Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the Recycling and Waste Reduction Bill 2020. I do so, proud of the state that I represent, South Australia. We were one of the frontrunners, one of the first states to introduce recycling back in the seventies, recycling bottles, then tins, then plastics. We've been a leader in this area for many, many years, before most of the other states. With such a proud track record from state Labor governments, we on this side are pleased to support these bills. We've seen in reports from all sorts of inquiries and research that's been done that there is absolutely no time to waste when it comes to recycling and dealing with the world's waste products. We produce so much of it, everything from plastics to cement and a whole range of other things. This is a step in the right direction, but we need to do a lot more.

When you think of the products that we buy, manufacture, consume and use, there is tonnes and tonnes of waste that is not being reused, every single day. Everything from using your credit card—when you look at what goes into those credit cards and the waste material that comes out of it—to batteries to plastics to straws—the list is endless. So we will be supporting this bill, and it is, as I said, a major step forward in developing a regulatory framework to encourage responsible waste management in partnership with industry.

Since 2011 we basically haven't seen very much done by this current government. We've done virtually nothing to build on the progress of the 2011 Labor reforms that were brought in when we were last in government. What we've seen is seven years of wasted time in terms of actually implementing legislation to deal with the reality of waste. It's a shame that it took a ban on imports from overseas countries—China and several other key nations—for this government to act on waste and recycling. It's hard to take the government seriously on this topic. Their signature election commitment is a $100 million recycling investment fund. This is nothing more than a repackage of the existing Clean Energy Finance Corporation's fund. Over a year since it was first committed to, the fund remains absolutely untouched. In other words, not much has happened in this area, and it's clear that there is a serious deficiency in Australia's recycling capacity. Indeed, there is less capacity to recycle plastic than there was in 2005. That gives you an idea of the time that we've wasted in terms of dealing with and getting on with this particular issue.

It's fair to expect that designers and manufacturers of products will take responsibility for mitigating their environmental impacts by seeking to reduce waste in the first place and also by enabling re-use and recycling, incorporating those costs into their business models. Here is a great example. Those of you who have young families and grandchildren—in my case grandkids—when you buy presents, think of the amount of rubbish that is packaged into it, from rubber bands to plastic material to cardboard boxes that aren't reusable, there is an area here where we can do so much more by putting a responsibility on the producers of those products to deal with the incredible waste that they put around the product that you're actually buying.

On the set of targets to be achieved under the National Waste Policy of 2018, the looming deadline and lack of progress calls into question the government's wait-and-see approach. There's no doubt that the much-needed progress on waste and recycling requires national leadership, and it is only with national leadership that we will achieve the recycling of waste. There's absolutely no doubt that it's much needed and that progress on waste and recycling requires stewardship and leadership from this place.

We on this side of the House started the process of creating the National Waste Policy in 2009. We also established the National Waste Reporting Process and introduced the Product Stewardship Act 2011. We are glad to note that the long-delayed statutory review of the Act confirmed the fundamental value of that policy by Labor, particularly in relation to the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme. I recall quite well being with the minister at the time, Don Farrell, when we went to one of the first outlets for recycling in my old electorate of Hindmarsh and had people delivering TVs and a whole range of older electronic equipment. That has been a good success, but we still need further improvements to compliance and outcomes.

I've got to say we lack the ability to sustain a domestic recycling market that will protect our environment and meet the expectations of the community. When I go around the electorate and speak to people, there is a thirst for recycling. People want to recycle, but we, as a government, have to make it easier for them. We need to be able to protect our environment and meet the expectations of the community. Go to any classroom in any school and speak to any student: they get it; they understand it really well. As I said, there's a thirst out there for recycling. We just have to put the mechanisms in place to assist industry, manufacturers, retailers and the consumer to actually do all of these things.

Up to eight million tonnes of plastic make into it the world's oceans every year. We've all been made aware recently of the plastic in the oceans. Global consumption of plastic could triple by 2040. So we have a monsoon to deal with. We have a monsoon that needed to be dealt with yesterday, not tomorrow. This government has shown a lack of will to deal with this issue. After seven years of being in this place, it is just tinkering with it. We need real results and we need them now.

