Page 1224 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 2013
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In summary, the process for obtaining a permanent exemption is that the governors of each state, the Administrator of the Northern Territory and the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory must all publish a notice in their jurisdictions’ gazette detailing the proposed exemption regulation and requesting the Governor-General to make regulation to include the proposed exemption in the relevant schedule. A similar exemption is already in place for the South Australian container deposit scheme under that state’s Environment Protection Act 1993, provisions of which replaced the Beverage Container Act 1975.
Therefore the government support this motion brought on by Mr Rattenbury today, with a slight amendment that I will deal with shortly. We certainly urge other jurisdictions to support the Northern Territory by giving them the policy tools they need to effectively manage their environmental concerns.
I will briefly address the ACT government’s position on a container deposit scheme. We support a national scheme as the best means to create a holistic and effective policy response to reduce waste and litter. I note that a national scheme would also be consistent with the mutual recognition requirements and support for a more integrated market for waste services. However, a CDS is just one of a number of options being considered by states, territories and the commonwealth through the COAG process. The final option, which will be selected following a national regulatory impact process, will ultimately depend on a number of factors, including costs, litter reduction and recovery rates for all categories of packaging.
This is also the ACT’s position, which I have consistently advocated. Implementation of the container deposit scheme is contingent on a supportive regulatory impact assessment.
It is also worth highlighting that without New South Wales’s participation, it would not be practical for the ACT to operate our own CDS, as beverage containers would rapidly flow across the border as people would collect deposits under an ACT scheme. The ACT wishes to see the most efficient option adopted, and the government will work with the federal and other state and territory governments to achieve this outcome.
I have therefore moved an amendment to Mr Rattenbury’s motion that indicates the government will consider the establishment of a CDS at a national level, subject to the outcomes of the regulatory impact assessment process currently being undertaken through the COAG forum.
In the meantime, the government will continue to implement our own ACT waste management strategy to ensure the citizens of the ACT continue to enjoy a clean environment, knowing that they have among the highest recovery and recycling rates, not only for beverage containers but all materials of any jurisdiction, in the country, and that we will continue to implement the measures to ensure that resource recovery continues to increase.
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