Thursday, 2 May 2019

Written responses to questions without notice

Responses have been incorporated in the form provided to Hansard and received in the period shown.

22 March to 2 May 2019

Solar Homes package

In reply to Mr LIMBRICK (South Eastern Metropolitan) (19 March 2019)

Mr JENNINGS (South Eastern Metropolitan—Leader of the Government, Special Minister of State, Minister for Priority Precincts, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs):

The Andrews Labor Government has invested record funding of more than $100 million over the last four years in the waste and resource recovery sector. This includes $37 million to deliver the Recycling Industry Strategic Plan.

This funding will further support the growth of the recycling industry in Victoria by diverting more recoverable materials from landfill, create jobs and increase the recovery of valuable resources.

With rapidly changing technologies and demand for the latest devices, e-waste is a fast-growing waste stream in Australia. In line with our commitment to ban e-waste from landfill, Victoria’s e-waste ban will commence on 1 July 2019. The Andrews Labor Government has invested $15 million in infrastructure upgrades across the state, and an additional $1.5 million for a community education and awareness campaign.

This record investment has supported upgrades to more than 130 collection and storage sites across Victoria and has increased local government’s capacity to safely collect and store e-waste. These grants will establish the best e-waste collection network in Australia.

In November 2016 the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change urged Australian Environment Ministers to agree to develop a national product stewardship scheme for solar photovoltaic systems, which was agreed to.

Sustainability Victoria is leading the development of the scheme and making excellent progress. The scheme will establish a system of shared responsibility for safely recycling and disposing of end-of-life PV products in Australia.