Motions

World Environment Day

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (10:48): I move:

That this house—

(a) recognises that 5 June 2025 is World Environment Day, which has grown into an event celebrated by more than 150 countries across the globe as a platform for environmental outreach and engagement;

(b) notes that this year’s focus is on ending plastic pollution to protect seas and oceans and agree on sustainable production, packaging and consumption strategies;

(c) acknowledges that this important day reminds all people, companies and governments around the world to take action to conserve and protect our natural environment through organised 'Clean Up’ days, by recycling as much as we can in our daily lives and workplaces and considering more sustainable purchase choices; and

(d) further notes that we all need to look after the environment, so we can enjoy the environment.

I speak today to very much acknowledge and celebrate World Environment Day, which is observed globally on 5 June to encourage awareness and actions to protect our environment. This year's theme, 'to beat plastic pollution', is particularly important to us here in Australia. It is a very challenging space for us as we go into battle.

According to recent figures from the Australia Institute and World Wildlife Fund, Australia is fast becoming the largest consumer of single-use plastics per capita globally. In 2010, we were consuming 123 kilograms of plastic waste per person. Fourteen years later, we are consuming in excess of 150 kilograms of plastic per person.

Currently, less than 15 per cent of our plastic waste is recycled, which means around 147,000 tonnes of plastic is being introduced into the environment in Australia each year. This affects coastlines and the health of marine life. It affects wildlife, our ecosystems are damaged and our waste management systems around the country are buckling under the growing pressure to find solutions to manage our ever-growing pollution problems.

But amidst the challenges, South Australia can stand proud as an example of environmental leadership, innovation and community resilience. Under the Marshall Liberal government, the Single-use and Other Plastic Products (Waste Avoidance) Act was introduced. It was the first legislation of its kind in Australia and established a framework for a progressive plan to ban the sale, supply and distribution of single-use plastics, including straws, cutlery, stirrers, bowls, plates, cups, containers, cotton buds and shopping bags.

South Australia has long led the nation in sustainability efforts. We were the first state to legislate climate change targets. The environment is important to both sides of government that have operated here over many decades. It is important that we continue the good work as we go forward. We have invested early and boldly into renewable energies. As of today, nearly 70 per cent of our electricity is generated from renewables—wind power and solar—and we are well on the way to seeing even more into the future.

Our state, until recently, was home to the world's largest lithium battery. It is the third largest battery in the world right now, but still the largest battery in Australia, which puts some stability into the grid. The groundbreaking projects in the Mid North of South Australia near Jamestown are very important and it is great to see the work that is being done, which needs to continue.

The system of batteries has certainly stabilised our grid and we are seeing the use of batteries in our homes as well. To put into context how much power is stored in batteries, a light bulb is 40 to 60 watts. One megawatt is a million watts, so that is 150 million watts that can be generated to power light globes. That is an enormous number of light globes.

This was once seen as experimental but is now the model of the world. South Australia's leadership does not stop at energy; it also goes into waste reduction and recycling policies in the country. Our container deposit scheme, in place since 1977, has certainly helped reduce litter and promoted recycling, and we have seen that spread right across many parts of Australia, as it has been rolled out significantly later than it was in South Australia.

I certainly very much remember travelling around the roads of Australia and thinking, 'Why do we not have cans and bottles on the sides of our roads in South Australia?' whilst everywhere else did, so it has certainly made a big difference to the psyche here in South Australia.

Our commitment to biodiversity is also worth celebrating, from the restoration of the River Torrens and the massive projects that have been there, to the redevelopment of Charles Sturt Breakout Creek that transformed an artificial channel into a natural, flowing and healthy river system, boosting wildlife with significant biodiversity improvements into the future, with more than 200,000 pieces of flora planted into the area. The ongoing protection of the Flinders Ranges and the co-management of national parks with Aboriginal communities are other ways that we have seen the stewardship embedded into South Australia.

