Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Hazardous Waste (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Amendment Bill 2021. With this bill, the Morrison government advances key laws to deliver on Australia's international obligations to strengthen controls on international movements of plastics waste and enhance the process to classify hazardous wastes and treatment technologies. These amendments adopt regulatory powers consistent with Commonwealth legislation and improve compliance and enforcement measures through new penalties and information-sharing measures to improve the administrative efficiency of the act. Ultimately, this bill updates and modernises the act to reduce complexity and improve its operation, while ensuring the standard of environmental protection remains high.

I stand here as a strong voice for my constituents in Higgins, who care deeply about our waste and our international responsibilities to the environment. I am proud that the Morrison government has stepped up to ensure that, as a country, we take responsibility and lead the way in this space. As the Prime Minister has said, it is our waste and our responsibility. Anyone who has lived, worked or travelled in other countries, particularly developing countries, knows how important it is to be stewards of our own environment. Our policies are delivering real outcomes for our natural environment, but also for the world over, by mandating that we do not simply export waste without thought. This is by ensuring that it is first processed for further use and also by enhancing regulations in protecting all global systems from hazardous waste materials.

This is really a matter of leadership. As a nation we have a duty and responsibility for our own waste. We just can't pass the buck to other countries to deal with it. I'm proud to have been a strong voice in calling for a recycling and waste inquiry as a member of the Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources. For any listeners or viewers, I recommend that you go to the From rubbish to resources: building a circular economy report. There are so many pragmatic things that constituents can do to make sure that they reduce their own waste footprint and therefore help the world to keep this place cleaner and greener.

The hazardous waste act implements Australia's international obligations under the Basel Convention. The amendments in this bill will strengthen transboundary controls on unsorted plastic waste and plastic waste containing hazardous substances. It will ensure Australia's compliance with the Basel Convention. The convention is an international treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste from one country to another, and its disposal. It seeks to manage the export, import and transit of hazardous waste to minimise the harmful effect of hazardous waste on human health and the environment.

In fact, on 1 July 2021 just this year new standards to regulate international movements of unsorted plastic waste and plastic waste containing hazardous substances were adopted under the Basel Convention. This bill delivers on these key international commitments and complements the landmark Recycling and Waste Reduction Act, under which only single polymer or resin plastics can be exported from July 2021. This is a great outcome for Australia, where we're now moving very rapidly into ensuring that we have environmental stewardship, and that is from next month. It is about solving problems now but also for the future and for the generations that follow.

In fact, it's sobering to think that only 12 per cent of the 103 kilograms of plastic waste generated per person in Australia each year is recycled, and this is mostly overseas. That's 103 kilograms of plastic waste per person, almost double each person's body weight—some exceptions in the chamber perhaps! Each year at Clean Up Australia Day I get a very big plastic bag and I endeavour to get several kilograms worth of plastic. It's very hard to fill a big plastic bag. It doesn't weigh as much as you think, so when we're talking about 103 kilograms per every individual person in Australia that's an awful lot of plastic.

From July 2022 the export of recycled plastics that have not been processed for further use will be banned. We are stepping up and we are taking action. We have a golden opportunity now to turn our recyclable plastics into resources—the title of our inquiry report is From rubbish to resourcesand play our part as global trendsetters in this space, while looking out for our international counterparts, as well as reducing our environmental impact, not just as individuals but as a country. These measures show that the government will go one step further than the rest of the world to address pollution from waste plastics.

The current requirement to seek advice on technical matters from the Hazardous Waste Technical Group does not allow the flexibility to obtain the best advice available on a range of key technical issues. The government proposes to transform the way in which guidance on whether a particular material is a hazardous waste or whether a particular waste processing technology is environmentally sound is obtained. We will do this by removing references to the Hazardous Waste Technical Group and replacing it with a new mandatory consultation mechanism that is more appropriate to the relevant decisions. This bill will make amendments to the act to establish a new mandatory consultation process that provides flexibility to consult with a range of appropriately qualified experts from government, research organisations and industry. This will ensure that the government has the best advice available when making these important declarations and that the advice is obtained when we need it.

This bill triggers the Regulatory Powers Act to adopt consistent Commonwealth regulatory powers. These powers are best practice for administering an effective monitoring investigation or enforcement regulatory regime that also provides important safeguards and protects common-law privileges. As we all know, when there's a commons we need to make sure that it's not just the good eggs that do well, but that the bad eggs are held to account. This bill will refine existing criminal offences and introduce new strict liability offences and civil penalty provisions to cover conduct relating to the export, import and transit of hazardous waste.

We want to not just encourage people to do the right thing but make sure that they are punished if they do not. Importantly, new compliance measures include record keeping, auditing and monitoring provisions. Of course, as a government, you can't manage what you're not measuring, and this is an incredibly important technical aspect that will improve the quality of the accountability of this legislation. These amendments are supported by industry and will help level the playing field for those doing the right thing by giving the government appropriate powers to act against those who are not doing the right thing. These amendments will ensure compliance with the hazardous waste act and that Australians and our unique environment are better protected from the harmful effects of hazardous waste.

Anyone who's been to the outback of Australia knows how incredibly delicate some of the ecosystems of our unique environment are. They're world beating. They're precious. In fact, I encourage tourists from around the world to come and be ecofriendly. Make sure that when you go out camping in the outback you take your rubbish with you, because there's nothing worse than going to these beautiful World Heritage sites and seeing any form of plastic or rubbish in those environments. I would welcome some of the states' and territories' acts that have been incredibly important in backing in these provisions and making sure that plastics are not getting into our precious World Heritage environment.

The amendments in this bill will give the government the authority to share information with Commonwealth, state and territory governments where appropriate. It is important that these acts, across the different legislations, are held to be consistent and that there can be sharing of information so we can make sure that state governments and federal governments are working hand in glove. This will improve the compliance and enforcement missions enacted under the regulatory powers act.

The Morrison government has led the nation in taking responsibility for regulation on waste. It's something we are deeply proud of. It is working to help make sure there is strong collaboration between the Commonwealth, the states and the territories across these different legislative boundaries, and I welcome these developments. We will work as one across the three levels of government for the benefit of Australia.

I'd like to note that the local government authority conference was this week. I've had a number of my councils, Glen Eira and Stonnington in particular, meet with me to talk about the very important issues of recycling and waste. I'm very proud of the fact that the minister—I call him 'our waste warrior'!—for rubbish reduction, Trevor Evans, has met with my councils to talk about the very important issues that face them with regard to recycling and waste. The federal government is working hard to make sure local councils can deal with their waste in a systematic and safe way.

The reforms in this bill are common sense. They will deliver streamlined, transparent, efficient and appropriate regulation. Most importantly, these reforms will protect Australians and our environment. I commend this bill to the House.

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