12:00a.m. 3rd March 2008

| By Kerryn Manifold

Mayoral candidate Joe Natoli says rival candidate Bob Abbot’s claims the Coast can be landfill-free by 2020 are rubbish and has demanded the Noosa mayor release the cost of the plans.

The demand comes as a community group accused Mr Natoli of using political scare tactics to mislead voters about the cost of stopping work on a proposed bioreactor dump near Yandina.

Kulangoor Anti Dump Action Group chairman Peter Sheen said Mr Natoli had quoted inflated figures during a recent television news interview.

“Joe Natoli’s claim that ratepayers would pay an extra $105 million a year to transport waste to Ipswich if the Kulangoor dump did not go ahead is wildly exaggerated,” Mr Sheen said.

Mr Natoli said he made a mistake during the interview but residents would still be slugged with higher rates if work on the dump stopped.

He said trucking waste to Ipswich would cost ratepayers an extra $150 each year and create an unacceptable amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

He said the Coast needed landfill and Mr Abbot’s plan to get rid of dumps was not achievable without a sharp increase in rates.

“He is going to impose increased costs on every ratepayer and he needs to tell people just how much it’s going to cost,” Mr Natoli said.

Mr Abbot said he did not know how much it would cost but his goals were achievable.

“I know it’s done elsewhere and we will find the right way to do it,” Mr Abbot said.

“If we’re going to start throwing around figures with regards to waste, it would be good to see the information Maroochy Shire Council based the Kulangoor decision on.”

Mr Natoli said he had invited Mr Abbot to a technical briefing last year but Mr Abbot did not accept the invitation. Mr Abbot said he did not recall the invitation and could not remember what he had been doing at the time of the briefing.

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