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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

Just before we broke for Christmas last year, in the very last week, the government brought forward legislation called the Recycling and Waste Reduction Bill. It was heralded as being the biggest reform to the waste and recycling sector in a decade. The Greens put up two significant amendments to that bill, which were backed in by millions of Australians, to ban problematic single-use plastics and to set binding targets for industry in packaging to meet by 2025. The packaging targets under the Australian Packaging Covenant are voluntary, and, as was pointed out in this place by many speakers, the Packaging Covenant in its previous iterations had never met these targets. They were happy to say to the committee in evidence that they believed they would meet their 2025 targets, so we wanted to mandate those targets in here. Sadly the Senate was tied. One Nation, as they often do, flipped at the last minute, and we weren't able to amend that bill and send it back to the other place.

I just want to highlight that, while I was pleased that problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics have been added to the minister's priority list, this is still a voluntary agreement. The architecture, the framework, that we're dealing with here is that the minister is essentially giving notice that this is a priority packaging list that they would like to see dealt with by the industry. They would like to see, for example, in this case, if you look at the actions recommended, a nationally coordinated industry phase-out in place by June-December 2022 for the listed problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics, through elimination, redesign, replacement and innovation. I won't go through them in detail, but there is polystyrene; EPS loose packaging; packaging that is not certified compostable, including landfill, degradable or other claimed degradable plastics; EPS consumer food and beverage service containers; and polyvinyl chloride, PVC. This is a great start if this is a genuine attempt, in collaboration with the packaging industry, to phase out these single-use plastics.

The thing about these problematic plastics is that no-one wants them. The recycling industry don't want them because they can't do anything with them and they contaminate waste streams and make things inefficient and uneconomic. The industry don't necessarily want to produce them. They're good for nothing, really. We don't need them. So it would be great to see them phased out.

Acting Deputy President Sterle, your state is one of the many states that have done the right thing and introduced state based laws to phase out single-use plastics. Sadly, my state, Tasmania—the so-called clean, green and clever state—hasn't done that, but other states have. South Australia is very advanced in this. Queensland is well underway. New South Wales is looking at phasing out certain single-use plastics. That's a good start. It may well be that the states beat the Commonwealth to this game. I have just a little bit of cynicism. I'm trying to be very optimistic and positive here. This has appeared after the states have done a lot of the groundwork, but, nevertheless, it is good to see that the federal government is elevating the priority of phasing out single-use plastics. They are, without a doubt, the biggest scourge in our oceans. These kinds of products are what we find when we clean beaches and what we find in our rivers and streams. They very quickly break down into microplastics, which we're finding all through the ocean, including in seafood.

It doesn't matter what your political colour, what age or your demographic is, everyone wants to get rid of this rubbish. It's not doing anyone any good, and we can do better. There are better alternatives out there. That's more jobs in research and development to produce properly biodegradable and compostable products. They might be a little bit more expensive at the moment, but once they're mass-produced they'll be a lot cheaper. I always say to Australians, try to refuse plastics in the first place and try to reuse them as much as you can before you buy any of these kinds of things.

Congratulations to the government for elevating the removal of some single-use plastics. There are many others we deem necessary to remove that aren't on this list, especially the ones we find in the oceans, but this is a good start. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.