ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT - COMMITTEES - Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water Committee - Report

This shirt I'm wearing is made from Australian cotton. The cotton industry is an industry which has been demonised by many in this place. Cotton is a very good agricultural product, and Australian cotton growers do it better than any other nation on earth. But this shirt has a number of plastic buttons on it, and I've put in place plastic collar stays to make my ties sit better, and that's all well and good. But when the shirts come in the boxes, when these shirts are bought from stores, they contain so many pins and bits of plastic, around the collar, right through the sleeves, cuffs—the whole bit. It is unbelievable. And it's not just shirts. Just about every product we buy now comes wrapped in plastic, with so much material around it. It's not just to safeguard people from whatever condition the makers might think is going to befall customers when they open products. It's just nonsense. What we're seeing is a deluge of plastic being forced upon a society that puts consumerism above all else.

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water concluded its inquiry into plastic pollution in Australia's oceans and waterways earlier this year. It tabled a report on 28 May. The final report, which was tabled in parliament on that day, made 22 recommendations aimed at strengthening Australia's plastics management framework to minimise plastic waste to landfill, incentivise the use of recycled materials in the productions of new plastics, and strengthen the management of the plastics already in the environment. The chair of the committee was the member for Makin, and I very much agree with the comments he made at the time. I think any person who is concerned not just about the here and now but, indeed, about the future of our planet would also agree with much of what the member for Makin said. He said:

Without urgent action, plastic waste will increase and continue to negatively impact our oceans and waterways.

He continued:

Australia needs to act now to protect its natural environment for future generations.

He is right, of course. He is absolutely correct.

I am the shadow minister for international development and the Pacific and I've gone to the Pacific on a number of occasions in my shadow portfolio work. One of the big issues in the Pacific is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This whirlpool of pollution is larger than many European countries, and what a sad reality that is! As the member for Cunningham has just said, the ocean contains pollution in its deepest parts. Indeed, it is even in the Mariana Trench, which she mentioned, and elsewhere, right throughout not just the Great Pacific Garbage Patch but our oceans and waterways and across the seven seas. There are plastics at the very bottom of our oceans, and if we are serious about climate change and about taking action to make sure that our planet is the best it can be in the future, then our oceans are going to play a huge, if not the largest, part in that. If we continue to pollute our oceans at the rate we are, then heaven help the planet.

It might come as a surprise to know that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was first identified in the 1940s. That is quite incredible. The rubbish that we have been putting into our oceans has been going in there for decades, but the great garbage patch is getting larger and larger, and at a faster and faster rate, and that is of great concern because, if we don't do something about it and if we don't address, first of all, the amount of plastics that we are producing, then our oceans have no chance. It's things such as shirts and the products and packaging that we're putting out into society.

The coalition government is often maligned, unfairly, for the actions that we took on the environment and climate, but I will give a shout-out to the former environment minister, the current member for Farrer, for what she did in this respect. Even in April 2021 she was out there announcing an additional $100 million investment so Australia and our region could continue leading the world in managing our ocean habitats and coastal environments and contributing to the global task of reducing emissions. The media release put out on 23 April 2021 stated:

As the world's only island continent, Australia has always understood that how we manage our oceans and coastal environments will determine the success or failure of our world's efforts to address climate change. That is why we have been leading the world in taking action in this important area.

And it is an important area because, as I stated, if we don't get it right with the oceans, then the planet has no chance whatsoever.

It's not only good for the environment and not only the right thing to do; it's actually good for jobs. The number of young people I encounter these days who are environmental scientists who, with biodiversity, supporting the oceans, recycling and climate resilience—but particularly the oceans—in mind, care deeply about what we are doing and how we are doing it is quite remarkable. I know that there are many companies—I had one come in to see me this week, but there's also one building a huge facility in Parkes within my current Riverina electorate boundary—that will be converting waste to energy, and that is to be commended.

This take-note motion on the Standing Committee on Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water report handed down in May this year is important. As the member for Makin has said, many Australians want to recycle correctly but inconsistencies amongst states and territories have led consumers to believe certain items are recyclable or compostable when they are not. As he stated further, the committee recommends nationally harmonising single-use plastic bans, waste collection standards and the container deposit scheme. That is a big ask because I remember the pushback even in New South Wales when the container deposit system was put in place there. South Australia has had it for many, many years—

Ms Miller-Frost: It has.

Mr McCORMACK: I see the member for Boothby agreeing. If you have a bottle—I believe it's plastic or glass—you can get a 10 per cent, if not higher, refund on that. I remember, growing up as a kid, we had that system in place whereby you could get money back on your rubbish and other people's as well. Kids would go around football grounds and showgrounds et cetera; there was very little litter because kids would go around and collect it and refund it for lollies or whatever the case might be. These days, it seems kids are so well off that they don't have to do it; you don't see them carting around big bags and collecting all the bottles after a football game or an event in an open area like a concert et cetera.

This is an important take-note motion because our waterways are too important to get wrong. I encourage and urge the committee and others to acknowledge the work the Morrison government in particular did in this area. I know Australia's strength and support for a global plastics treaty was something both the member for Farrer and then Prime Minister Morrison pushed. The Pacific declaration urges the international community to start work on a legally binding global agreement as soon as possible; that happened during our last term of government. Support for a plastic-pollution treaty has grown exponentially, from fewer than 70 countries, at the time we very much supported it and got behind it, to more than 110 nations. This is important. We have to get it right. Our oceans are too important not to get it right, and we also need to address one of the hugest climate issues—that is, what we do about landfill.