Also, for me a really important thing locally is the Our Plover Coast Project that we have seen in recent years with 18 chicks reaching fledgling age and joining adults to improve the species' recovery in the Fleurieu region. The massive effort on the plover coast between Myponga and Goolwa Beaches, supported by Landscapes Hills and Fleurieu, Green Adelaide, BirdLife Australia and the City of Victor Harbor and Alexandrina councils, and a massive number of volunteers, has seen improvement in breeding habits of hooded plovers.

The plover is a vulnerable bird that likes to nest near beaches, which has caused their near extinction as more people and domestic animals have inhabited areas that would have been their nesting sites. Currently, there are 70 hooded plovers along our regional beaches and fewer than 800 across the state, so thank you to those local environmental groups for their continued efforts around the Fleurieu.

Another local initiative I would like to touch on is Trees For Life through the local Bush for Life, who have been progressively planting Granite Island as part of an overall habitat for the Habitat for Happy Penguins Project. I had the opportunity to do some planting on Granite Island and I did get a little bit carried away though. They wanted us to plant 10 trees each, not realising that I had planted about 50 by the time someone suggested that I had done my share. I certainly very much enjoy partaking in those opportunities to invest in the biodiversity of places like Granite Island.

I am sure many people would be aware that the little penguin population of Granite Island has dropped dramatically in recent years and at the last count there were around about 20. It has been indicated that seals populating the area may be a significant problem contributing to the decline, as well as foxes and other predators.

The City of Victor Harbor and local community groups are doing what they can and planting trees to create these safe habitats in a way that helps nurture the remaining penguins there and hopefully see the populations build again. Some eggs have been sighted recently, so there is positive progress, but to get back to the populations of the recent past—and we are probably only talking the 1990s when there were thousands of penguins nesting on Granite Island—when you are starting with a small base of 20 is a significant challenge.

On World Environment Day, we are reminded that protecting our planet is not a choice but a responsibility. South Australia has shown that strong environmental policy is not a hindrance to progress; it is a path to a stronger, more sustainable economy and society.

How can we observe and honour World Environment Day? We can make a commitment to recycle. Next time you grab a plastic bottle or container, have a look to see if it is biodegradable before you purchase. Maybe get serious about setting up and maintaining a compost bin in your backyard. There are many things that we can do. We can plant a tree. Depending on where you plant the tree around your home, you can keep your house cooler and cut your air conditioning costs over summer. We can volunteer. There are many environmental groups around in my electorate of Finniss. I can think of several, including:

Victor Harbor Coastcare group;

Friends of Hindmarsh River Estuary;

Friends of the Hooded Plovers;

Inman River Catchment and Landcare Group,

Bush for Life; and

the Victor Harbor and Encounter Bay rotary clubs, who regularly assist the council with conservation initiatives.

All of these volunteer groups welcome more help from people of all ages, stages and interests. From a health and wellbeing perspective, volunteering for an environmental group usually means you are socialising with like-minded people while outside, walking around, working in nature and enjoying the positive effects of that. World Environment Day is a day to recommit ourselves to the cause of environmental justice, the restoration of our land and a future where people and the planet can thrive together. It is important that we do this work.

It is also important that we recognise there are many people out there doing their bit as well. It is certainly something that I have seen change in my lifetime. Particularly the farming community have very much embraced looking after their land in a very sustainable way. I very much remember as a child that having hardly a tree on farming properties in our area was the norm, whereas today we are seeing not just trees but other plants under those trees also being supported, which has then led to fauna coming back into those areas as well. We are seeing a complete change in the environment in just a lifetime, which is actually a credit to all the people across our regions who operate in these parts of South Australia in particular and Australia more broadly.

Farmers and pastoralists are custodians of such a large part of our country. Generally, most of them are out there trying to improve the environment because there are benefits economically to them as well as benefits to the wider community as a whole. We are seeing significant changes in practice occurring on farms as well, which will see a greater improvement to the environment.

