NSW Opposition leader Luke Foley has called on the Baird Government to honour the ethanol mandate to ensure the future of the industry.
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Mr Foley toured the Manildra Group’s Bomaderry plant with Shadow Minister for the Illawarra Ryan Park on Tuesday and also called on the government to release an Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) report into the future of the industry.
He is gravely concerned for the future of the ethanol industry in NSW if the mandate “is just breached and not honoured.”
“If the mandate, which was put in place as law by the Labor Government with support of both sides of politics, is not honoured then ethanol has a bleak future,” he said.
“My concern is the Baird Government is retreating when it comes to support for the development of the ethanol industry in NSW.
“The government needs to release the secret IPART report that reviews the future of ethanol policy in the state and I want to hear Mr Baird and his ministers make a clear statement of support for the ethanol mandate in NSW.”
He said when Labor left office, 3.8 per cent of petrol sales in NSW were of ethanol blended fuel but that had plummeted to 2.5 per cent.
“The government seems determined to pull the rug from under the ethanol industry in NSW,” he said.
“It is not good enough that we have a mandate in law that is just breached in practice.
“Ethanol sales should be up to six per cent of total petrol sales, instead it has plummeted to 2.5 per cent.
“The law is not worth the paper it is written on, if the government won’t enforce the law.
“It shouldn’t be that easy to grant an exemption. Exemptions were to be the exception and never the rule.
“It should not be automatic that anyone who doesn’t want to sell ethanol fuel automatically gets dispensation from the government.”
Manildra Group managing director John Honan welcomed the support and said the lack of enforcement of the mandate could jeopardise the company’s operation.
“The mandate is in place at six per cent, the issue is we don’t have enforcement and that risks the jobs here at Nowra and the investment we have made in the past seven or eight years,” he said.
“The mandate is 100 per cent necessary to our process. You can’t have a large scale grain processing plant anywhere around the world without access to the fuel industry.
“It [the mandate] provides market access.”
He also confirmed the company had purchased the former Australian Paper Shoalhaven mill site a Bolong Road.
While he wouldn’t reveal the price the company paid for the complex, he said plans were initially to use it for warehousing purposes.
“We also have a number of different commercial projects for commercial expansion of our plant and the production of other products that we may use that facility and site for. Hopefully that adds to employment in the area,” he said.
He couldn’t say where the purchase left a proposal by Victorian company Relivit, that had plans to bring a revolutionary multi-million nappy recycling project to the Shoalhaven and base it at the Bolong factory.