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

Does Donald Trump have a plastic spoon in his brain? As it turns out, very possibly. We know he's been talking a lot about plastic straws lately, so what gives? Donald Trump has said he will reverse Joe Biden's plan for a phase-out of plastic straws—the orange oracle tweeted, 'Back to plastic!'

Now, it might be tempting to dismiss this as just another pathetic culture war, but it's a lot more than that. This statement was a public endorsement of the polluting plastic petrochemical industry and of business as usual, and what's good for this industry is good for the dirty fossil fuel industry, which provides up to eight million barrels of oil per annum to make plastic products. I've been fighting to get rid of plastic straws and other dangerous plastic packaging for nearly 20 years. It's mind bending how much we are now discovering about the increasing harm plastics are doing, especially to human health—maybe Donald Trump should be paying attention.

New research out of New Mexico has found that the average concentration of plastic in postmortem brains increased by about 50 per cent between 2016 and 2024. The average brain could be holding as much as 0.48 per cent of its weight in plastics, which is the equivalent of an entire plastic spoon. The brain tends to have higher concentrations of microplastics than any other part of the body does. We know the health impacts of microplastics are being tied to infertility, blocked ducts, scratched tissue, cardiovascular issues and cancers. I would like to do a quick shout-out to the Minderoo Foundation, over in Western Australia, for all of their fantastic work on human health and plastics.

And it's not just the US where this is an issue. Australia has done very little to phase out dangerous single-use plastics and plastic packaging. This is something we all need to get on with. No-one wants a plastic spoon in the brain, not even Donald Trump. (Time expired)