Tuesday, 22 February 2022

Beach litter

Mr BRAYNE (Nepean) (19:17): (6223) My adjournment is for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, and the action I seek is for the minister to update my community on what the Victorian government is doing to address litter on our state’s beaches. It is an apt time to talk about caring for our coasts as I recently attended the McCrae Seaside Scavenge. This is a wonderful local event that I have been able to attend every year since being elected in 2018. Though previously held at Rye, this year it was held at McCrae. The Seaside Scavenge involves the local community coming together to clean up our beaches and surrounding areas while enjoying market stalls, live music and family fun. At the end of collecting rubbish, for every 10 pieces of litter that people collected and sorted, one trash token was earned for usage at any of the pop-up markets, which contained many preloved goods.

As there were already many people around the foreshore area picking up litter, I instead walked to the McCrae entrance to the freeway, which predictably was full of rubbish. People throwing their beer bottles or KFC packets out the window is not an irregular occurrence at this particular entrance to the freeway, and so I filled up a big bag in 10 minutes. People’s disregard for our peninsula by littering is on particular show at this entrance, and I am working with the Department of Transport and council on what we can do to better catch people when leaving the peninsula.

I would like to thank all the organisers and volunteers who made this event possible. It was, however, disappointing to see the federal candidate for Flinders, Zoe McKenzie, park her campaign car, branded with the Liberal Party logo, on the side of the road at the front of the event, leave the event, then return hours later without collecting any rubbish. This event is simply not supposed to be that type of event. It was hugely disappointing to see this, but I guess it is election season. There is, however, always more work to be done to keep our coast clean, and I look forward to updating my community with the minister’s response on what the government is doing to keep litter off our beaches. As for me, I look forward to returning to the Seaside Scavenge next year.