Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the recent report of the Standing Committee on Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water,Drowning in waste: plastic pollution in Australia's oceans and waterways. As the member for North Sydney, I have the great privilege of living in and representing a community with a significant amount of harbour foreshore and other waterways in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. This stunning environment is a key part of the fabric of our community, from our social connection at parks and our recreation to our mental health, our exercise, our children's sport and the wellbeing of our pets.

More broadly, water is an iconic part of Australia's cultural identity, from our world-renowned beaches and stunning small islands to our World Heritage sites such as the Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo Reef and Katherine Gorge and the collective pride we share in our world champion swimmers, sailors, surfers and water polo players. More critically, water is, of course, essential for life.

Because of our intimate connection to water, Australians have a visceral sensitivity to the idea of drowning, so I have no doubt that my community feels the findings of this report incredibly deeply. Now we are drowning in waste. We know from the very title of the committee's report that plastic pollution poses a significant threat to Australia's biodiversity, to our human health and to our oceans and waterways due to the harm it causes to us directly and to marine and freshwater life and ecosystems. Shockingly, Australians consume more single-use plastic per person than any other country in the world except Singapore.

New research from the CSIRO estimates that every minute across the globe a garbage truck's worth of plastic enters the ocean. Up to 11 million tonnes of larger items of plastic pollution, from nets to cups and plastic bags and everything in between, is sitting on the ocean floor, clustered around continents. These enormous amounts of plastic are disproportionately affecting our incredible regional and remote coastal locations. Although inland and coastal seas cover much less surface area than do the oceans—just 11 per cent versus 56 per cent of our entire earth's area—these areas are predicted to hold as much plastic mass as does the rest of the ocean floor.

Of course, we see a lot of this plastic locally on our harbour foreshore before it gets to the ocean. Most notably, on Clean Up Australia Day, the most common type of litter reported in Australia was soft plastic, followed by single-use plastic. This has certainly been reflected in the litter my volunteers and I have collected each year on that day.

At the same time, we face the threat of microplastics and forever chemicals everywhere, including in our very drinking water. Recently, to the concern of many, including my community of North Sydney, Australian media reported that potentially unsafe levels of forever chemicals had been detected in drinking water supplies around Australia. These include human-made chemicals classed under the broader category of PFAS chemicals, the same ones United States authorities warn can cause cancer over a long period of time, with reports warning there is no safe level of exposure.

Microplastics have now been found in all environments, including the polar regions, from Mount Everest to the deepest oceans, and in foods such as sea salt and beer, and by next year it's predicted that 99 per cent of seabirds will have ingested some form of plastic. Barely a month goes by without an alarming new headline on the prevalence of microplastics. Just this year we've already had 'Microplastics found in every human testicle in study: Scientists say discovery may be linked to decade-long decline in sperm counts in men around the world' and 'Microplastics found in every human placenta tested in study: Scientists express concern over health impacts, with another study finding particles in arteries'.

It's no surprise that each aspect of this toxic onslaught is a matter of profound concern across the communities and different generations of North Sydney. Most recently, I received the following email in response to an article about the carcinogens in our water supply. The author wrote:

How can we get some answers on the most disappointing and distressing article? I've also heard roundup chemicals are showing up in human breast milk. What can be done about this?

At the same time, I've heard from many constituents keen to do the right thing, who struggle, in the face of the collapse of REDcycle, with the enormous amount of plastic they accumulate domestically and the lack of convenient opportunities to environmentally dispose of things such as blister packs. I've had constituents who have written to me about the threat of microplastics and landfill remaining present for generations and their increasing presence in marine and food supply structures, and about the prevalence of forever chemicals already banned in the EU in the durable water-resistant coating used on Australian jackets. That constituent wrote:

This coating is known as C6 (perfluorohexane sulfonic acid)—it's supposed to be a nicer version of the more toxic C8, but appears to exhibit many of the same significant issues in terms of human health and damage to the environment

… due to our lax regulations we risk (and already are) becoming a bit of a dumping ground for companies to get rid of their stocks of these chemicals—until we catch up with meaningful restrictions—which is really disappointing.

Everyone who has reached out to me about this wants, more than anything, action. Overwhelmingly, the message from my community is threefold: (1) we're aware we're drowning in waste, (2) it's intolerable and (3) we urgently need our government to act. The stakes are too high not to act. This beautiful environment, so rich in diversity, and the health of our next generations are not ours to gamble with.

The first, crucial step has been taken: the vital work of the committee in holding hearings and inviting submissions and distilling the evidence into this sobering report with its 22 key recommendations. I really want to thank the committee for their work and for these recommendations, which represent a practical way for our government to channel the community's urging of action into effect.

Importantly, the committee's recommendations include the implementation of a national plan, with an annual report to parliament on the progress of key actions from that plan, and for the government to prioritise a sustainable end market for recovered plastics as a matter of urgency.

The seventh recommendation is for the government, as a priority, to take a leadership role in coordinating and tracking actions in relation to the reduction of the use of plastics, in the face of our woeful ranking as second in the world for the use of single-use plastics.

Other recommendations include making it easier for consumers to recycle more effectively through effective labelling; developing and funding public awareness and education on proper recycling practices; and commissioning research to determine the impacts of microplastic ingestion, inhalation and skin contact on human health, and making it publicly available. All are concrete actions which respond to the pressing concerns I hear from my community in this area.

I urge the government to implement all of the committee's recommendations without delay—in particular, the first recommendation, that being to develop, through the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and in consultation with the states and territories, industry and the community, an updated National Plastics Plan—not in a future term of government but now, in this term, in the final year of the 47th Parliament. Please do not let this report sit on a shelf gathering a film of microplastics. I urge you: throw a drowning nation a rope and act now.

Debate adjourned.

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