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

I reiterate that I moved my amendment on sheet 1071 last night. I will speak to it very briefly and concisely. A priority products list is in the legislation; it already exists. It gives a minister the ability to put on notice any waste stream under a product stewardship scheme by putting the waste stream on the product priority list. That gives that waste stream's association members 12 months to get their act together and, at the end of that 12 months, it gives the minister the discretion to come into parliament and name and shame businesses that are deliberately free-riding and not pulling their weight. This amendment isn't doing anything new except to take plastic packaging, which we know is going to be under a voluntary product stewardship scheme if APCO and the government are true to their word, and simply put it immediately onto the product priority list.

Australians are bitterly disappointed that last night the Senate didn't support a mandated product stewardship scheme that gave the packaging industry essentially five years to get their act together and meet their voluntary targets. This is a halfway house; it's not as strong as the Greens, Labor and other people in this chamber would have liked to see, but it at least gives the Australian people and the recycling industry some certainty that plastic packaging is going to fall under the scope of this legislation. At the moment, plastic packaging falls under the NEPM; it's not covered in this bill. We can't even talk about tackling marine plastic or building a better recycling industry in Australia and creating jobs, giving the recycling industry certainty, unless we give them something.

I implore senators to support this amendment. One Nation totally disgraced themselves yesterday. They have some kind of chance here to redress that and at least give the recycling industry in Australia and the Australian people something. I commend this amendment to the chamber.