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

[by video link] It has been nearly 10 years since I gave my first senator's statement in this chamber. The most important thing I talked about that day was one of the key reasons I came into parliament, which was to tackle what I think is one of the largest pollution issues on the planet—plastic in our oceans. Throughout the last 10 years, we've made great progress right around the country at a state level and at a federal level. I was actually the first person, according to Hansard, to speak in the Senate about plastic pollution, which is quite extraordinary when you think about what a big issue it is now. Unfortunately, we've still got a long way to go. It is almost exactly a year ago today that this chamber had a colossal debate about fixing the waste crisis, when the government brought their waste reduction bill to the Senate. The Greens proposed two significant amendments to that waste reduction bill, which the government claimed was the biggest reform to waste policy in this country in a generation.

The Greens amendments were based on two very big Senate inquiries, each of which ran for about 18 months. The first one was to ban single-use plastics, and the second one was to mandate packaging targets for the big packaging companies around the country. Under the Australian Packaging Covenant over many, many years in its various forms, voluntary targets were set and, of course, were never met. In fact, the Packaging Covenant failed miserably to increase recycling rates, compostability or recycling content—a number of key things that we need if we are to address the waste crisis.

The Greens worked with environmental groups, social groups and a whole range of other stakeholders around the country. We had nearly two million Australians lobbying their local MPs last year to support the Greens amendments in this chamber. It was a very significant campaign to actually take some solid steps to fix the waste crisis in this country. Our message was very clear. We said: 'The time for voluntary targets for big packaging companies is over. This is a significant opportunity to mandate the kinds of recycling targets that we want to see if we're actually going to fix the waste crisis in this country.'

We'd had a short, sharp Senate inquiry into a Greens bill prior to that, which our amendments were based on. We received evidence from the Packaging Covenant Organisation, from companies like the big retailers, like Woolworths, and from the Australian Food and Grocery Council that they were confident that they would meet their 2025 targets and that they didn't need mandatory targets. I thought we had the Senate's support to amend the government's legislation and send it back to the House, but, as they so often do, One Nation backflipped at the last minute. It was a tied vote, and our amendments went down.

One year later, I could say, 'I told you so.' Just in the last week we've received a report from APCO, entitled APCO Collective Impact Report, which revealed their progress towards their 2025 targets. I was hoping to talk with APCO this morning before this speech, but for technical reasons I was unable to. I plan to speak to them in the next few days. What is very clear is that APCO is struggling to meet its 2025 targets under the current voluntary arrangements. APCO is part of a collective approach to managing packaging through the covenant. These 2025 targets were set some time ago. This 2021 report has highlighted a lack of progress in some very significant areas and some very significant challenges. APCO themselves clearly state:

There are still significant gaps to achieve the 2025 Targets for recovery and recycled content.

…   …   …

The current trajectory indicates that without further intervention, not all of the 2025 Targets are achievable by 31 December 2025.

We're not clear what that further intervention actually is.

Some of the specific gaps they identified in their 2025 targets include: uncertainties about the compatibility of packaging items with current and future recovery systems; recyclable materials that are lost in the sorting system due to size or format type; loss of recyclable materials due to poor source separation by households and businesses; inconsistent state definitions, policies and product scope undermining investment confidence; and capital costs of new processing equipment when changing materials. Part of the government's overall approach to their waste reduction bill was to introduce a number of funding platforms to try to solve these problems, but clearly progress hasn't been made, which is very disappointing.

APCO do put this down to a rise in consumption during COVID in 2019-20, especially with takeaway containers; however, while they don't explicitly obviously call for a mandatory program in the future—because remember APCO and others lobbied very hard not to get mandatory schemes put in place—they have raised the prospect of limited mandatory targets if industry fails to achieve targets through voluntary commitments.

The Boomerang Alliance, who I've worked with over many years—and I know you have too, Acting Deputy President Faruqi—represent over 50 community organisations around the country. They issued a very strong statement. Jeff Angel wrote:

The report is a shocking indictment of the voluntary nature of the targets which are to be met by 2025 and reinforces our call for mandatory targets. This is the only rational response to the revelations that recovery of plastic packaging will miss the 70% goal by a large amount; and recycled content of plastic packaging is 3%, way below the 20% target—

which is what these companies had set themselves.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society also issued a statement. They said:

The evidence is clear, voluntary targets are not working. Without real incentives and clear penalties, it is too easy for companies to put this in the too hard basket.

APCO were a little more upbeat, as you would expect. They said:

The core message of this report is clear—if we are going to achieve the 2025 National Packaging Targets, we all need to do more and the time to act is now. We have seen fantastic progress so far towards the Targets, but we must accelerate our efforts if we are to be successful by 2025.

I found out at the last Senate estimates that APCO have applied to be voluntary product stewardship scheme accredited under the new act. Once they become accredited—and I'm hoping to follow up that progress with them and with the department—the minister, which in this case is Minister Evans, can put them on a priority product list if they're not achieving their voluntary targets. Once they have been on that priority list the minister can then legally implement mandatory product stewardship schemes to make sure that they do meet their targets and, if they don't, they will face severe penalties.

There has been over 20 years of collective failure under this plastic-packaging covenant. Some of the biggest companies and corporations on the planet that make very significant profits have failed to come anywhere near their promises for recycling. This is a significant matter of public interest. Only the parliament can solve this problem. Every time I talk to people about any environmental problem I say to them, 'First and foremost it's a political problem,' because only parliaments can actually fix these systemic issues.

We have a lot of Australians out there trying to do the right thing and putting all sorts of packaging in their kerbside bins at home. We have states now rolling out container deposit schemes—and I'm very optimistic that my home state of Tasmania will have a container deposit scheme legislated by the end of this week, if state Labor stop playing political games with it and get behind the community and the environment. We're also seeing bans on single-use plastics at a state level. A lot of this leadership has come from this Senate and from the Greens in the Senate working with community over the recent decades. I'm very proud of what we've achieved so far, but we can't fall at this final hurdle. Without mandatory product stewardship schemes that hold big packaging companies to account—especially those packaging companies that are free riders, or other companies that are doing the right thing within the covenant—without strong incentives from government, without strong regulation and penalties we will never fix the waste crisis in this country. I think that would be letting down the millions of Australians who deeply care about this issue. We have got a long way to go. The Greens will be bringing legislation before this parliament to fix the crisis if the minister won't do this.