Container deposit scheme
Dr READ (Brunswick) (14:24): My question is to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. In 1977 South Australia set up the first container refund scheme, the Northern Territory followed in 2012, New South Wales in 2017, the ACT and Queensland in 2018, Western Australia the next year and Tasmania by 2022. Victoria is the only state that has not committed to a container refund scheme. Under the New South Wales scheme, 2 billion bottles and cans were returned in 19 months, litter from drink containers has dropped by 57 per cent, schools and sporting groups have benefited and it has changed people’s thinking and behaviour towards litter. It generates a clean and valuable stream of waste that can be recycled. The evidence is in: container refund schemes work. What is the minister’s justification for blocking a national approach to this issue?
Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (14:25): I thank the member for Brunswick for his question. I absolutely deny this notion that somehow I am blocking reform at a national level; it is absolutely not the case at all. We are absolutely committed to a national agenda when it comes to reform in the recycling sector, and the Premier absolutely showed that national leadership, together with other colleagues and with the Prime Minister, at COAG on Friday. We are absolutely committed to this agenda.
We have been calling for national leadership now for a long time, and we are actually very pleased that the commonwealth government has now articulated a commitment to working together. Similarly, our approach has been to co-opt local governments towards that effort too, and that is exactly what we have done today. We have reached a significant point to actually have a properly integrated response coordinated through a national effort for us to do more and better in terms of our recycling. There are many options that are available to deal with what is a very complex issue. Of course there is no silver bullet that can fix everything, but a whole range of issues and options are available to government which we are all considering absolutely, right from the point of reducing the waste that is created, repurposing it, making sure that we can actually separate out what can be often at a national level a very contaminated stream of recycled materials. We know that.
That is why doing things in a methodical way that deals with a whole chain of points, right across the whole issue, ranging from reducing waste to repurposing it, remanufacturing it and re-using it, is an essential component of our circular economy policy, which we will be releasing in draft form in the coming weeks. We will be finalising the full policy by the end of the year with actions attached.
Dr Read: On a point of order, Speaker, I just wonder if you could remind the minister that I did ask about a container deposit scheme.
The SPEAKER: Order! I think the member’s point of order was around relevance, but the minister is being relevant to the question asked. The minister has concluded her answer.
Dr READ (Brunswick) (14:28): Soon bottles and cans will have labels on them saying ‘10 per cent refund available at point of purchase’—except in Victoria. The Parliamentary Budget Office estimated the cost of introducing a refund for container scheme would be around $9 million over four years and that it would raise an estimated $250 million over the same period, largely from uncollected deposits. This revenue could establish much-needed local recycling facilities. Given your recent commitment to ban exports of recycling, isn’t this revenue needed to help set up our recycling industry here in Victoria, or will you finally use the Sustainability Fund for this?
Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (14:28): I thank the member for the supplementary question. There are many, many designs that are available and have been implemented around container deposit schemes. What is important, though—and really the member belled himself out, frankly, when he said, ‘Well, what about this?’. The fact is you actually do need to deal with a whole range of complex issues right across the waste stream, end markets included, and you need to develop an end market for recycled materials. Whether it is containers or whether it is other types of recyclable materials, that is an important component of any system that you put in place which is about a circular economy. We will continue our work in delivering on the commitments that we have already made. We are developing our circular economy policy, which is out for consultation right now, and we will be releasing a draft policy statement shortly and then finalising that in an action statement.