Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make some comments on the Environment Protection (Beverage Container Deposit and Recovery Scheme) Bill 2010. Again, I say that it is really important that this issue, which has been on the agenda for a considerable period of time, is given the opportunity for open discussion in this place. I am not quite sure whether Senator Bob Brown will be speaking as fulsomely on this bill as on the previous bill, but nonetheless the principle of having the opportunity for us to have the discussion must be supported and must be, in many ways, rewarded.

As with the previous bill, this bill was actually given the opportunity to be discussed by a Senate committee in 2009. At that time the Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee did have a series of public hearings around the process. The interest of the public in the area was evidenced by the number of people who provided submissions and who actually came up for the public hearings. There continues to be an issue in that there needs to be awareness of the issue to which the bill relates. As I said in relation to the previous bill, there must be full engagement of all those people who are stakeholders in the process—and, in the end, through a cooperative arrangement, with an understanding that the end result must be to the benefit of all Australians, we will be able to reach an outcome.

In that sense, I think the legislation we have in front of us actually cuts through, to an extent, and cuts off the kind of involvement that we are seeing taking place in industry and also across the states—because the issues around this bill actually need the full engagement of all state governments, and the ministers at that level, to commit to having a process that will work, that will be effectively costed and that will come up with an arrangement in which people can have confidence and through which the knowledge and the clarity of the process can be shared.

The bill seeks to establish a government run—and, in this sense, a Commonwealth government run—container deposit scheme that will collect a deposit from importers and producers of beverage containers under four litres. I do not actually have the product in front of me, Mr Acting Deputy President, to show you what up to a four-litre container means, but people in the area know, because they are the ones who are making the purchases on a regular basis.

The bill provides for a full refund to a consumer when containers are returned to the collection point. The actual amount of the environmental deposit could be varied by regulation, so it follows the standard process in this chamber. As we see regularly in Commonwealth legislation, it will start at a certain amount and can then be increased by regulation through the parliamentary process.

According to the bill we have, the scheme will be implemented and run by a Commonwealth department. I do not think Senator Ludlam has actually created a name for the new Commonwealth department, but the process would be run by a Commonwealth department.