Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I think Senator Ludlam for his question. Last Friday all environment ministers reconfirmed their commitment to the completion and release for public consultation of the consultation regulation impact statement as soon as possible. This process started in July 2010 when the Environment Protection and Heritage Council agreed to develop a consultation regulation impact statement to assess the costs and benefits of a limited range of options to address packaging impacts, including container deposit legislation.

Before any decision is made to apply new regulation, the government needs to look at the costs and benefits of the proposal. A regulation impact statement provides a detailed analysis of the costs and benefits and includes a broad-ranging consultation to ensure stakeholders' views are taken into consideration. Stakeholder consultation has been and continues to be a critical element of this process and substantial consultation has been undertaken to date. It is still on track to be released for public consultation by the end of the year. The impact statement is looking at a range of options for dealing with packing waste, including a national container deposit scheme.

All of the ministers last week reaffirmed that there will be open and transparent stakeholder consultation on all of the options for improving packaging resource recovery rates and reducing litter. Those options include a national container deposit scheme. All ministers agreed to hold a teleconference by the end of November to consider the consultation regulation impact statement. It will then be released for a four-month consultation period. The reason for the extended period of consultation is that it will take in the Christmas-New Year period.