Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management) Share this | Hansard source

I present a supplementary explanatory memorandum to the bill and ask leave of the House to move government amendments (1) to (16), as circulated, together.

Leave not granted.

I move government amendment (1):

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (cell at table item 1, column 2), omit the cell, substitute:

The day after this Act

receives the Royal

Assent.

The government has developed these amendments in consultation with the opposition and some crossbench members. I'd like to place on the record my thanks to some people and organisations that have assisted in this task of getting Australia its first national recycling act. Thank you again to all honourable members who've contributed to this debate. In particular I want to place on record my thanks to the shadow assistant minister for the environment for his valuable engagement and input. I know from the discussions we had together on the drafting of these bills and on broader policy aims that the shadow minister is as driven and passionate about improving recycling as I am. Now, more than ever, Australian want to see their representatives working across federal-state divisions and across all parties in the national interest. The legislation before the House today broadly reflects that spirit of collegiality.

These bills have also benefited significantly from the insights of key industry groups led by Pete Shmigel and the Australian Council of Recycling, Rose Reid and the National Waste and Recycling Industry Council, and Gayle Sloan and the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia. I thank everyone I have engaged with—here are so many, from the recycling sector, environmental groups, industry up and down supply chains, experts and consumers—for all of their valuable time and insights, for their assistance in drafting these laws and for their broad, wide-spread support of these bills.

I also want to give a special shout-out after speaking last week with Pip Kiernan. She told many how her father, Ian Kiernan, the founder of Clean Up Australia had talked for almost thirty years about the potential power of product stewardship in recognising that there's value inherent in all the things that some people sometimes treat like rubbish. I did have the pleasure of meeting Ian a few times before he sadly passed, and I feel honoured to think how he'd be pleased to see Australia taking these steps and, in particular, the reforms to turbo-charge product stewardship.

The proposed amendments to the Recycling And Waste Reduction Bill 2020 will make a number of changes, including to change the time frame for a review of the act from 10 years to 5 years and to change the commencement date to the day after royal assent. The proposed amendments will also strengthen the objects of the act and will replace, for instance, in the objects of the act the phrase 'promote the circular economy' to 'develop the circular economy'. We'll insert the word 'remanufacture' to clarify that the remanufacturing of products is so important for a circular economy, and we'll change the meaning of the list of responsible persons for products to clarify that manufacturers, importers, distributors, designers and other persons are taking responsibility for their products.

The proposed amendments that we are moving today will also increase transparency around the granting of export licences and exemptions and will require quarterly reporting of information covering exemptions and export licences that have been applied for and granted. This information is also required to be published on the website of the Department of the Agriculture, Water and the Environment. The proposed amendments will also improve the minister's priority list process in two ways. Firstly, they will ensure that when something sits on the list and the time frame for recommended action passes, the minister will be required to either make a further recommendation or pursue regulatory options available under the laws, which might include, for instance, proceeding to develop a co-regulatory product stewardship scheme or a mandatory approach.

In concluding, I'd like to again thank the Minister for the Environment for her support and everyone in our teams in the department and here for their hard work in getting these recycling laws to this point. I commend government amendment (1) to the House.

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