, describing weekly bin collection as a “modest request”, and claiming the FOGO decision was made to appease an “arrogant state government”.
“We mustn’t try to be an extra branch or extension of the state government,” Cr Mbano added.
“How on earth are people supposed to recycle disposable nappies, or are women supposed to recycle used tampons or women’s health products.
“It’s just not working, and to not agree with that statement would be a complete and utter failure to read the room.
“The price of reverting back to the red bin being collected weekly is significantly cheaper than buying an additional red bin for each household.”
Cr Mbano claimed that residents were dumping trash in parks and filling the green bin with general waste.
Photos have circulated on social media showing bins crawling with maggots.
Cr Buchanan seconded the motion, saying he wasn’t against recycling but was concerned about the “blasted” red bins.
“I would say 70 per cent of those I spoke to in a pub that had 120 people in it at the time had concerns about the red bins and almost all of those related to the size of the bin and the frequency of the pick up,” Cr Buchanan said.
“This is not a Facebook bubble we’re dealing with, but rather a real and understandable community concern.
“Other councils have, I’m told, have been a little less literal in their adherence. Not everyone is rolling out the smallest possible size of red bins, and not every council is reducing their service to once a fortnight.
“We, meanwhile, seem to have settled on what might turn out to be the worst possible combination of the two.
“As I walked here this evening, I passed a number of red bins overflowing in an area where they aren’t due for pickup until next week.
“I make no apology for saying that, for me, that is the definition of an urgent problem.”
There was more yelling from the public gallery in support of Cr Buchanan’s statements, with Ms Buchan telling them to be quiet.
“Can I remind you, the audience, that your opportunity to speak was at public question time,” Ms Buchan said.
“This is a meeting of the council that is open to the public; it’s not a meeting of the public, it’s a meeting of the council to which you can watch.”
Cr Buchanan admitted it would come with a cost to fix the problem “of our own making”.
“Perhaps we just need to acknowledge we have made a mess of this, and I honestly suspect we have,” he added.
“For now, we need to bite the first of these bullets and admit that we have an issue that needs to be urgently addressed.
“Some seem content to sit back and watch this situation unfold.”
Cr Dawn Jecks was against the motion on the basis that fortnightly collection would result in a rate rise of five per cent.
She questioned why pensioners and low-income earners should pay more in rates to support everyone else’s waste and wondered why there wasn’t a user-pays system.
“The state government hiked the landfill levy by more than 20 per cent… It’s part of their push to curb landfill and boost recycling,” Cr Jecks added.
“The State government is doing this to us; we don’t have any option.”
Cr Hudson added that the FOGO system, and as a result fortnightly collections and smaller bins, was a result of the “state government’s climate alarmist agenda”.
“The government knows that this agenda doesn’t fly with the average voter, and I believe that’s why they farmed out this expensive and complex problem to the local government sector,” Mr Hudson said.
Mr Hudson also pointed out the “structural flaw” in the system.
“The two-week collection is simply too long between collections,” he said.
“This is even more apparent in newer suburbs and those set back from the coast, particularly those houses that are crammed together in forests of brick and metal with no shade.
“It’s no wonder that more people are experiencing issues, particularly over the summer.
“That situation is vastly different to a single or a couple living on a grass block in Safety Bay or Shoalwater.
“If we’re being brutally honest, councillors are out of touch when we proclaim from our high and mighty horses that people aren’t educated enough to manage their own bins or that they should fork out an additional $250 for a second bin, which doesn’t fix the issue.
“If you, like me, don’t experience maggots in your red bin, that’s wonderful.
“But imagine if it were you and you were having that issue and it was your personally held view that it was the City of Rockingham’s fault that this has happened, I think you would want the issue fixed as well.”
Ms Buchan said the debate was not just about financial responsibility, but also environmental responsibility and generational responsibility.
“The decisions we make now will shape the city for our children and grandchildren to inherit,” Ms Buchan said.
“The youngest in our community will live the longest with the consequences of our waste policies.
“The rollout has been overwhelmingly positive, contamination rates are low, participation is high, and we are on track to divert 12,500 tonnes of FOGO material from landfill.”
Ms Buchan claimed that reverting to weekly collection would cost $5m this year and $2.5m each year thereafter.
She added that reinstating the trucks used for weekly collection could take until 2027.
Cr Mbano clapped back, asking if the trucks used eight months ago had vanished?
“Did we sell them? Did we get money off them? It is still not adding up,” he finished.
Keen to watch the entire debate? Click here and skip to the 1h27m mark.
