Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll continue my remarks on this legislation. Earlier I was making the point that the Morrison government fails to understand that environmental destruction comes at a huge economic and social cost. Degrading soils, deforestation, polluted and poisoned air and water all add billions of dollars to the health costs of the nation and to the cost of agricultural production in this country, which is one of our main economic drivers. But those costs are quite often hard to quantify and they tend to get pushed to one side when there is an economic proposal put before the government. It seems that will always get precedents over the environmental fallout that might occur as a result of it. A healthy planet means healthy people. It's as simple as that. Most of the people I speak with, certainly in my community, seem to understand that. That's why most of the recycling initiatives that I have seen over the years have come from the local community groups, including environmental activists, local school groups and local governments. I commend each and every one of them for their efforts, and I applaud them for what they continue to do, but simply alone they cannot do enough. We need to do more. We only recycle about 12 per cent of plastics in this country. Australia can and should do a lot better than that. I'm hoping that this legislation might at least begin to see a change in the mindset of the government and the Australian people.