Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to contribute to the debate on the Recycling and Waste Reduction Bill 2020 and related bills today. At the beginning of 2018, Australia's longstanding practice of exporting our waste to China was thrown into disarray with the launch of China's National Sword policy. This policy, which responded to the increasing deluge of soiled and contaminated materials that were overwhelming China's recycling facilities, created strict rules about what China would accept. This was a major event that reverberated through waste management globally. In Australia, governments, councils and community organisations were blindsided and forced to grapple with the very real possibility that our entire recycling program could collapse, leaving millions of tonnes of rubbish without a destination. The path forward was clear: Australians needed to lift their game. We needed to radically reform and improve our waste management processes and increase our recycling capacity.

These bills make a start, but they go nowhere near addressing what is a very real and growing crisis. They legislate the first of seven targets in the national waste policy action plan, specifically export bans on waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres. They also make minor changes to the current product stewardship regime, which was introduced by the Gillard government. Product stewardship is an important concept that places some responsibility for the life cycle and environmental impacts of goods with their designers and manufacturers, but the changes made to the scheme in this legislation are minimal.

The measures in this legislation matter—of course they do—and Labor will support them. But they offer far too little and have come way too late. When it comes to waste management, the Liberal government has squandered the last seven years and, today, this opportunity to deliver substantial, wide-reaching reform has also been missed. The planet is choking on our waste, and we are doing next to nothing to avert that. The national waste report tells us that Australia generated 67 million tonnes of waste in 2016-17 or about 2.7 tonnes of waste per person for the year. Australians generate more than 100 kilograms each of plastic waste every year, but less than 12 per cent of that is being recycled. This can't go on. Pollution in the environment is reaching critical levels, with new research showing that plastic in the world's oceans is expected to triple by 2040. Shamefully, if we continue on this same trajectory, by 2020 there will be more plastics in the ocean than fish. This is heartbreaking. We are in the midst of a snowballing catastrophe.

But we can turn things around. We need to commit to doing everything we can to developing a circular economy, in which materials are recycled and reused as much as possible and waste is reduced to a bare minimum. We need to move towards eliminating single-use plastics and ensure maximum plastics recycling through better design, producer responsibility, improved infrastructure and effective policies on procurement and recycled content requirements. We need to expand our product stewardship regime. We need big investment in domestic recycling infrastructure. All these measures should be delivered through a nationally coordinated strategic approach.

Sadly, we are a universe away from this ideal. Some good work has been done, especially under the former Labor government, but we have a long, long way to go. If you listen to this government, you'd think that fixing the waste crisis was a major priority. Regrettably, while serving up a steady stream of photo opportunities like the so-called Plastics Summit in March, the Morrison government consistently fails to follow up with action. Indeed, it has undertaken no large-scale reform in this area. When Labor looked beyond the hoopla, we found that the so-called new $100 million Recycling Investment Fund, which the Prime Minister announced in May, was really just existing Clean Energy Finance Corporation money with a new badge put on it. And, as is so often the case with this government and this Prime Minister, progress ground to a halt once the cameras left the room. Indeed, six months after the fund was announced the Clean Energy Finance Corporation was asked, through Senate estimates, where the fund was at. The corporation's response was utterly clear and utterly damning. It said:

No projects have been financed to date under this Fund, as it does not yet exist.

Six months after the announcement, the CEFC hadn't even been given direction to establish the fund. Regrettably, it was confirmed in estimates again last week that this fund hasn't supported a single recycling infrastructure project. This is shameful, especially when you consider that the government's own report found that Australia has less recycling capacity now than it did in 2005.

If we are to adequately respond to the export bans across our region we need to quadruple our recycling infrastructure. Instead, we are sitting on our hands. Again, this government is there with bells on for the announcement but completely missing in action when it comes to actually delivering. And, despite being in the midst of a waste management crisis, it took three years to conduct the Product Stewardship Act review. And, despite being in office for nearly seven years, the Morrison government has made zero progress on listing new items for a co-regulatory or mandatory product stewardship scheme. While Labor's first product stewardship system is still going well, the recent review found compliance is still a major problem. So how did the government respond? It cut staff in the relevant agency. Shame!

