A City of Casey councillor has urged tighter oversight of the municipality’s role in the South East Metropolitan Advanced Waste Processing (SEMAWP) partnership.
At the October Casey Council meeting, Councillor Lynette Pereira successfully moved a motion calling for greater transparency and accountability in the city’s involvement with the South East Metropolitan Advanced Waste Processing (SEMAWP) partnership.
The motion directs council officers to write to the SEMAWP Board seeking assurances about governance, probity, and legal compliance associated with the SEMAWP Agreement and all other relevant Agreements and Contracts, in consideration of changing policy and regulatory conditions, Federal Waste and Circular Economy Strategies, the Victorian inquiry into waste-to-energy, and ongoing legal action by Paper Australia (Opal) against the State Government, and recent experience with international waste to energy projects.
The motion passed unanimously.
A report outlining the board’s response will be presented to the council by February 2026.
Cr Pereira said her motion was a “common-sense step to protect ratepayers and ensure transparency” around the city’s long-term waste arrangements.
“It is not about criticising the partnership,” she said.
“It’s about due diligence, good governance, and ensuring our community isn’t exposed to unnecessary financial or environmental risk.”
She highlighted global challenges with waste-to-energy projects, including technical failures and rigid long-term contracts that have left councils “bearing the financial risk.”
Councillor Carolyn Eaves noted that the reports requested are reports that would be generated by any organisation as part of their strategic scanning of their operating environments.
“I don’t think they’re very difficult reports to provide us,” she said.
City of Casey, along with eight neighbouring South East councils, formed a company South East Metropolitan Advanced Waste Processing (SEMAWP).
The alliance entered into contractual agreements with a consortium comprising Veolia, Masdar Tribe and Opal to deliver residual waste to an Energy from Waste facility to be developed by the consortium at Maryvale in Gippsland.
The agreement was signed around July-August 2024.