It is certainly something that I was very proud of when I was a farmer. The discussions that have been going on this week made me reflect on how many trees I may have actually planted in my lifetime. My guess is it is roughly between 5,000 and 10,000 trees that I have personally planted. I am really proud to drive past the properties where I have planted them and to see them.

Probably the most hurtful thing that happened to me in this space was when I was at primary school we had a morning of planting trees on the southern end of the Port Elliot Oval along the road verge, and in more recent years, probably about eight years ago, the local council decided to beautify that area and ripped all those trees that we planted as students. It got to me that these were the first trees that I really had the opportunity to plant and they were now gone. It has been beautified with other trees, but I have lost that connection to that group of trees that we planted. We certainly really support the efforts of World Environment Day and support their continuance in this space.

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (11:03): I rise to support this motion and acknowledge a day of immense global significance—World Environment Day, celebrated annually on 5 June. This year, we recognise this important occasion as it is hosted on Jeju Island in the Republic of Korea under the powerful and timely theme of ending plastic pollution.

World Environment Day is more than a date on the calendar. It is a reminder of our shared duty to protect the one planet we all call home. This year's theme brings into sharp focus one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time: the overwhelming and escalating crisis of plastic pollution. The statistics are sobering. Each year, the world produces over 430 million tonnes of plastic. Of that, more than two-thirds consist of short-lived products—packaging, wrappers, single-use containers—items designed to be used for a moment and then discarded.

Much of this waste does not simply vanish. Instead, it clogs our landfills, chokes our rivers, litters our oceans and poisons our wildlife. Increasingly, microplastics are being found in the most remote corners of the globe and, disturbingly, in the very food we eat and the water we drink. This is not just an environmental issue; it is a human health issue, a biodiversity issue and a challenge for future generations.

I am proud to say that South Australia has not stood idly in the face of this crisis. We are fortunate to live in a state that has long been a pioneer in environmental reform, and I would like to take a moment to celebrate the nation-leading work of our state government in substantially reducing plastic waste. I recognise the significant contributions of the Malinauskas Labor government in continuing this tradition of environmental leadership.

Under this government, South Australia has not only continued to ban harmful single-use plastics but also invested in circular economy solutions, supported green innovation and strengthened environmental protections. This government's comprehensive approach ensures we are not only reducing waste but also creating new opportunities in sustainable industries, local manufacturing and clean technologies.

However, we must also acknowledge that government action alone is not enough. Our state's natural beauty—its rugged coastlines, ancient forests, rivers and unique native wildlife—is protected every day by the efforts of countless environmental volunteer groups, one of which, the Friends of Sturt River Landcare, Tom and I joined again on Sunday for their annual planting. They got 260 people out to plant around the Oaklands Wetland and Reserve. That included community groups—I saw the Dover Gardens Girl Guides there—as well as individuals and families. It is a credit to the work of that Landcare group and what they do every year and all across the year.

These groups, often composed of everyday Australians, donate their time, energy and expertise to care for our parks, restore degraded habitats, remove invasive species and rehabilitate wildlife. Their contribution is immeasurable, and their passion is the heartbeat of our conservation movement. Without their tireless work, our flora and fauna would not be thriving. They are the quiet achievers, the local heroes who help transform policy into reality, and on this World Environment Day we celebrate them.

As we stand at this critical crossroads, it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to reflect on the kind of world we want to leave behind. Do we want a world clogged with plastic, stripped of biodiversity and plagued by preventable environmental harm, or do we want a future where South Australia and the world embrace innovation, sustainability and respect for nature? I believe we must choose the latter. We all share a duty, a moral obligation to future generations.

South Australia has proven time and again that it can lead on environmental reform. Let us continue to do so with pride, with purpose and with passion. Let World Environment Day 2025 be not just a day of reflection but a renewed call to action. Let it strengthen our resolve to end plastic pollution, protect our natural heritage and secure a more sustainable future for all. I commend this motion.

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (11:08): I rise to speak in support of this motion from the shadow minister recognising that 5 June is World Environment Day, which is of course an event that is celebrated by more than 150 countries right across the globe as an important platform for environmental outreach and engagement. I note that the focus of this year's World Environment Day is on ending plastic pollution, which will help protect seas and oceans, and is looking towards agreement on sustainable production, packaging and consumption strategies.

