Page 4157 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 22 October 2019
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This bill will work to improve both the built and natural environment, improve the amenity of the ACT and support the wellbeing of people who call Canberra home. We know that the problem of littering and illegal dumping is important to the people of Canberra. The management of waste and bulky items, which are often dumped in public spaces, were identified as the third and fourth priorities of city services by our citizens forum, through the better suburbs statement. We know that this is increasingly becoming more of a problem in the ACT, with the number of abandoned vehicles particularly and illegal dumping requests through fix my street increasing over time.
The Litter Legislation Amendment Bill will holistically address littering in every form and will support the majority of the Canberra community who do the right thing. The first form of littering addressed in this bill is general littering and illegal dumping. This captures both small items that can be littered, often through thoughtlessness and disregard for the consequences of people’s actions, right through to large items or volumes of litter which are intentionally dumped and pollute the environment.
To address these issues, the bill provides a proportionate and escalating framework where penalties increase depending on the volume of litter being dumped. Under the new laws there will be a different penalty for someone who dumps a bag of rubbish than for someone who dumps a trailer load of rubbish. This escalating framework is important to ensure that the penalties are proportionate to the offence and act as a deterrent to offenders. Littering fines range from $150 to $300 for small to medium items and up to $1,500 for dumping items over 200 litres.
This bill extends the existing provisions for littering so that they also apply to litter deposited on open private land. Under the bill, when a person litters from public land onto open private land or from one private block into someone else’s block, this will now be able to be treated the same way as existing offences on public land. There are also provisions that place more responsibility on landowners to manage their litter. It is not acceptable for a landowner or a builder to store litter on their private space in a way that allows it to escape into our parks, streets and waterways.
It is important to note that these provisions do not criminalise ordinary people undertaking normal activities in their own private space. For example, if a resident prunes their garden and does not pick up the clippings, this is not an offence under the new framework. Similarly, a family having a barbecue in their backyard where items are not cleaned up would not be captured. The bill does, however, apply where a person leaves items on their open private land that are obviously likely to blow away onto other properties or the street. This sends the message that we all have a responsibility to each other and to our environment.
Another key element of the bill is how it addresses the littering of cigarettes. This is a persistent issue and one that most Canberrans take seriously. The national litter index indicates that cigarette butts are consistently the most littered item across Australia. In fact, there are other studies that show it is the most littered item across the entire planet. What makes this worse is that littered cigarette butts are not only unsightly but also very dangerous to animals and to the environment more broadly. Cigarette butts
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