Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This may be the first time I have actually spoken in front of you, Mr Deputy Speaker Secker, so I will congratulate you on your appointment. I have some real practical examples relating to the waste management issue. In another working life I was previously the chairperson of the Central Highlands waste management group, which was a consortium of local governments partially within the federal seat of Corangamite. I certainly worked in a very diligent fashion on that body to educate the community about the importance of recycling. We saw a remarkable take-up in recycling through that period of the late nineties and the turn of this century.

I was listening most intently to the contribution made by my neighbour the member for Wannon. I certainly do accept the concept that many regional and rural communities have many more challenges to meet in recycling, simply because of tyranny of distance and fewer volumes. I would like to congratulate the mover of this motion, the member for Maranoa. In broad terms, I certainly share his sentiment and concern for the environment. In fact, I would like a dollar for every plastic bag or plastic container that went unnecessarily to landfill. I suspect that I would probably be as wealthy as Bill Gates if I had that revenue.

I think we all support recycling and I certainly acknowledge the member for Maranoa and his motion. In broad terms there is a lot of work to be done. The councils within the federal seat of Corangamite, and more broadly across Victoria, are working in a very diligent fashion to improve the systems that are used to recycle. Certainly I have had the pleasure of going to many modern recycling plants and very much value the contribution that they do make.

Container deposit laws, CDLs, are viewed by some as a potential mechanism to increase recycling. Personally, I believe that they do have a role to play. I am most grateful that our minister, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, has already initiated some discussions with his state colleagues to investigate the possibilities that CD laws do provide in meeting what I think is a very substantial challenge for all of us in becoming much more sustainable communities.

A whole lot of work is required. For more than a decade people have been raising with me the approach that the South Australian government has taken. I had a very similar experience, when I was much younger, to that of the federal member for Wannon, where I collected containers and cashed them in and was able to buy packets of lollies and those sorts of things, and it was a very important source of revenue for me.

I still have all of my teeth, so obviously I was not particularly successful at collecting containers to the extent that some of my friends and colleagues might have been. But I think we have some very significant challenges that we need to respond to. I think federal Labor is responding to those challenges. I have heard the suggestion from the other side—and of course I will endeavour to work within the circles of government to ensure that we do get the right mix of policy so that we can, as I say, become much more sustainable as communities. This is just one of those options. So, without further ado, I, too, congratulate the member for Maranoa and look forward to further dialogue perhaps in this place or the other place on how we might improve.

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