Page 3030 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 14 September 1993
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Mr Humphries: Where it belonged.
MR DE DOMENICO: Where it belonged, Mr Humphries. As far back as that the Liberal Party said that we believe that the best way out of this situation is kerb-side recycling and the introduction of big bins as soon as possible, together with tip fees across the board, commercial and residential, of course, with a certain voucher system. That operates, by the way, in every municipality in the country except the ACT. I am glad that Mr Connolly interjected. When you introduce tip fees, Mr Connolly, I can assure you that we will not come out with a press release criticising it.
Across-the-board tip fees have to be looked at also on a social justice basis. One must realise that people who cannot afford cars or who are too old to drive cars or who cannot afford trailers are the very people now subsidising people who can afford cars and trailers. The people who cannot afford cars are employing commercial waste people who obviously pass on the $11 per tonne - soon to be $22 per tonne - to their customers. The customers, they tell me, seem to be the aged, the elderly, the infirm and people who cannot afford cars, for various reasons. Giving people vouchers so that the first few trips to the tip are free or subsidised is one solution.
Once again, Madam Speaker, I thank the Minister for the time he gave me to review this Bill. I ask that he look, as a matter of urgency and perhaps even courtesy - I am sure that he will - at some of the problems that the Liberal Party has raised tonight and which were expressed to me from the people who are affected every day by the laws we create and approve in this Assembly. That being said, Madam Speaker, the Liberal Party will be supporting this Bill. It is good legislation, first introduced by Mr Kaine in 1977.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (8.12), in reply: I thank Mr De Domenico for his support. I must say that I was not aware that Mr Kaine was responsible for the original Litter Act. He is having a good day today. The flag has been praised, and it was his design, and he is getting his Litter Act amended as well; so it has been a good day for him. The proposal announced in the budget papers today is that the Government will be looking at introducing a comprehensive system of kerb-side recycling based on the successful Kaleen trials and that tip fees, if they are to be introduced, will follow that. So it will be the introduction of comprehensive kerb-side recycling followed by tip fees.
There is, I am aware, Mr De Domenico, some disquiet - there always was - within the commercial sector about the introduction of tip fees to replace what was regarded as a free service. Of course, it was never a free service; it was always a substantial cost to the ACT community, and ordinary ratepayers were in fact subsidising business; whereas in other jurisdictions - indeed, just up the road in Goulburn, let alone every other metropolitan area - business learned to live, and has for many years, with the fact that they would have to pay for land fill.
One of our senior officers in the recycling areas, one of the officers who will be charged with the responsibility of steering through the introduction of the ACT-wide kerb-side recycling, recently went with a group of municipal officials from around Australia through Europe to look at recycling methods there.
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