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

Could I reiterate very briefly a few of my comments from the second reading debate about this idea of small government and removing red tape and green tape? It's as though, somehow, by raising a small amount of money, we're going to get a benefit for the Australian taxpayer when what we're actually removing plays a critical role in preventing further costs to the Australian taxpayer and to the Australian community down the track—like having in place a holistic approach to waste management in this country.

I'm very concerned that this came from the Commission of Audit and it goes all the way back to the 2013 budget—the zombie budget, the buster budget. I think Senator Bernardi rightly pointed out earlier this afternoon that this is kind of the remnants, the last gasp of the government being seen to be doing something about removing some red and green tape in this country. It's a real shame that they've chosen to target a couple of areas that I'm very passionate about and that I believe are critically important, especially right now when this country has a recycling crisis on its hands. It's not just kerb-side recycling for bottles and cans and cardboard and other products; it's tyres, which are supposed to be covered by product stewardship schemes, and very soon it's going to emerge in photovoltaics. As we start seeing generations of solar panels being phased out, no-one's got any idea on what we're going to do with these kinds of products.

A product stewardship scheme is, intuitively, a really good idea. My question to the minister is about this: the legislation before us is removing the advisory groups of the product stewardship scheme. I'll get to some other points in a minute about ASADA and CAMAC, but on the product stewardship scheme the legislation before us is removing the advisory groups. I understand those advisory groups have been defunct now, essentially, for a couple of years, since the 2014 legislation was put before the Senate. There is currently a review underway into the Product Stewardship Act itself. That review, I understand—and please tell me if this is correct—is due to be released sometime this year in 2018. Could you please clarify that for me?