Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Recycling and Waste Reduction Bill 2020 and the related bills. In doing so, as senators often do, we reflect on the constituents in our communities—for me, people all across Queensland who would be listening in to this debate and paying special attention. I live in Cairns, the same place as does Molly Steer. She is a 12-year-old campaigner, who led the Straw No More campaign and managed to eradicate straws from cans when at a very young age—she was 10 or 11 years old when she started her campaign. I give this speech today in full recognition of the fact that there are people like Molly listening and wondering what the government has done after all its rhetoric about action on recycling, on waste and on plastics.

Labor supports this bill but remains critical of the government's inaction when it comes to regulatory reform of waste management and, quite frankly, to job creation in recycling—we know there's that potential if the government gets the settings right. Evidence from the Senate inquiry showed that, while stakeholders support an export waste ban, this bill lacks effectiveness. It highlights the Morrison government's poor track record of making lots of announcements and failing to deliver on those promises. This bill and the related bills would introduce a ban on the export of certain waste materials through a new licensing and declaration scheme, with standard qualifying requirements, fees and charges to cover those costs, and reporting arrangements. The bills would replace and update existing product stewardship laws, making overdue changes to the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme.

This legislation has been introduced, in part, because of China's decision in 2018 to ban the importation of most categories of waste—a decision which had a major consequence for the Australian waste management sector. It has meant that Australia now needs to dramatically increase our recycling capability and to better manage waste across the board. Labor has been critical of the government for its inaction when it comes to regulatory reform for waste management. Since the Liberal-National government came to power, it has taken no action in listing any new items for co-regulatory or mandatory schemes. The Morrison government has taken three years to conduct a review at a time when the country's waste crisis is worsening. Labor will support these bills, because there is no time to delay when it comes to banning the export of waste materials. But, in doing so, we want to highlight to the Senate some of the evidence that was received during the Senate inquiry and contained in the report handed down last month.

Stakeholders have said that they do support this legislation, but are concerned about the effectiveness of the legislation itself and some of the failures of this government to get the policy settings right. Stakeholders, including the National Waste and Recycling Industry Council, have acknowledged the government's lack of focus on reforming Australia's product stewardship regime. In their submission, the National Waste and Recycling Industry Council said:

The Global Product Stewardship Council submission said:

We encourage the Government to consider reflecting more of a clear willingness to pursue coregulatory approaches as appropriate to build upon the proposed strengthening around the Minister's priority list.

Stakeholders also recognised problems with the National Environment Protection (Used Packaging Materials) Measure 2011, which regulates industry participation for improving environmental outcomes for plastic packaging.

The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation drove this point home in their evidence to the committee inquiry. They said:

I think the fact that we're 20 years into that regulation and there hasn't been a review is probably more indicative of some of the issues or some of the perceptions that are currently out there, and I think that if a NEPM review had been done earlier then obviously it would have informed this discussion and given rise to thinking around other alternatives as well.

Labor agrees that this evidence should be heeded, and notes that the Morrison government should have reviewed the National Environment Protection (Used Packaging Materials) Measure 2011 in conjunction with the Product Stewardship Act. As Senator McAllister pointed out, it was the former Labor government that established the product stewardship framework in 2011, which included the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme. This has led to the recycling of 360,000 tonnes of computer and TV e-waste. But since the Liberal-National government were elected they have failed to introduce any additional co-regulatory or mandatory schemes.

Witnesses during the inquiry recognised the government's shortcomings in meeting key targets, including the goal of achieving 70 per cent recycling of packaging and elimination of unnecessary packaging. Currently only 12 per cent of plastic packaging in Australia is recycled, despite it being a major contributor to Australia's waste crisis. This raises the question of whether the targets can be achieved within the current voluntary participation framework.

It is a shame that it took a ban on importations by another country and several other key nations for the government to act on waste and recycling. There is now a serious deficiency in Australia's recycling capacity. There is now less capacity to recycle plastic than there was in 2005. All of those jobs that could have been created through this industry if the government had been willing to act have gone wanting. In Australia we recycle only 12 per cent of plastics—58 per cent of waste in total. The government's own review found that the growing number of industry free riders is the primary factor that leads to a failed voluntary scheme, yet their limiting response is to set up a form of naming and shaming to influence businesses to take responsibility but without any way of effecting that change.

