Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum.

Leave granted.

I table the explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

The Plastic Bag Levy (Assessment and Collection) Bill 2010 was first introduced in to the Senate by the Australian Greens in 2002.

The bill would provide for the collection of a levy of 25 cents on plastic bags at the retail point of sale. The intention is that the levy would be paid into a national environment fund. The amount charged will be indicated on till receipts.

The levy will not apply in limited exempted cases, for example on baked goods, non-packaged fruit and vegetables or fresh meat and fish. It will not apply to paper bags or other similar non-synthetic packaging, but other `biodegradable’ bags are not exempted.

The funds collected by the levy could support a national environment fund, administered by the Minister for the Environment, to be used to minimise the impact of, and for education about, environmentally hazardous waste in Australia.

However, the purpose of the levy is not to collect funds but to change customer behaviour and reduce the environmental impact of the billions of plastic bags disseminated each year in our nation – around 6.9 billion per year.

Plastic bags have a costly impact on Australia’s environment—not least the living marine ecosystem. Whales, dolphins and fish die from plastic ingested in mistake for squid or jellyfish.

Similar levies elsewhere have been notably successful. A levy of approximately 27 cents per plastic bag, imposed by regulation in Ireland in March 2002, led to a 90 percent reduction in plastic bag usage within 5 months, with much popular approval.

Bans or levies on plastic bags have also succeeded in Germany, Denmark, Italy, South Africa, Taiwan, and a number of US cities.  In 2009, South Australia moved to ban light weight plastic bags expecting 400 million less plastic bags in South Australia as a result.

In Australia, one opinion poll, in 2002, put support for a plastic bag levy at 79 percent.  Since 2002 public opinion has continued to grow for action on limiting plastic bag use.

I commend the bill to the Senate.

I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.