Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I see the member for Boothby agreeing. If you have a bottle—I believe it's plastic or glass—you can get a 10c, if not higher, refund on that. I remember, growing up as a kid, we had that system in place whereby you could get money back on your rubbish and other people's as well. Kids would go around football grounds and showgrounds et cetera; there was very little litter because kids would go around and collect it and get a refund for it for lollies or whatever the case might be. These days, it seems kids are so well off that they don't have to do it; you don't see them carting around big bags and collecting all the bottles after a football game or an event in an open area like a concert et cetera.

This is an important take-note motion because our waterways are too important to get wrong. I encourage and urge the committee and others to acknowledge the work the Morrison government in particular did in this area. I know Australia's strength and support for a global plastics treaty was something both the member for Farrer and then Prime Minister Morrison pushed. The Pacific declaration urges the international community to start work on a legally binding global agreement as soon as possible; that happened during our last term of government. Support for a plastic-pollution treaty has grown exponentially, from fewer than 70 countries, at the time we very much supported it and got behind it, to more than 110 nations. This is important. We have to get it right. Our oceans are too important not to get it right, and we also need to address one of the hugest climate issues—that is, what we do about landfill.

Debate adjourned.

See this speech in context