Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to take this opportunity to talk about a very special police force in my electorate of Maranoa. This is no ordinary police force. These special police men and women want to eliminate abuse and neglect, but they are not armed with weapons, only with a bag. These police officers cannot arrest a villain, but they can arrest our carbon footprint. These police men and women do not wear a badge and polished black shoes but instead wear sneakers and school uniforms. These special police officers cannot drive a police car, they cannot graduate from the Queensland Police Academy and they cannot join the Queensland police union, but what they can do is save the environment, one plastic bag at a time.

The special police force I talk about today is the Mitchell Plastic Police—a special crime-fighting unit created especially to reduce the use of plastic bags in the Mitchell district, some 560 kilometres from Brisbane. The Mitchell Plastic Police are the crime-fighting force of the Kool Kids Kool World, which is made up of teachers and students from grades 2, 3 and 4 from Mitchell State School and St Patrick’s Catholic School in Mitchell. Their mission, which they have chosen to accept, is to rid the Booringa district of all plastic bags.

I was lucky enough, or should I say cool enough, to join the Kool Kids Kool World in April this year to help launch their new Mitchell envirobag—a 100 per cent recyclable, reusable bag, which has been specially designed by the students of Mitchell State School and St Patricks Catholic School, together with the Indigenous population, for whom I have a high regard. Adorned with drawings of animals—as you can see on this bag—and the earth to symbolise the potential victims of global warming, the Mitchell envirobag is the plastic police’s choice of weapon against pollution and littering. They have also produced a magnetic shopping list pad, to remind consumers to take their envirobag when they go shopping. Their motto is sensible and succinct: ‘Don’t be a dag—bring your envirobag’.

But the Mitchell Plastic Police force is doing much more than reducing the use of plastic bags in the district. A dollar from every Mitchell envirobag sold through school fundraising activities is directly reinvested back into school based environmental projects. Current tasks being undertaken in the precinct include a water wise landscaping project at St Patrick’s Catholic School, and a worm farm, a vegetable garden, a chook yard and a rubbish recycling program at Mitchell State School.

These Kool Kids are also currently designing a car tidy bag and are looking into making the Mitchell envirobag even more environmentally friendly by researching the potential use of green-friendly materials such as jute. Like any effective and proactive police force, the Mitchell Plastic Police has strong community support. The former Booringa Shire Council, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Booringa Action Group have partnered with the Mitchell Plastic Police to bring this wonderful project to fruition. Indeed it is an excellent example of what can be achieved by dedicated school students and supportive communities so evident in many of my rural communities. The Mitchell Plastic Police have estimated that their envirobag will eliminate 468,000 bags per annum within the boundaries of what was the Booringa shire and, with plans to expand across the entire, newly formed Roma Regional Council area, this project is only going to get bigger and better.

I was honoured to be part of the Kool Kids Kool World Mitchell envirobag launch. It is truly inspirational to see that Australia’s next generation of adults are already dedicated to reducing our carbon footprint. And it is particularly moving to see these kids from the bush, from the small town of Mitchell, with a district population of only around 2,000, take on such an enormous task. They have proven that, with dedication and support, no project is too big.

In embracing the motto of this young, active, climate-conscious police force, I encourage my fellow parliamentary colleagues to make sure that, when they next go shopping, they don’t act like dags but instead use an envirobag. I am going to present one of these to our shadow minister and also to the minister with the compliments of the Kool Kids Kool World from Mitchell. (Time expired)

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