Page 651 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 30 March 2021
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
To support business, the ACT government has also developed resources. Web-based information is now available at act.gov.au/singleuseplastics. A range of downloadable resources are included on the website, such as posters. Information for businesses to train their staff and inform their customers will be available closer to the commencement of the ban on 1 July 2021. The phase-out will also be supported by Actsmart, who deliver sustainability programs across the ACT government.
Canberra is a proudly progressive city. Our local businesses understand that our community wants them to act responsibly to manage our environment. Our community is vocal and, as a result, there is a rapidly diminishing social licence for wasteful and unsustainable practices. Our community is also vocally supportive of local business.
I would like to thank our community for their support of local businesses who have already risen to the challenge of the phase-out and the community’s future support of those businesses that will be making sustainable changes from July. It will mean that they will be doing their business slightly differently, like receiving your halal snack pack in a sugarcane-based container rather than in an expanded polystyrene-based container. According to the Turkish Pide House in Dickson, they are actually cheaper than the plastic alternative, which is great news.
The ACT government will continue to take leadership to phase out problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic products. We can no longer consume the same volume of resources that cannot be avoided, re-used or recycled. We look forward to continuing to work with the community across the ACT and with other governments, and also with our Plastic Reduction Task Force to implement the phase-out.
I would like to thank task force members who were advising us on the ongoing phase-out for their commitment to sustainability and inclusion. We will continue to work with them, particularly on the phase-out of single-use plastic straws, which Minister Davidson and Ms Orr mentioned. That is something that we need to continue to work on, to make sure that the approach and model that we adopt here in the ACT are compatible with our human rights jurisdiction and make sure that these are accessible for those who need them.
I commend this bill to the Assembly so that we can make unnecessary and problematic single-use plastics a thing of the past. I table the revised explanatory statement, which responds to comments from the scrutiny committee.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video