David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

Yes, he'll fly Katy Perry in and then invite the political class from One Nation and the coalition and Labor to a Katy Perry concert, and say, 'Isn't this lovely? Aren't we all great friends? Would you mind if I just kept polluting the world?' 'Yes, sure. No worries. Katy sang beautifully, though.' That's how the political class operates in this country. You don't care about polluting our food and polluting our water. You don't care about it, because you care about the money that can flow and the influence that can flow from Pratt and his packaging empire, and you want to keep your donors in the fossil fuel industries and their billionaire owners happy.

That is why we're not progressing this bill—not for the reasons that were given by the usual suspects from industry. It's not for the reasons that are given by the majority in this report. Here's something: sent out to do the government's dirty work is Cameron Hutchison, the branch head of the circular economy division of the department. I think it's 'circular' insofar as they produce circulars and just share them amongst the department and they make sure that never has any kind of reference to actually fixing the world! He said:

The department is currently developing advice for government on packaging reform.

Isn't that comforting? They're currently developing advice! Did I mention that this has been going on for decades? Anyhow, apparently the department is 'currently developing advice for government on packaging reform'. He said:

This work has been informed by extensive consultation with industry, governments, non-government organisations and the community, and reflects strong stakeholder interest in nationally consistent arrangements. The department is also undertaking a statutory review of the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020. The review report is anticipated to be delivered to the minister shortly and will subsequently be tabled in parliament.

… implementation of any national scheme would involve detailed design work, consultation with industry and jurisdictions, development of supporting rules and guidance, and establishment of administrative arrangements.

That kind of word salad, which is everything other than action, everything other than legislation, everything other than binding obligations, is the reason why people are losing faith in government. People see a little baby shearwater riddled with plastics and get told that 'implementation of any national scheme would involve detailed design work, consultation'—blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you wanted a summary of the Albanese government's action on dealing with plastics, dealing with pollution, I reckon 'blah, blah, blah, blah' would be about the neatest summary I could think of, as the Albanese response. And that's what the majority did in this report.

In the committee review—you only have to read this stuff to kind of lose faith in humanity—the majority report says: 'The committee considers'—