Waste Minimisation Bill

JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) : It is a pleasure to take a call on Part 7 of the Waste Minimisation Bill, which is in the name of my co-leader, Russel Norman. It is particularly important that the Minister for the Environment, Trevor Mallard, has the advice of a group of people such as the Waste Advisory Board, which the bill provides for. It is particularly important when we are dealing with an industry that the Minister has independent advice from people who can be seen to bridge the gap between government, industry, and the community sector.

The role of the Waste Advisory Board can be compared to that of the board of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, which advises the Minister on energy efficiency. I think of how carefully the Minister and I work on getting a real balance of experience on that board, and of what a high-level board it is, with expertise from every part of the energy efficiency industry and from its consumers. It adds much value to the work done under the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act.

This is the Waste Minimisation Bill, and I hope that an equally broad range of experienced people will be appointed to the Waste Advisory Board. I hope there will be people on it from businesses that recycle waste into new products. I hope there will be people on it from businesses that collect waste for recycling and reuse. I hope there will be representation from manufacturers who design products and who understand how to design products so that they do not become waste in the first place, which is a key part of the bill. I also hope there will be representatives from the community sector, which has provided most of the grunt on recycling and reuse in this country ever since 1976 when I set up the first profitable local authority recycling system in Devonport. So that is the range of representation that this board needs, and if those people are chosen carefully, the board will be extremely effective.

A key job for the board will be to decide on the priority wastes that we have to work on first. Clearly, we must give priority to wastes that are toxic, wastes that are severely damaging if they leach into groundwater or are burnt, or wastes that contain materials that are very expensive or rare, like metals. I think of batteries, for example, and of compact fluorescent lamps, which contain valuable materials that can be recovered. I think of computers and e-waste generally, of the problems that creates, and of the lack of opportunities in many parts of the country to do anything sensible with e-waste when people have finished with it. So, as well as the fine people in the Ministry for the Environment who advise the Minister as public servants, a knowledgable group of people with direct experience in the community and in industry will be advising the Minister, and that is a huge step forward. I think the Minister will need both sources of advice, so this board will be very valuable.

The other provisions in Part 7 are fairly standard. They are about methods of appointment, remuneration, and terms of office. I see that the term of office is only 3 years or less, but I hope there will be provision in the bill for people who are doing a fine job to get a second term. It often takes people a little bit of time to find their feet in a position like this, and it would be shame if they were to be cast out after 3 years just as they were proving very useful. So I hope the Minister will have the ability to reappoint for a second term in cases when people are doing a good job. I commend this part to the Committee and I look forward to it passing shortly.

Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) : I will speak very briefly about a couple of things in Part 7. Firstly, picking up on what my co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons, was saying, it is really important that we get the right people on the Waste Advisory Board. That is one of the key things. We need people on the board with expertise in the area, from the community sector as well as the commercial sector. We need a lot of them on the board so that they can provide great advice.

My other point is around the terms of reference, which provide the board with some ability to initiate its own work or ideas. I am sure—I certainly hope—that the Minister for the Environment, in consultation with the board in developing the terms of reference, will look at what kind of capacity the board has to initiate work. For example, container deposit legislation was talked about earlier. We certainly hope that the board will at some point look at that legislation.

I spent a number of years living in Adelaide, which is the only Australian state to have container deposit legislation. It is a fantastic system and has worked incredibly well over there, but, as a result of lobbying by some very big beverage and container producers, it has not spread. Container deposit legislation has been a very effective system.

There has been a very lively debate around the role of container deposit legislation, but I hope that the board will be given the power to initiate its own inquiry to look at container deposit legislation and its role. That is really important.