Waste management should be high on the federal government’s priority list
There is an economic obligation and an opportunity for the Albanese government to lift their interest in waste and resource recovery,
CHALLENGES for the new Albanese government are lined up like pins in a bowling alley. We must ensure the State of the Environment challenge identified by new Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, in July, isn’t left standing in the rack.
National financial journalist Phil Coorey lashed the government for ‘demoting’ Tanya Plibersek to the environment portfolio when the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced his cabinet. Later Mr Coorey was shocked by what Ms Plibersek’s report revealed. He called for urgency to fix the problems. Hopefully his interest in lost species and excessive land clearing won’t subside if the business landscape of his readers becomes bleaker. Meanwhile Ms Plibersek has demonstrated that she will be a confident advocate for increased nature conservation across the country and will smoothly link that advocacy to the government’s broader climate change agenda. But she has a lot to do and plenty of people to consult including the states, industry, NGOs, Greens and Independents.
Waste resource recovery and the circular economy should also be high on government environmental and economic priorities. Tasmania and other states are framing their waste and resource recovery plans around circular economy.
Our federal government should provide an overarching message which assures industry that states will not adopt contradictory and incompatible policies, regulations and directions.
Tasmania’s island economy needs seamless resource recovery supply chains more than most.
Transport costs can cripple effective recycling and waste resource retrieval.
We need to stimulate local resource recovery manufacturing opportunities through government/industry co-investment and plan strategically if recyclables go offshore for processing. Those recyclables sent offshore should have a transparent, cost-efficient and fully community accountable journey.
Now is an informative and formative time for the new federal government. Informing themselves of the magnitude of problems and formulating strategies to manage them.
New federal environmental scrutiny will lift community
expectations and performance across states. Tasmanians are already wondering what will be in their overdue state of the environment report.
There is an economic obligation and an opportunity for the Albanese government to lift their interest in waste and resource recovery. Plibersek’s predecessor enjoyed her time funding waste programs because she was constrained in other parts of her portfolio.
So far Ms Plibersek’s emphasis has been on nature conservation challenges for government. There is a nod to circular economy in the State of the Environment report but it is written by urban planners and academics, not industry advocates or regionalists.
There is also scant reference to waste and pollution in Ms Plibersek’s post-Covid book Upturn which defined better economic and social directions for Australia after the pandemic.
Waste wasn’t front of mind for her before Ms Plibersek became Environment Minister. Now she has unearthed woeful aspects of our environmental record, it will be protection of nature on land and sea which tops her restorative agenda.
Waste and pollution did get a mention at the July launch of the State of the Environment Report. Fresh from the UN Ocean Forum in Portugal and a visit to the Great Barrier Reef, Plibersek pointed to the plague of marine plastics lapping our foreshore.
Even on this issue Tasmania will be of strategic importance: our marine scientists, our maritime culture, our Southern Ocean location, our gateway to Antarctica, and our Blue Economy CRC will offer insights and opportunities to national leaders.
Ms Plibersek acknowledged that the former government made a series of pledges on recycling. Pledges the Labor government broadly supports.
She then attacked the former government for not having a plan to implement those pledges. She hasn’t given further detail of her plans to achieve recycling and product stewardship targets but she has committed to fundamental reform of federal environment laws and the creation of a new federal EPA. With promised wide consultation this will not be a speedy process.
It might be quicker to increase our expectations of her colleagues like Ed Husic, Minister for Industry and Science.
He has talked about circular economy and recently reaffirmed his commitment to fund wool recycling at Waverley Woollen Mills – in Bass, a Tasmanian seat the government didn’t win.
Bowling is a good team sport (Homer Simpson’s Pin Pals?). Perhaps the best way forward is to team up the states and the ministers already on board to knock those waste pins flying.