Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking to the Recycling and Waste Reduction Bill 2020 and related bills, this legislative monument to this government's lack of ambition, I wouldn't be able to do justice to this contribution without first acknowledging my esteemed colleague Senator Whish-Wilson, the good senator from Tasmania, or, as he's known by those who follow him on Instagram and Twitter, the 'Senator Surfer' himself. Pete's a good mate of mine. We've worked together for a good many years now, and I have to say in all seriousness that I don't think there is anybody who quite matches his passion for the oceans, his passion for our precious places and his desire to see, particularly, our rivers and oceans freed of the scourge of plastics that so choke them all around the planet. We know that the issue of plastics, including microplastics, in our oceans is of great urgency, both as something that is affecting our precious places and their livability for the countless creatures that call them home and because the presence of plastic in our food chains is leading to negative health impacts for those in our communities. We know that if we don't take action here in Australia, in the Asia-Pacific and, indeed, globally then our oceans will become choked and our precious places will become polluted with plastic. Indeed, global consumption of plastic is on track to triple by 2040.

Eighty per cent of marine debris is plastic and 40 per cent of plastic is single use, with an average lifespan of just 12 minutes. It's an absolute disgrace. It is estimated that at least eight million tonnes of plastic makes its way into our oceans every year, totalling 80 per cent of marine debris. Numerous studies have shown that the majority of plastic pollution found on Australian beaches is produced and consumed locally. We are polluting our own blue backyard. We are only recycling 16 per cent of plastic packaging as of this current moment. So what we have is a global challenge of significant proportion, one which is being, I think it is fair to say, disproportionately contributed to by the Asia-Pacific region. And we have a situation where Australia, as a member of that region, is not only failing to do its part; it is currently disproportionately contributing to the problem. In the face of this global and regional challenge we have this piece of legislation, much vaunted by the Prime Minister and often deployed, in my opinion, as a distraction from the great, howling, corporately funded void. Where more substantive environmental and climate based policy should be we have this legislation around which a big game is talked, around which the Prime Minister likes to draw great attention.

There are some quite fine aspirations and intentions lying behind certain aspects of this bill. It is necessary that we ban the exportation of our waste overseas, and this is the first time that legislation in relation to a national approach to waste has come before the parliament in a decade. But it is very important not to be fooled by the hype and the bluster; this is a massive missed opportunity, and if passed in its current form that missed opportunity will only increase.

If the government was serious about recycling and waste reduction, we would have seen a lot more in this bill, particularly in relation to plastics. Critically, if we were serious about both addressing this problem and doing so in a way that is socially just, putting the responsibility of that addressing fairly and squarely on those who generated it and caused this crisis most, we would see aspects within this legislation that would make corporations responsible for their contribution to this massive problem, to the work and the vandalism environmentally that they have done to our oceans and to our broader natural environment. We see none of these aspects in this legislation.

This legislation seeks to ban the national export of waste while putting in place none of the measures needed to create and support a national recycling industry here in Australia—a national recycling industry which would create thousands upon thousands of good jobs. This is a wasted opportunity that is being wasted on behest of massive corporations that are donors to the Liberal Party—shock, horror, aghast; who'd have thunk it! But it is really worth zeroing back in on the proposition at the heart of this legislation, that being that you can ban the export of these types of waste in the absence of the setting up of an effective national structure to then manage that waste—something which is particularly egregious given that those that understand recycling and waste management have been desperately lobbying the government. Senator Whish-Wilson has informed me on many occasions of the effort and work done by the industry to attempt to get the government to the table ahead of what was a very easily foreseeable decision on behalf of countries like China to stop taking our waste. But the government refused to listen, refused to engage, and now, even today, presents a piece of legislation which doesn't really do the job.

After reaching for a way to clearly explain what is fundamentally proposed in this bill, I ask people to imagine how they would feel and what their view would be should they have complained for a decade or more about having a leaking sewer system in their house and if, after 10 years, a plumber finally comes out to their place and says: 'Oh, you've got a pretty busted pipe there. The solution, in my view, is just to shut off your access to water, shut off your access to the toilet and shit on the floor.' Now, that would not be something that folks would accept, and yet that is the proposition at the heart of this legislation—that we stop sending this stuff overseas—