Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this week, I represented the Minister for the Environment and Energy at a screening in this parliament of A Plastic Ocean, a film which shines a spotlight on one of the globe's great environmental challenges. The film tells us some alarming truths and highlights the magnitude of the damage we have caused to the environment through our failure to properly dispose of plastics. More than eight million tonnes of plastic finds its way into our oceans every year. That's the equivalent of 16 plastic bags for every metre of global coastline, only excluding Antarctica. A plastic bag can take up to 60 years to degrade, and some fishing lines can take 600 years. It is estimated that half the world's seabirds and a third of turtles have plastic in their gut. They live under the constant threat of plastic congestion or entanglement. For us, those plastics enter a food chain which can ultimately end on our plates.

The scale of the problem was dramatically highlighted in A Plastic Ocean. It was genuinely shocking and confronting to see magnificent albatrosses and shearers in the Pacific—our own front yard—being dissected following their deaths from plastic consumption. In some cases, their stomachs were hardened and engorged from plastic pieces they had ingested. Scientists in the film were literally scooping a tangle of hard plastic from the stomach cavities. The film, produced by Jo Ruxton and her team, was described by David Attenborough as one of the most important ever made.

Australia is uniquely placed to lead on these issues. The largest marine polluters are nations in our own region—China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. We must use regional and international fora to demand that they take action. We must also lead by example. Reducing the impact of waste is the subject of considerable effort by the Turnbull government and the states, where primary responsibility for waste management often lies. Federally, the government is working, for example, to protect and mitigate damage through the Threat abatement plan for the impacts of marine debris on vertebrate marine life. At the state level, we are seeing many jurisdictions implementing container deposit legislation. I am pleased New South Wales is implementing a scheme at the moment. Many of us grew up making extra pocket money by collecting cans. We know that CDL schemes can considerably increase the flow of plastics and bottles to recycling.

Many states have also implemented bans on single-use plastic bags. We should applaud the efforts of retailers—Woolworths, Coles and ALDI—who have announced the phase-out of single-use plastic bags. I hope all states will, however, go further. It's time a ban on single-use bags was implemented in New South Wales, as it has been in many other states. We as individuals can take action by reducing our own use of plastics or by recycling. We owe it to future generations to ensure that we are acting now to tackle this major environmental problem.

House adjourned at 17 : 00