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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 4766 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

On that basis, negotiations at the next meeting of environment ministers in August 2003, just on three months ago, led to a decision that environment ministers would take the retailers code of practice at face value; that we would end up in a compact with them; that we would work with the retailers in the implementation of their code of practice; and that we would hold them to the targets which they voluntary agreed to-namely, a 25 per cent reduction in plastic bags issued by the end of 2004.

You cannot deny that these are demanding targets. In a circumstance where there are around seven billion plastic bags distributed in Australia a year, the retailers have said, under their code of practice, that they will seek, through their membership, to reduce plastic bag use by 25 per cent in the first year. They then claim that they will reduce plastic bag use by 50 per cent by the end of 2005. That is 25 per cent a year. These are major reductions in plastic bag use. The retailers of Australia, essentially Coles and Woolworths, who use or utilise almost 50 per cent of all plastic bags, are saying to the governments of Australia, "We undertake to reduce the number of plastic bags in Australia by 31/2 billion in two years."That is what they are claiming they can do.

The ministers were unequivocal in their attitude to the retailers. I met with them, as did all other ministers. We made the point starkly: produce the results you promise or we will legislate. They have promised to reduce the number of plastic bags being distributed in Australia by 31/2 billion in two years. That is the promise they make. Environment ministers told them that if they did not meet their targets within three years we would legislate. So we agreed.

They also promised that they would introduce recycled content plastic bags consistent with availability, and then introduce a transparent and independent auditing process. They have also agreed that the auditing of the reduction would be independent and would be transparent.

As a result of that, at the meeting in August, 21/2 months ago, ministers indicated their support for the phasing out of lightweight, single-use carry bags containing HDPE within five years-that is, total phase-out. They agreed that the Australian Retailers Association be asked to enter into negotiations during the life of the code to specify actions beyond 2005 to achieve this objective-that is, how they would, after the initial 50 per cent reduction, go from 50 per cent to 100 per cent in the three remaining years.

The environment ministers advised the retailers bluntly, unambiguously, that if the code is not implemented, if the specific targets are not reached, ministers will look again at implementing mandatory measures. Work by the council on the development of mandatory measures will continue in the interim. However, before regulatory measures can be implemented, further investigation will be necessary to identify the actual impacts that bans or levies would have, particularly in relation to the financial impacts to the wider community as well as the actual potential for reducing plastic bag use.

One important issue raised in this debate is the use of alternatives, particularly degradable bags. One of the issues highlighted by the Plastic Bags Working Group in their report to the covenant council was that of degradable bags, particularly the nature of degradability and the fact that degradable bags do not necessarily solve litter problems or the associated impacts on marine animals. Degradable plastics degrade in varying ways and require optimal conditions to do so. Some of the plastics will not degrade at all in

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