Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It was only the other weekend that I was sitting on Bondi Beach on a towel with my son and, in just a few minutes, picked up a handful of small pieces of plastic. There were bits of old bottles, a bit of a used shopping bag and a used cigarette butt, among many. Where once you could only find sand and rocks, now you frequently find plastic waste. Unfortunately, this is a familiar story for people up and down the coast. Australians consume more single-use plastic per person than any country in the world , except Singapore. I find that a completely shocking statistic. Every year, despite millions of households making their best efforts to recycle, around 145,000 square metric tonnes of this plastic leaks into our environment. This is causing a tidal wave of plastic pollution, and the damage to our natural environment is severe.

Our approach to dealing with this plastic is wholly inadequate. Our national packaging targets, which are so important for reducing the production of plastic in the first place, are not binding. As a result, they are simply not working. Under the voluntary scheme, Australian plastic consumption has increased while recovery rates have stagnated. There has been much positive talk about improving recycling but a complete lack of action. The most recent data available shows that only 16 per cent of plastic packaging is recycled or composted, some way off the target of 70 per cent by 2025. Producers must be compelled to do more. We also have a National Plastics Plan, which has only been implemented in an ad hoc manner, and a patchwork quilt of measures across different states and territories which are inconsistent and inadequate. We don't even have a common regulatory definition of the term 'plastic'. Even when we think we have clarity on what to do with our plastic waste, the REDcycle affair shows that we lack the private sector capacity for a truly circular economy. REDcycle was supposed to collect and reprocess only a small fraction of the total soft plastic waste generated in Australia, but that scheme was unable to do even that. it shows that the market for recycling plastic is weak and that far too much waste is being generated in the first place.

This is an issue that really concerns my community, so last week I spoke at the Ocean Plastic Forum in Bondi Beach, an event for scientists, businesses, activists, industry and the community. There were incredible businesses and communities represented in that group, including Samsara and ULUU. Samsara is a business which was born of research done at ANU and CSIRO. They are developing enzymes that attack complex plastics and revert them to original building blocks to make virgin plastic. This is world-beating technology coming out of Australia. Similarly, ULUU creates a natural polymer using saltwater microbes that can effectively be used like a plastic. These companies are leading the world, but both of them are saying that poor government policy is hobbling the adoption of this world-leading technology. The message they had for government was loud and clear: enough is enough; the time for decisive action is now. We need to move past a focus on incremental improvements to anaemic recycle rates and adopt a true circular economy ambition. There must be a shift in mindset, and it must be a shift in gears.

There are four key elements that the community is asking for. First, we need mandatory packaging targets for the industry that create much stronger incentives for much more ambitious action, so that businesses like Samsara and ULUU can really thrive and bring to bear this world-beating technology. Second, we need to get on with implementing existing initiatives, starting with nearly 40 action areas identified in the 2021 National Plastics Plan, few of which have seen any meaningful progress. Third, we need federal leadership to strengthen, coordinate and harmonise efforts across the states and territories so that we have a consolidated and consistent approach across the country. That will make it easier for businesses to do the right thing, if our country can get together and be clear on what those standards are. Fourth, we need to empower our communities and our businesses and support local action. That plastic forum I went to last week was such an inspiring indication of the community support for action, and the innovation coming out of our communities and our businesses to tackle this incredibly important issue. These organisations are working on the front line and are often best placed to support the development of meaningful solutions.

The community backs strong action on plastic waste. Now is the time for government to listen. Let's purge plastic pollution for good.

See this speech in context