Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I've just got one word for this notion that somehow this is going to add an extra process or cost to what's already in existence. I'm going to choose this word very carefully: bunkum. Okay? Baloney—okay, two words. We went through this ad nauseam in the inquiry. We are simply taking the existing voluntary process—no changes to that—and saying, 'Keep going, but we're going to mandate your targets.' That's it.

There are no additional processes for business and no additional costs. They admitted that in a Senate inquiry. They're doing this anyway. Senator Birmingham said in his last contribution that APCO, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, are applying to become a voluntary accredited product stewardship scheme under the act. They are going through this anyway. There are no additional costs. Let me tell you what there are: there are penalties if they don't meet their targets in 2025 if the minister at the time chooses to go down that road. But the incentive is there, and it's very clear. The Australian people and the recycling industry expect you to meet your targets this time.

Just a quick reminder: in 2005, the previous iteration of the Packaging Covenant set themselves a five-year target for 2010 of 30 per cent of all plastic materials being recycled—30 per cent of all packaging. As Senator McAllister said in her contribution, in 2020 it's 16 per cent, only about half of their 2010 target. While I accept APCO are a different iteration and a different group now and they're getting on with it, it's not acceptable to the recycling industry.

If we want the jobs and we want the investment, we really need to put aside this fear campaign about extra costs. There won't be any. But there will be consequences if the industry are greenwashing and full of spin and no-one's going to be there to hold them to account. APCO and the packaging industry have never been penalised for their dismal failure—by the way, a dismal failure which APCO themselves were open and honest about in the Senate inquiries that talked about this. APCO's CEO was very clear that they had failed. There was no doubt about that. They said, 'Trust us; we're different.' I'm not going to criticise them at this point, but I can tell you the stakeholders in the recycling industry aren't confident that that is the case. They want the certainty, and they want it tonight.

So I just would say to senators once again: we have the opportunity here to put up a very significant amendment that is actually very simple and very effective and will go a long way to helping fix the waste crisis. It is one of the biggest employers in this country: 60,000 Australians for one industry. That could be a whole lot larger. It's what they want. Let's give it to them. Let's get out of the waste crisis. Let's build a circular economy where everything has a value, everything's set up for the end of its life and everything's designed. Enormous innovation potential could be going into this, with research and development and green jobs. Let's vote on it tonight. I commend these amendments to the Senate.

The CHAIR: The question is that amendments (1) to (11) on sheet 1134, moved by Senator Whish-Wilson, be agreed to.