Globally, an estimated 11 million tonnes of plastic waste leak into aquatic ecosystems each year, and microplastics also accumulate in the soil from sewerage and landfills due to the use of plastics in agricultural products. It has a huge social and environmental cost. In fact, some estimates put the cost of plastic pollution as ranging between $300 billion and $600 billion, so it is a very important theme for this year's World Environment Day in focusing on reducing that sort of plastic pollution.

It is also a theme that resonates with us here in South Australia where we have a proud history of being at least a national if not world leader when it comes to waste management in this state. Indeed, we were the first jurisdiction in Australia to introduce a container deposit scheme in 1977, and in 2009 we once again led the nation when we became the first state or territory to ban lightweight plastic bags from supermarket checkouts. That history of being leaders in this space of reducing waste, and reducing in particular plastic waste, continued under the former Liberal government which made South Australia the first state or territory in the country to pass legislation through this parliament to ban the sale, supply and distribution of single-use plastic straws, cutlery and drink stirrers.

The really good thing about that legislation is that it set up a framework for other plastics to be phased out over time. A couple of years ago we saw the next tranche of those measures coming in, including a ban on plastic-stemmed cotton buds, as well as single-use plastic bowls and plates and, of course, the plastic pizza savers in pizza boxes that are apparently particularly difficult to recycle in conventional recycling facilities. We carried on in 2024 seeing various other single-use plastics being banned, including thick plastic bags in supermarkets, plastic beverage containers including coffee cups, confetti, food bag tags and balloon sticks. Encouragingly, the work is not yet done. There is more to come over the coming months where we will see further single-use plastics phased out over the course of this year.

It is not just in plastic pollution and reducing waste where South Australia have been leaders and, indeed, the former government have been leaders. I commend in particular the former government's work in the environment when it came to preserving our national parks. We saw a record expansion of national parks, underpinned by a record investment. I had the privilege a couple of weeks ago of going to an event that is organised each year by the Rotary Club of Burnside where we celebrate some of the people who care for our national parks, both professional park rangers and also volunteers.

This has been a very long-running event organised by the Rotary Club of Burnside, and I want to commend their president, Andrew Bradley, for his work in pulling the event together this year. In particular, I want to also acknowledge Bob Cooper who has been involved with organising the environment awards by the Rotary Club of Burnside for many, many years now.

I want to put on the record my acknowledgement of the winners of those awards and, indeed, the finalists. There are two awards: the first award is the Volunteer of the Parks Award, and I want to acknowledge the finalists, including Rick Coyte, the Friends of Sturt Gorge Recreation Park; Peter Haines, the Friends of Southern Eyre Peninsula Parks; and also Campbell and Elizabeth Black. I particularly congratulate the ultimate winner of that award, Dr Peter Clements, who is the vice-president of Wombats SA/Natural History Society of South Australia.

I also want to acknowledge the finalists of the Leadership in Conservation Award, in particular James White, who is a ranger with Deep Creek National Park; Ryan Hamood, who is a ranger at Murraylands; Kelly Allen, who is a ranger at the Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park, as is Mark Davison, a senior ranger at that park; as well as Gemma Carlsen, who is a senior guide at Kelly Hill. I want to in particular acknowledge the winner of the Leadership in Conservation Award, Dr Shelley Paull, who is the marine coordinator from the Eyre and Far West region.

