Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Labor supports these amendments. In reflecting on the significance of the proposal before us, it just so happens that I've had a long, professional involvement with the waste and recycling sector. Quite a few years ago, I had the good fortune to work for the New South Wales EPA, where there were some very creative and thoughtful policymakers. It has been a long-held objective to actually get packaging products working in the circular economy. That has been on the agenda for many, many years. It's a decadal project. Of course, when Labor is in government, it's a project that we are keen to pursue.

We have a very strong record on effective reform in the product stewardship space. In government, we delivered the Product Stewardship Act, and these bills continue that trajectory. Labor established the first co-regulatory scheme for computers and televisions, which is a scheme that remains very successful today. (Quorum formed)

I was speaking about Labor's support for the Greens amendments before I was interrupted by a senator who called attention to the state of the chamber. I was saying that we have concerns about the lack of progress being made under the voluntary plastic packaging targets for 2025. We agree that the government's overwhelmingly, or perhaps underwhelmingly, hands-off, voluntary approach has not been effective to date. Only 16 per cent of plastic packaging used in Australia is then recycled. The government has pledged a rate of 70 per cent by 2025. How can we possibly be satisfied that this will happen if we don't change the regulatory framework that has so far and for so long allowed the recycling rates of plastics to remain appallingly low?

So, in line with the views of the waste and recycling industry, we support a stronger approach, one that would see improved recycling outcomes for packaging by ensuring that the agreed Australian Packaging Covenant targets, which are already in the National Waste Policy Action Plan, have a mechanism in place through which they can be achieved.

It's worth noting, as I did in the second reading debate, that the forthcoming ban on the export of plastic waste will not naturally result in a serious lift in recycling and remanufacturing unless there is greater producer responsibility with respect to design for recycling and reuse, and a commitment to the incorporation of recycled content, and that is what the scheme would achieve. This is critical to realising not only the environmental outcomes that we're looking for but also the new jobs and the economic activity that would come through establishing a proper recycling industry.