Charitable Recyclers Subsidy Program

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water. Will the government commit to providing 100 per cent subsidies to charitable organisations under the South Australian Charitable Recyclers Subsidy Program? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: In 2020, the subsidy provided was at 50 per cent. Then credit to this government, it has been lifted to 75 per cent at the start of this year, but charitable organisations in my electorate are asking for it to be increased to 100 per cent so that they can keep more money that they raise for charitable purposes.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (14:37): This question is a challenging one for government policy. As I came into being the Minister for Environment a couple of years ago, I became aware that there had been for some time a request from the charity sector to have the waste levy waiver increased to 100 per cent from the 50 per cent that I think had been pretty longstanding.

For people's understanding, this means that when charities receive a whole lot of material, as much as possible, of course, they either give it away or sell it, but there is inevitably some that they need to dispose of in various ways. Recognising that they are charities, for some time there has been a 50 per cent discount on the waste levy for that which they dispose directly to landfill.

It seemed to me that given the excellent work that they do, and particularly in the context at the moment of a cost-of-living crunch that's hurting particularly those who are on lower incomes, it was reasonable to give them a greater waiver.

We did quite a bit of policy work in the Green Industries section of the government on what kind of signals needed to be sent because ultimately we don't want materials going into landfill. What we want is for as much as possible those products, those materials, to be re-used or recycled in some form. The advice that I received, and I accepted, was that an increase to 75 per cent was a significant decrease in the cost for the charity sector, but remained therefore an incentive for finding other disposal methods that are available other than putting into the landfill.

The challenge with going to 100 per cent is that the cheapest option would be simply to dump everything, and so trying to find that balance between continuing to drive for a circular economy and, at the same time, recognising the importance of that sector, is what I have been seeking to do.

I recognise that many people across the charity sector are both grateful for the relief and wanting to see more, and I therefore recognise obviously the legitimacy of the question, but at present that balance is one that I think is probably the right place to be, but I would say that is constantly for me under review. It was a relatively recent decision and I will be seeing how that translates, what kinds of challenges remain for the appropriate recycling and diversion from waste levy that the sector is able to undertake, and I will continue to work with them to see whether there needs to be more relief given at a later date.