Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

That was a ‘no’ from Senator Parry. I would like to briefly describe for the chamber what it is that you are voting no for here. I also note that an order for production of documents lapsed this morning. With the support of the coalition, the Senate called upon the government to hand over some documentation that has been compiled at taxpayers’ expense: modelling done by PricewaterhouseCoopers on consumers’ willingness to pay and the subsequent peer review undertaken by ABARE into a national container deposit scheme. This is not rocket science; this is a 10c deposit for what would otherwise be a piece of litter.

My understanding is that the reports that have been sought and undertaken by the government are actually quite supportive of the economics of a national container deposit scheme. It has been operating in South Australia, as my colleagues well know, for decades now. There is no reason at all why we should not have such a scheme nationally. I would appreciate some sign from the Minister representing the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts as to why the government is defying a Senate order for production of documents on these studies. The studies were conducted at taxpayers’ expense and they should be put into the public domain. They were first rejected through a freedom of information request by the Total Environment Centre. In the letter of refusal, the Total Environment Centre was assured that these reports would be released after the meeting of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council standing committee. This was several weeks ago; it has not occurred. State, territory and federal environment ministers are meeting in Darwin next week to discuss this very matter, and they are doing it with the public completely in the dark as to what the government’s intentions are and what the evidence actually says.

This is a very clear request from the Senate to table those reports and to do it today. Five major studies have been undertaken into the bleeding obvious over the last decade, all of which show significant benefits from container deposit legislation. There has been enough research and there have been enough reports; it is time for action. On 5 July, environment ministers are meeting. The government should table these documents.