Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Speaking directly to the abolition of the Product Stewardship Advisory Group, the act has clocked up several years of operation, so the view is that we no longer need that steering group, which was intended to give direction in the establishment phase. The Department of the Environment and Energy now engages with industry experts on an as-needs basis to gather advice on classes of products to be considered for some form of accreditation or regulation. This is a far more flexible and effective way to engage with the best people at least cost, unlike a standing body, which has an inflexible composition of fixed overheads. This approach to consultation means we can get more diversity of input from people who are highly engaged and effective because they're from the appropriate industry or science fields. The 2016-17 product list, I'm advised, was compiled under this kind of consultation and includes products such as end-of-life batteries, photovoltaic systems, plastic oil containers and the products that Senator Whish-Wilson talked about last year in this debate: products containing microbeads.