So congratulations to all of the finalists and the winners of the Burnside Rotary Leadership in Conservation Award and also the Volunteer of the Parks Award. I think that is the third year that I have attended that annual event, and it is always a really happy occasion to acknowledge the really important contribution, which probably sometimes often goes unremarked on and unnoticed, that these park rangers make and particularly the role the volunteers play in preserving and protecting what I see as one of South Australia's greatest assets, being our natural environment. So I commend all of those winners, and I commend the Rotary Club of Burnside for providing a forum for us to celebrate those impressive individuals each year. I commend this motion to the house.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (11:16): I was not intending to speak on this motion, but I did hear some of the words from the member for Finniss and I thought I would like to come down to the chamber and actually congratulate him. I said he should be rightly proud of the work that he has done, especially when it comes to—I am sure a lot of things, but especially—tree planting. That somebody in this chamber has planted anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 trees is incredibly commendable, and it is a legacy that is going to live beyond him. There is the old Chinese saying: 'When should you plant a tree?' And the response is, 'Thirty years ago'. But to hear what the member for Finniss has done is exemplary.

Like you I was in Trees For Life, until there was some sort of dispute between them and Whyalla that had nothing to do with me and we started the Whyalla Revegetation Group. So there is even politics when it comes regrowth. I think it was more to do with the appropriate times to plant in our region compared to in the more temperate parts of the state. I was a member of the reveg group for a long time and also the friends of the park in Whyalla where you used to do a lot of things: fumigating rabbit warrens and suchlike. It might upset the animal liberationists that we were using a World War I gas to get rid of the rabbits, but it was a very effective mechanism for a bunch of volunteers.

I think individual effort when it comes to the environment is important, but the nature of the challenges that we face is that a lot of those challenges are structural, and a lot of those challenges have, when it comes to the environment, a whole set of perverse incentives that actually underpin in many areas the destruction of the environment, the loss of our habitat, greenhouse gas emissions—a whole raft of issues that individuals are not going to be able to resolve. It will require government policy at a local council level, at a state level and at a national level to move things in the right direction. And it requires, especially with some of the challenges we face when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, effective global action to address what is a global issue.

We can be rightly proud of some of the initiatives when it comes to single-use plastics, but when we talk about that we have to look at what the companies are intending to do. What the companies like to do, the big corporates, is put it back to the individual when actually they are driving some of these issues. When we talk about the reduction in use of plastics and we talk about recycling, it often comes back to that individual level, but the corporates involved in the plastics industry intend to massively increase the production of plastics. That is where they make their money from and that is what they want to do.

We see yet again history repeating itself. We do not know fully, or anywhere near fully, what the impact of microplastics is going to be and just how pervasive microplastics are now. The fact is that we can find them in our brains and in just about every organ in our body, and microplastics are present in Antarctica and elsewhere. These are issues that are not going to be solved at an individual level. It is going to require the establishment of government frameworks and the establishment of regulatory frameworks to address these issues.

As someone who used to be on a council, I always found it interesting, when it came to recycling, that the costs were borne by local communities through their rates or through their charges. There is no cradle-to-grave analysis of various products. There is no looking at the life of products. Once again, the corporate sector is escaping free and putting the costs onto local jurisdictions and ratepayers, so we need far more comprehensive approaches.

Having had a go at some of the corporates, I want to acknowledge some of the good work being done in my electorate when it comes to corporates. BHP at Olympic Dam, and now at Carrapateena and Prominent Hill, is a major copper producer. Copper is going to be an incredibly important mineral resource for the energy transition, but it is not just the importance of copper as that important element in the energy transition, it is what BHP is doing at Olympic Dam and elsewhere in order to reduce its emissions.

BHP has entered into contracts with a number of major renewable energy projects here in South Australia, both in the Mid North and just outside of Port Augusta. We have seen a massive reduction in emissions from Olympic Dam as a result of entering into these contracts, and that still has some way to go. Underground, they are also looking at the use of electric vehicles. Not only is that good for the environment but it is good from an occupational health and safety point of view as well because of diesel emissions underground.

Even though they have massive ventilation systems at Olympic Dam—if you have never been underground there, take the opportunity because it is like another world. They have massive ventilation systems, but if you can remove diesel from the equation it would be a very good thing to do.

