Tuesday, 17 March 2026

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (13:55): I am calling on the government to keep up with reforms and extend bans on unnecessary and damaging single-use plastics. Victoria is currently getting left behind. Canberra has already gone further with single-use plastic bans; they have banned a wider range of single-use plastics and are considering more, while here in Victoria we are still allowing far too many throwaway items to be handed out every single day. There is no excuse for Victoria to settle for weaker rules and to require our communities and environment to deal with and pay for more plastic pollution year after year. We know where this waste ends up; it ends up in our streets, in our gutters, our parks, and eventually in our waterways, and it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, harming wildlife, clogging drains and leaving communities to clean up the mess. Victoria’s current ban covers items like straws, stirrers, plastic plates and cutlery, cotton bud sticks and expanded polystyrene food service items, which is a good first step and one that came after years of Greens and community advocacy. But it is nowhere near enough, and we cannot rest on our laurels given the scale of the plastic pollution crisis we face. The Greens know Victoria needs to catch up. We need to phase out more unnecessary single-use plastics like coffee cup lids and heavy-duty plastic bags, and we need to support businesses to transition and back reusable alternatives that cut waste at the source. Victorians are ready for this. We are tired of cleaning up unnecessary single-use plastic, and our environment cannot wait. Our laws should reflect that urgency.