This bill also brings into sharp focus some of the empty words and lack of follow-up by the Prime Minister and the Morrison government. They are always there for the photo op. When it comes to recycling, those photo ops are always quite flamboyant, always very interesting. The media releases go out. The Prime Minister has said he will champion recycling personally, but he still has not delivered on this. Just one week after the election the member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, hit the headlines in Cairns about his so-called war on plastic pollution. It was the major media story after the election. Mr Entsch, who had been returned as the member for Leichhardt, appeared on the front page of the local paper holding up a big bag of waste and saying he was going to declare a war on waste to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

In making those announcements, the Morrison government promised $100 million for the Australian Recycling Investment Fund, to be run by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. That's $100 million that this government promised. This scheme was intended to provide concessional loans of between $10,000 and $5 million to support the manufacturing of products from recycled plastics and paper, to take on the 'war on waste'. But, over 12 months later, not a single cent of this fund has been spent—a promise of $100 million, but nothing has been spent. This is starting to become a very familiar pattern for this government. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has confirmed that zero dollars have been loaned to date. The Morrison government has form when it comes to making carefully packaged announcements on waste and recycling, but, in large part, they're not worth the paper that they are written on.

The Morrison government also promised $20 million for the National Product Stewardship Investment Fund. This money was supposed to provide grants of between $300,000 and $1 million to encourage new and existing product stewardship schemes for batteries, electronic products and plastic oil containers. But in June this year the environment department revealed that the guidelines for this program had not even been finished—a $20 million announcement, and we don't even have guidelines yet, and the money isn't being spent. All these things that have been promised—here we go again.

These two schemes form part of the Morrison government's $167 million recycling investment package. I'm sure that, in their speeches today, senators opposite will be talking about all these numbers, all these schemes and all these programs. Can I tell you, Madam Acting Deputy President Kitching, they don't mean anything if you don't actually deliver them. At least 72 per cent of the package that was announced by the Morrison government has made no difference to Australia's waste crisis 18 months on. Eighteen months on—after the waste crisis was finally acknowledged by this government, and a war on waste was declared by members like Mr Entsch in Leichhardt and by the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison himself—at least 72 per cent of the package has not been delivered. Failures like this undermine the federal government's promise that the $600 million Recycling Modernisation Fund would create 10,000 jobs and divert 10 million tonnes of waste from landfill—again, big numbers, big promises, but it's just not happening. These aren't isolated examples of incompetence. There is example after example of promises not being delivered by this government. Eight months ago, the Morrison government announced a $4 billion Emergency Response Fund to prepare for disaster recovery, and we know that that has not been rolled out. There are countless other examples of announcements made by this government, and recycling and waste is just another area where it has failed to deliver.

Labor supports this bill because there is no time to delay when it comes to banning waste materials and developing our recycling and waste industry. We want to see those jobs in places like regional Queensland. But we remain critical of the Morrison government's record on waste management. If the Morrison government continue to lag behind on targets to cut plastic pollution, this bill will not be as effective as it could be. Under the Liberal-National government, only 12 per cent of plastic packaging is being recycled. Progress on election promises like the $100 million Australian Recycling Investment Fund and the $20 million National Product Stewardship Investment Fund have stalled. The government have promised to spend this money, and they have failed. Time and time again, the Morrison government are failing to roll out what they are promising in a timely manner or in a manner that would make a difference. In many cases, they can't even get program guidelines finalised.

In conclusion, I say to the young people living in Cairns, particularly Molly Steer, the activist of the Straw No More campaign, all the people who have stood next to members like Mr Entsch, all the people who have gone to the plastics summits and stood next to the Prime Minister as he's delivered yet another announcement and a commitment to take on this war on waste: unfortunately, the government are not delivering on their promises to you. They were very happy to stand up next to you, very happy to get a photo with you, very happy to tell you the big numbers they were going to spend and going to deliver, but they're not doing that. They stood next to young people and told them that they were going to take action on recycling and waste, they stood next to workers and said they were going to create jobs in this industry, but they haven't. The numbers don't lie. They are not spending this money and they are not rolling out these packages, and it can only be for one reason—that is, they really are not committed to taking action on recycling, taking action to help our environment or taking action to create jobs.