Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you so much to the member for Mackellar. She's absolutely right on two fronts: Australia has to be a circular economy, and we've got a real issue with solar panels and batteries from the solar industry. Of course, it's fantastic that more people are putting solar on the roof. We've got about 3 million Australian households and businesses that have solar panels on the roof now. They're saving money for themselves. They are saving about 1,000 bucks a year for an average family. They've reduced emissions by close to 18 million tonnes in 2021. A fantastic achievement. About eight per cent of the energy going into our national electricity grid is coming from rooftop solar. Great, great, great!

But we know that these systems last a couple of decades if they're going well. If we don't change what we're doing now, by 2030 there will be about a quarter of a million tonnes of this material in landfill. That's bad because the panels and the batteries contain valuable metals and minerals, and we should be re-using them. It's terrible for the environment, because we know that lithium batteries in particular, as they break apart, leach into the soil. That's not great for the soil or the environment. It's better for jobs to recycle, with about three jobs for recycling compared to one if it's going to landfill. It's better for the environment and better for the economy to recycle.

The solar industry has been on notice for years. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition is an expert in recycling: back bench, front bench, back bench, front bench! She put the solar industry on notice, but they never took any notice of her. I have said that I will regulate. We are prepared to invest. We've set aside a quarter of a billion dollars for recycling infrastructure, including $60 million for soft plastics. I spoke to the supermarket giants just today about soft plastics and fixing the mess of REDcycle. We are prepared to invest and we are prepared to regulate. Those opposite weren't prepared to regulate.

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