Bills

Electoral (Control of Corflutes) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 3 May 2023.)

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (10:31): I rise to speak in support of the Electoral (Control of Corflutes) Amendment Bill and in doing so commend the Leader of the Opposition for bringing this bill before the house. I know that the Leader of the Opposition has for a long time been very passionate about this issue and I thank him for giving us another opportunity today to change the law in this area.

I want to make a brief contribution to this debate as the most recent person in this house to have adorned the streets of Adelaide with my face, and I did put a lot up, sadly, for the people of Bragg. Perhaps, if we can pass this bill today, it might be the last time they see those posters on our Stobie poles.

As the new shadow assistant minister for the environment I say that is not entirely a bad thing because we know there are very serious and real environmental concerns about the impact that election corflutes have. We know there are serious concerns in our community about the very limited ability to be able to recycle election corflutes. This is because they are made out of, effectively, a corrugated polypropylene, which is a single-use plastic that has very limited recycling opportunities.

There are two mains ways that they can be recycled, both mechanical, and it is fairly complex and often complicated by issues usually to do with food contact and also the sorting of different types of plastics and also chemicals. We know that so many recycling centres around our state are simply not set up in a way that they can safely recycle these plastics in that way.

Also corflutes are rarely just that—corflutes. Often, they are adorned with stickers or glue or sometimes metal eyelets and that, again, complicates the recycling process, often to a point of near impossibility, and that is before we even get to the scourge of the cable ties, which are used to affix corflutes to Stobie poles and are often found scattered across the streets of Adelaide and South Australia in the weeks and months following elections, although certainly not in Bragg as we clean up after ourselves.

What we see today is just another opportunity for South Australia to continue in its nation-leading work in the waste management space and in the circular economy, whether it be pioneering the successful container deposit scheme back in 1977, or whether it be our proud history of being the first state to ban lightweight single-use plastic bags, or whether it be the more recent work undertaken by the previous Liberal government that banned a range of single-use plastics, including cutlery and straws and drink stirrers and, at that time, also set out an ambitious agenda to roll out further bans of single-use plastics. Pleasingly, that is what we are going to see happen over the coming months and years.

Surely the next step for us as a parliament can be to lead by example and perhaps see the end of the election corflute on our streets. This is not a new idea. We know it has worked elsewhere very successfully in other jurisdictions, including in New South Wales. We also know it is a popular idea. I do not think the election corflute is much loved by the people of South Australia. Indeed, when the Liberal Party undertook its own consultation on this issue, some 93 per cent of respondents supported the action that we can take today and saw it as a practical and sensible action that we can take to protect our natural environment and help with waste management.

I might add that it is particularly sensible in light of the way that political communication and the methods that we use have advanced and changed over the years with the advent of social media and other technology, where the corflute is simply outdated. I do not think that the people of South Australia are finding it valuable or informative.

It was disappointing during the previous term of government that the Labor opposition did not feel the same way and did not support similar measures that could have seen the end of the election corflute. Perhaps the Premier quite likes seeing his face all around the streets of Adelaide. I say that the election corflute has had its day. It is bad for the environment, it is bad for road safety, it is bad for streetscape amenity and it has to go. I commend this bill to the house.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (10:37): I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

The house divided on the motion:

Ayes 22

Noes 12

Majority 10

AYES

NOES

PAIRS

Motion thus carried; debate adjourned.