Page 584 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 22 February 2012
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Those who argue for a third bin are going to have to explain to Canberrans why they are arguing for a more expensive option that collects less waste. And those that argue for an education-based approach first have to argue why they think that Canberrans are going to do something that no other metropolitan centre anywhere in the world has achieved in terms of the level of take-up of composting at home. In particular, they are also going to have to argue why things like meat and products like that should be composted at home, because that is the position if you want to argue an aggressive education campaign as the most cost effective option.
The government does not support Mr Coe’s amendment. We do not support Ms Le Couteur’s motion, for the same reasons. And the government will not be supporting this motion.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ms Le Couteur, are you speaking to Mr Coe’s amendment?
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (11.39): I am speaking to the amendment but I am happy to close the debate as well if no other members have contributions.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, that is fine, Ms Le Couteur.
MS LE COUTEUR: First on the amendment: yes, the Greens will support Mr Coe’s addition because, as he points out, a green organic bin was part of the Liberal Party’s election campaign. That is factually correct; we could not oppose it. However, I would point out that in terms of more discussion, we are not supporting an organic bin as the first thing that should be done about waste in the ACT.
In that respect, I agree with the first part of Mr Corbell’s speech about Mr Coe’s amendment when he talked about the reasons why not. As Mr Corbell said, we actually have read the Hyder report at great length. It is clear that the organic bin is potentially a more expensive option. The Greens, of course, have always been optimists in terms of human nature. We actually have always very much believed in education approaches to solving problems.
As far as waste is concerned, we are looking not just at organics but in general. We very much believe in source separation, which is also one of the principles in the ACT government’s waste strategy. Basically, almost anything is a resource, not a waste, if it is pure and concentrated in some particular aspect. If we are actually going to deal with our waste problems in the ACT and the world as a whole, we have to stop just putting all our waste in one bin and figuring that the problem belongs to someone else.
We have to start looking at our waste as a resource. Our waste is where we are going to get our resources for the future. This is particularly true with e-waste, which is one of the tragedies or scandals of the world. We are getting our electronic goods exported as waste to Third World countries where the valuable minerals in them are removed at huge environmental and human cost. We have to stop doing things like that.
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