Another announcement that was warmly welcomed was the Product Stewardship Investment Fund, which was announced in March last year. But again, a year after the announcement, the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment confirms that the fund is still in the design phase and there is no grant application process in place. This is a government that seems to care more about the spin than the substance of government. In the area of waste recycling, the Morrison government has profoundly failed to deliver on its own promises.

It is abundantly clear that Australia needs urgent national leadership if we are to shape meaningful action to respond to the waste crisis. This hasn't happened. Thankfully, however, some amazing work is still being done in our local communities. In the absence of genuine national leadership on the issue, local councils and community organisations have stepped up and taken a lead. On this I'd like to recognise the City of Newcastle for the leading-edge work it is doing in this area. Council has made a 25-year commitment to revolutionise food and garden waste treatment. Most recently, this included a new $24 million contract for an advanced organics recycling facility. Starting in 2022, the facility will divert almost a million tonnes of food and garden waste from landfill. During the terms of the contract, this will save ratepayers more than $50 million in operating costs and state government levies.

There's also the $6 million Resource Recovery Centre, a 2,000 square metre site that allows metals, cardboard, wood and electrical goods to be extracted from loads of mixed waste. The centre recently celebrated its first birthday with some great news: it has diverted the equivalent of 74 semitrailers of waste which would have otherwise ended up in landfill. Great work, City of Newcastle!

The city also runs a five-megawatt solar farm on site at the Summerhill waste centre which enables it to power the centre and generate revenue to save ratepayers money. To reduce its environmental impact further, Summerhill uses methane gas from landfills to power two electricity generators. These generators produce enough power to run thousands of households. Great work to the City of Newcastle!

I'm also incredibly proud of the grassroots initiatives that have sprung up in my community—things like Feedback Organic Recovery, which collects food waste through a series of bins throughout the city as well as from local cafes and restaurants. The waste is then converted to compost for use on local urban farms. So far, feedback has converted 700,000 litres of waste. When you consider that rotting food in Australia generates methane equivalent to 6.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide on top of the space it takes up in landfill, you'll see how important this local initiative is.

I'd also like to acknowledge the global network of Buy Nothing groups. Buy Nothing Project rules are simple: post anything you'd like to give away, lend or share amongst neighbours and ask for anything you'd like to receive or free or to borrow. In doing so, these groups not only set up a culture of recycling and reusing but they also build strong community connections. There's Take 3 for the Sea, a local incarnation of a global movement which urges people to take three pieces of rubbish from the beach when they leave.

I also want to pay tribute to the work of the Hunter Wetlands Centre and their phenomenal environmental education centre, which provides a wide range of field work resources and programs allowing students to investigate and learn about this incredible fragile ecosystem and the sustainable management of our wetlands.

Last but certainly not least, I'd like to give a shout-out to the three extraordinary women who are behind the iconic Newcastle clothing label High Tea with Mrs Woo. Rowena, Juliana and Angela Foong, your contribution to our city is both longstanding and much appreciated. The three sisters have been working with researchers from the School of Creative Industries at the University of Newcastle on a sustainable fashion initiative. This included low-waste pattern layouts, natural fibre choices and direct digital printing techniques for customised production, which allows the user to be involved—in short, the very opposite of fast fashion, which plagues our waste and environmental measures. These local initiatives are vital, but it's becoming increasingly clear that, as a nation, we are not doing enough. Resources are finite, and the environmental cost of inaction on waste is massive. We need to genuinely and actively work towards developing a circular economy by using less, reducing waste and increasing recycling.

I note the impact that the TV program War on Waste has had. There are very few schools, I suspect, that any of us in this House would visit now that do not run their own quite sophisticated programs about recycling and reducing our impact in the environment. I think that programs like the War on Waste have done our planet a great service and have really provided the impetus for so many school groups to be very active in this space in their local schools. But the students of course go home and make sure that their parents and families are doing the right thing as well and remind them of the intergenerational consequences of not doing so.

All our government systems, programs and incentives need to work to support and encourage these core goals of developing a circular economy, using less, reducing our waste and increasing our recycling. But that won't happen without strong national leadership and vision. Regrettably, this has been sadly lacking to date, and, whilst Labor is supporting the government on making the very timid initiatives contained within these bills, we say: you must do more—much, much more. There is no time to waste. Indeed, this planet and our nation are depending on the government stepping up and lifting its game immediately.

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