Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

Labor are pleased to support both the Product Stewardship (Oil) Amendment Bill 2020 and the Excise Tariff Amendment Bill 2020. As we have seen emerge in Australia and around the world, product stewardship can and must be an essential element of sustainable waste management. We can't simply gather all our waste together and leave it for disposal. We simply must get better at closing the recycling loop to make sure that, from cradle to grave, our products are sustainable and looked after. This means having waste management pathways that are recognised from the outset of the sourcing and manufacturing of those products through their use, easy return and disposal of by consumers and then indeed their recovery, recycling, reuse and, in some cases, safe disposal. In the Labor Party we've been committed to good waste management because we understand how important waste management is for our future generations. It was back in 2009 that the Labor government created a national waste policy establishing a national waste reporting process and, indeed, introducing the Product Stewardship Act 2011. It's completely reasonable for us as a nation to expect that designers and manufacturers of products can, and should, shoulder some of the responsibility for mitigating the environmental impacts of their products.

It's been terrific to see the focus of the ABC in recent weeks on encouraging people to look after the planet, including recycling. My son said to me last week: 'Mummy, small things can make a big difference.' It's clear in his mind that he is thinking of the individual actions that they take at his school where they recycle everything from toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, bottle top lids, plastic tabs from bread roll packets—you name it and they have got an activity around recycling it at Maylands Peninsula Primary School. I would like to give that lovely school a shout-out today for their wonderful recycling efforts.

We can, and must, deepen our recycling efforts and work specifically with a much broader range of industries to get recycling happening. We know that currently in Australia about 500 million litres of lubricating oil is sold each year. Sadly, if it's not managed and recycled properly the risk of pollution to land and water is very serious. The Product Stewardship (Oil) Act established an important scheme that encourages recycling and discourages the harmful disposal of non-combustible oils. Labor very much notes that since the scheme was introduced in 2011 it has been very effective. Unfortunately, prior to that there was much pollution. Prior to that there was effectively no recycling of combustible oils at all. It's now the case, fortunately, that some 320 megalitres of oil gets recycled and properly disposed of each year. That is about half the total volume of such oil. It's a good community effort and a good environmental and public health outcome. We have before us the Product Stewardship (Oil) Amendment Bill 2020 and the Excise Tariff Amendment Bill 2020 which are bills to fix some shortcomings that have emerged.

We want to clarify the definition of oils in the PSO Act to apply to lubricant oils, fluid oils and other oils and greases manufactured from non-combustible base oils. We need to do this in order to reflect the original intention of the PSO scheme, therefore, excluding other oils such as diesel and other fuels for the purposes of this recycling and product stewardship legislation. Item 15 of the schedule to the Excise Tariff Act narrows the scope of petroleum based oils and synthetic equivalents oils, for which excise duties are imposed for the purposes of the PSO scheme, to exclude diesel and other fuels. Item 15 was inserted into the Excise Tariff Act for the purpose of levying oils covered by the PSO scheme and did not historically include duties on diesel and other fuels. So diesel and other fuels will continue to be subject to excise duties under other items in the schedules to the Excise Tariff Act.

In other words, the amendments to these bills address what has been a significant discrepancy within the legislative definition of the word 'oil'. We need to ensure that only non-combustible oils are included for the purposes of claiming the benefits within this Product Stewardship for Oil Scheme and the Excise Tariff Amendment Bill. They were recommended by the ATO following a Federal Court decision in Caltex Australia Petroleum Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation. We saw in that case that it allowed a broad and unintended interpretation of the definition of oils in the PSO Act, with the effect that it could include some combustible oils, like diesel, thereby perverting the operation of the PSO Scheme. This case was launched by Caltex. The Federal Court found that there was this loophole and so they received $8 million of Commonwealth money. That, on any analysis, was indeed outside the intention and original purpose of that scheme.

It's disappointing that $8 million of revenue was lost from the Commonwealth. In this instance, I think it should be a matter of concern to a great many—$8 million is a lot of money when it comes to funding our health care, our schools, our aged-care needs, our recovery from bushfires and our efforts to do more to address homelessness. This is especially so in the face of the current circumstances of our nation. So I'm pleased that these amendments are here before us to prevent the re-occurrence of another significant loss of taxpayers' money. While I think that of course Caltex was at liberty to chase down this loophole and use it, it was indeed outside the intention of the original scheme for it to have been used in this way and I guess I'm disappointed that Caltex did seek to exploit that loophole and take the matter to court. It was never the intention of this act—never at all—to give refiners of combustible oils, such as Caltex, access to this scheme.

The Labor Party referred these bills to a Senate inquiry and we're very disappointed that the government refused to be transparent throughout this process. It showed an inability to explain the process it took in determining not to recoup the funds provided to Caltex via the Excise Tariff Act. I'd really like the government to take on board that disappointment and reconsider the way it thinks about these matters now and into the future. The government also delayed the statutory review of this legislation by three years and I think that underscores, despite all their rhetoric, a lack of commitment by this government to waste management and to the protection of Australia's environment.

Product stewardship is absolutely critical for our environmental future in this nation. We really should be looking to much more holistic product stewardship and involvement by government in clearing the path to make product stewardship viable and possible so that more and more of the products that Australian consumers buy have a proper recycling and waste management pathway. When it comes to waste and recycling, it is long past time for this government to take clear action—to take action on the three key areas of product stewardship: infrastructure, investment and procurement policy.

It's been incredible to me that Australia has lacked the ability to sustain a domestic recycling market—a recycling market which is much-needed to protect our environment and meet the expectations of the community. It has been extraordinary to see the fact that China has closed its doors to Australian recycling and yet it has taken such a long time for this government to get actively involved in making sure that we can create a viable and bright manufacturing economy that is based on the recycling of goods. Australia really should have a much stronger domestic recycling market. We know that it was only after several key trade nations banned the importation of our waste that the Commonwealth finally started looking at this issue.

Sadly, Australia only recycles 12 per cent of plastics and only 58 per cent of waste in total. Here in Australia we will need to increase our local plastic reprocessing capacity by some 400 per cent in order to effectively manage our own waste. So we've got a very long way to go on this journey. This government is far too slow to prioritise this issue, which is so incredibly important to Australians. Unfortunately, Australia has a very poor record on plastics. We stand to be heavily affected by plastic pollution in our oceans, and we are not doing our best to lead regional cooperation, including reducing plastic in the Pacific. We must lead by example.

I want to give a shout-out to the container deposit scheme for Western Australia that is about to start, in October this year. Its onset was delayed just a little bit by COVID. But it is due to be up and running just a couple of months after it was due to commence. This scheme, I think, will show that it is entirely possible to create positive manufacturing and positive community solutions to managing our waste in Australia. It's a scheme that will see community involvement where they will be able to tap into the profits of returning bottles and plastics for recycling, much like older Australians used to enjoy when we were kids.

So I call on this government to do more on recycling, and to do more for our climate and environment. It has been seven years and we have Australians still waiting for an energy policy from this Liberal government. We are still waiting for an energy system to deliver lower prices and lower emissions. This week, we've seen the government want to give another $3.3 million to support a new coal-fired power station. This is not good enough. Australians deserve much better environmental leadership.