Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee, Management of Australia’s waste streams (including consideration of the Drink Container Recycling Bill 2008), together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

At the outset I would like to thank everybody involved in the inquiry and the preparation of this report, in particular the secretariat and the many people who contributed submissions and attended public hearings. I also note in particular the efforts of new Senators Pratt, Ludlam and Williams, who participated fully in the inquiry and were of great assistance to me in checking the draft report.

On 20 March 2008, the Senate referred the following matter to the Senate Standing Committee on the Environment, Communications and the Arts: management of Australia’s waste streams, with particular reference to trends in waste production; the effectiveness of existing strategies to reduce, recover or reuse waste from different waste streams; potential new strategies to reduce, recover or reuse waste; the economic, environmental and social benefits and costs of such strategies; policy priorities; and consideration of the Drink Container Recycling Bill 2008. It was an inquiry that generated considerable public interest.

The report does several things, including remind us that recycling rates have increased rapidly over the past decade; however, unfortunately, they have not kept pace with the proliferation of overall waste generation, which results in an increasing amount of end-use material being sent, in particular, to landfill in Australia. The committee noted that, certainly, while we need good policy development in this area across local, state and federal governments, it is difficult to make good policy when there is a lack of a decent national waste data system, and the report recommends that governments consider re-establishing a decent system so that we can make good policy.

The committee spent a significant amount of time considering the effect of increasing the amount of waste going into landfill and, hence, measures to reduce that, including the application of landfill levies. There was strong evidence that landfill levies are a good way of reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill, and the report notes that governments should consider across-the-board landfill levies, taking into account the differential impact that they might have on smaller communities.

While landfill is going to remain one of the methods of waste disposal—and, hopefully, waste recycling—it is important also that the government takes into account the effect on greenhouse gas abatement of the recycling of waste and waste that goes into landfill. There is a recommendation in the report that the government consider those aspects as part of its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

There was considerable discussion during the inquiry about the value of extended producer responsibility schemes to reduce waste and to encourage recycling in Australia. There are numerous examples from overseas about that and considerable attention was given during the inquiry to burgeoning areas of waste and what we are going to do about them—in particular, e-waste. It was noted that at the moment local government in Australia bears an almost unbearable burden in trying to deal with that kind of waste, which is increasing and needs to be dealt with rapidly and in a way that does not put a disproportionate burden on local government.

There was extensive discussion also about kerbside recycling and the impact that that has had on recycling in Australia—again an impost that local government largely picks up and that should be shared more equitably. There was also discussion about the Drink Container Recycling Bill 2008, and there was a recommendation that that bill be considered by the Environment Protection and Heritage Council as part of its deliberations. An example was given during the inquiry about how effective drink container recycling legislation has been in my state of South Australia, where it has meant that 70 per cent of drink containers are recycled because there is a value attached to those containers. The committee believed that that was a good example for the rest of the nation to consider and contemplate. While you cannot extrapolate the South Australian example directly to the rest of the nation, there is a good basis there for us to go forward.

While we could not support the bill at this stage, as part of this inquiry we have recommended that government have a look at aspects of that bill, particularly in the South Australian context, to see whether it is able to be rolled out further. I will leave my comments there. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.