In Australia, we only recycle 12 per cent of plastics—not a half, not a quarter, but 12 per cent—and 58 per cent of waste in total. Some analysis indicates that Australia is going to need to increase its local plastic reprocessing capacity by 400 per cent just to effectively recycle and reprocess its own waste into a useful and valuable resource. Australia has a very poor record on plastics, yet we stand to be heavily affected by plastic pollution in our oceans. After all, we are an island nation surrounded by oceans. We have fisheries and we have people and industries that depend on clean oceans, and we have a duty to do all that we can to keep those oceans as clean as we can. One of the mechanisms to do that is to have good recycling legislation in place. As with the issue of climate change, if we can't lead by example, we're not doing our best to build regional cooperation in reducing plastic across the Indo-Pacific. In opposition, we continue to be critical of the government's lack of action on waste. It has been a regular occurrence through the shadow minister. We have a track record on this. It's not something that we just tinker with. It is a core value of Labor to deal with the environment, especially recycling.

I'll go back to my own state, South Australia. In comparison to other governments' lack of action in recycling, successive South Australian Labor governments have ensured that South Australia has led the nation in recycling. I'm very proud, as I said earlier, of South Australia's achievements. South Australia is actually recognised as one of the world's leaders when it comes to waste management. The UN found that South Australia's waste management was global best practice. South Australia's waste management achievements were recognised in the UN publication Solid waste management in the world's cities, which assessed the waste and recycling systems of more than 20 cities worldwide. The publication reveals that South Australians are highly environmentally conscious. It states: 'South Australia has demonstrated a high level of political commitment and willingness to stick its neck out and implement some policies and legislation upon which other administrators take a more conservative position.' There is no room to take a more conservative position when you look at the figures I quoted earlier and the tsunami that is about to hit us when it comes to waste.

The Zero Waste SA Act and plastic bag ban, both introduced by a Labor government, are two excellent examples of South Australia's government showing leadership by putting in place arrangements that support a major drive downwards towards the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. Part of South Australia's success in recycling has been our nation-leading container deposit scheme. This was introduced in 1977. It's been very effective in reducing litter, increasing resource recovery and reducing waste that would normally go into landfill. We did that in 1977, whereas other states were still debating this only a couple of years ago. South Australia was the only state or territory which had a scheme for 35 years, until the Northern Territory introduced one in 2012. New South Wales and Western Australia have introduced similar schemes, and Queenslanders were able to collect cash for returning bottles and cans from mid-2018.

In 2006, South Australia's scheme was declared a heritage icon by the National Trust of South Australia and, as a result of the scheme, South Australia has the lowest percentage of drink containers in our litter scheme of the entire nation. So that is an area where, if you take action, you can reduce some of these waste products. About 580 million drink containers are recycled in South Australia every year and the government said that the states waste and recycling sector employs almost 5,000 South Australians, so we can not only reduce waste and recycle but also actually grow jobs through the recycling industry. I can see it everywhere I go, when I go to recycling plants, in the amount of people that work there.

Another example of where South Australia has led the way under Labor leadership was our plastic bag ban. In 2009, SA became the first state or territory in the nation to introduce a ban on single-use plastic bags. What a great thing that was. You see people going to the shopping centres now with their hessian bags and carry bags. I always keep a few in the car in case I have to stop off at the supermarket. It makes a difference, and it's something that you need leadership from federal and state governments on, especially from this place, to turn the psyche around and get everyone thinking about recycling and waste. The successes of these schemes show that, when you have the right leadership, you can make significant reforms that will again fit both the environment and the economy.

Of all the states and territories in Australia, South Australia is known to have the highest percentage, at 76.5 per cent, of waste being recycled or composted. I read out the figure earlier of 12 per cent. That shows leadership by successive Labor governments in SA, where we have turned it around. That should be a model for the rest of Australia, to look at ways we can reduce our waste and those plastics in our waterways to ensure we have a pristine ocean and a great environment to hand over to the next generation of Australians, because we owe it to them. We absolutely owe it to them. What we've seen here today, or not just today but through this government over the last seven years, is that there is a lack from this Morrison government.

Before I finish this speech, Mr Deputy Speaker, I'd like to draw your attention to the state of the House and the number in the House.

(Quorum formed)

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