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

Thank you. It doesn't matter what waste stream we're talking about. It could be solar panels in the future. It could be wind turbines, as Senator Roberts raised in his fantastic contribution. It doesn't matter what kind of product stewardship scheme we're talking about, the centre of excellence, I do believe from what I've heard from speaking to very informed and experienced stakeholders, is a good initiative, and I applaud the government for that. However, the advisory group is independent. It has key and eminent stakeholders. And, while this Senate removed the advisory group from the Product Stewardship Act as part of this government's war on green and red tape, I stood up in the Senate chamber—in fact, it was two Christmases ago, I remember, exactly this week, the night of our Christmas party—and I argued: 'We shouldn't remove this advisory group. They play a very important role in working with government and making sure that product stewardship schemes are independently assessed and that they have that kind of external advice which is important to the department.' So I commend these amendments to the Senate.