Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in favour of the Environment Protection (Beverage Container Deposit and Recovery Scheme) Bill 2010 put forward by Senator Ludlam on behalf of the Greens. I thank the government and the opposition for their contributions. Of course, everyone thinks this is a great idea. This is a wonderful idea. Why wouldn’t we want to put in place a scheme that would allow us to recycle things that are recyclable? In South Australia we have had a successful scheme in place for 30 years. I say this as a South Australian senator. Senator Birmingham spoke about the positive contribution that this scheme has made by ensuring that South Australia has a lower litter rate than it otherwise would and the positive contribution that this type of scheme makes to the community. I remember being woken up several times over the years early on a Saturday morning by kids knocking on the door asking if we had any cans or bottles that they could cash in to put the money towards their community organisation. There are a variety of different reasons why this scheme is positive. It is positive for the environment and for the community. A government which shows some leadership and makes this happen will show that it takes a long-term and responsible view of the types of products that are out there being consumed.

In the time it took Senator Birmingham to give his speech, 62½ thousand beverage containers were thrown out. Over one year, nine million recyclable containers are put into landfill or simply thrown away as litter. The scheme as proposed under this piece of legislation would ensure that we deal with that litter. The scheme would also include a revenue-positive aspect, producing $90 million annually in surplus which could go directly into community based organisations to promote the necessity of preserving our environment, keeping our communities clean and ensuring that things are not simply thrown onto the kerb.

Both the government and the opposition spoke about this being a great idea. We need to move on this. We need to do things. Yes, it was a promise from the government back in 2007, but what have we seen happen since then? Not much. We have seen the South Australian scheme continuing along very well. We have seen the Northern Territory adopt a similar scheme. I must congratulate the Northern Territory government for having a mature, bipartisan approach and ensuring that legislation similar to that in South Australia is now being initiated in the Northern Territory. That is a wonderful thing to see. But at the federal level, despite the promises from the government in 2007, we have seen very, very little action. ‘We sent it off to COAG and we’re now sending it off to a ministerial council.’ We all know that, if there is one issue that you know you need to talk about but you do not really want to act on, you send it off to COAG, otherwise known as the black hole of government bureaucracy.

Let us face it: if we think this is a good idea, we need to get on and do it. Thankfully there are states that are seriously considering the need to take further action and to move on this. But really this is something on which we should be seeing some leadership from our federal government. This bill puts on the table the opportunity for all sides of parliament to say: ‘You know what? This should not be a very controversial issue.’ This is about recycling cans and bottles. It is about ensuring that we clean up Australia not just once a year but every day. It is about ensuring that there is a process by which people can easily participate, whether they live in South Australia, the Northern Territory, the ACT, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, WA or Tasmania. It is about ensuring that, as a country, we believe that picking up after ourselves and making it easy for people to do that is not that bad an idea—as both the government and the opposition agree. It is just too hard to get there, it seems.

We really need to see some leadership at a federal level. A lot of effort is put into programs like Clean Up Australia Day. When we look at the statistics of the types of things that are collected just on that one day, beverage containers make up the overwhelming bulk. Sixty per cent of glass items, 47 per cent of metal items and 33 per cent of plastic items are beverage containers.

I would like this parliament to seriously consider this; it should not be a hard issue. This legislation puts in place a revenue-positive scheme. Ninety million dollars annually would be collected through this scheme that could be put directly back into our local communities. We would be engaging with the public. We would be engaging with local governments. We would be engaging with community groups. We would be working with the states. And we would be showing under that leadership umbrella of the federal government that, yes, we care about what Australia looks like, we care about our environment and we care about taking responsibility for the things that are left behind. That is exactly what this legislation is about. Everyone wants to talk about it; let us get on and do it with a revenue-positive scheme such as that outlined in Senator Ludlam’s bill on behalf of the Greens. What a good way forward. Let us not see the excuses of things just going off to the black hole of COAG; let us actually take some leadership and get something done.