This state has an incredibly proud and almost world-leading history when it comes to the pursuit of renewables. I note that a previous Liberal government did commit to that 100 per cent renewable target, so I would encourage those opposite to take on the Looney Tunes brigade in your party that seems to have some control at the moment, because I know there are some good people on the other side who are committed to doing the right thing environmentally. Those initiatives that this state has entered into are really good.

When it comes to my electorate and the community of Whyalla, that whole issue about greening the steel industry is a complex issue. It is not an easy issue, but that is the direction we have to go in because we have some very strong comparative advantages in this state and in my region when it comes to greening steel. This is not going to happen overnight and it is going to be complex. Ultimately, it comes back to whether we use natural gas as a transition source and how much per gigajoule is that natural gas going to be? I cannot see it being cost-effective, but we need to. I might be proved wrong, but we do need to continue in one way or the other.

I met with some interesting companies the other day looking at hydrogen, and not necessarily as an energy source but purely as a reductive element in the making of iron. We should not lose sight of that because we do have some advantages in this state, and it will be interesting to see what happens in Sweden as they move—at this stage by 2030—toward the first million-plus tonne steelworks using green iron based on renewables and hydrogen.

People say we have withdrawn from hydrogen. Hydrogen is still going to be incredibly important longer term for greening the steel industry. There are other options as well, but I think in this state it is going to remain a live option, but it is not going to happen overnight. Like many of these things, it is about producing something commercially at scale. Time will tell whether we can do that. I am confident that we will get there because I never underestimate the capacity of some of the really smart people we have in this country to innovate and, at times, to use what has been done in other countries.

My summing up is, yes, it is important that individuals do the right thing, join organisations, do the right thing at home, etc. But these are profound structural issues and, if we do not address these structural issues, we are handing on a legacy that we should all be ashamed of. I always live with a degree of hope and a degree of confidence that, ultimately, after everything else has failed, that common sense will prevail. We only have the one planet and we should do the right thing by it.

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (11:26): I also take the opportunity in parliament today to support the member for Finniss's motion, of course recognising that 5 June—tomorrow—will be World Environment Day. It is certainly an event that shines a focus on the environment, and it has grown in importance to many countries. Over 150 countries across the globe recognise this day to put a focus on the environment. This year's World Environment Day has a focus on plastic pollution and the concerning amounts of plastic that are not finding their way into an organised waste stream but just out into the broader environment, and just the damaging effects that can have, especially in the seas and oceans. A lot of plastic is finding its way there.

A lot of it is being driven out of Asia. Again, we talk about this on many occasions. It is the big population growth centre of the world. They are looking to increase their lifestyle, looking to increase their sanitary conditions, access to convenience, safe food and safe water. Plastic, of course, can play an important role in that, but the packaging, if it is not disposed of correctly, can add up into hundreds of thousands of tonnes. We have all heard those stories of a big vortex of plastic making its way effectively in a massive whirlpool congregated in the Pacific Ocean, and the need to halt plastic finding its way into nature.

The motion also acknowledges what an important day it can be for people at an individual level and for companies to take practical action to conserve and protect our natural environment in situ, so where we live locally. One of the points made by the member for Finniss was through organised clean-up days to help out and take practical action in our local communities.

The local community of Morphett, the fantastic electorate that I represent, has beautiful stretches of beach at Glenelg South through to Glenelg North, as well as the nearby Patawalonga Lake. In particular, it has wonderful communities throughout that stretch of beach with Glenelg South, Glenelg and Glenelg North. Both the beach and the Patawalonga Lake play a significant role in many people's active lifestyles, whether that is walking, running or riding, as well as taking time just to enjoy the scenic views and the tranquillity that both the lake and the beach can provide.

The Patawalonga Lake is at the end of Sturt Creek, which starts off in the Hills but eventually makes it way through to Glenelg, unfortunately picking up litter as the water makes its journey to the ocean. Along the beaches there are various storm water outlets, so when there are big rain events—as we saw only last week—unfortunately some of the waste and litter find its way into the Pat and eventually into the ocean, where it can wash up on the beach at Glenelg North and Glenelg South.

My family and I also live near the beach in Glenelg South and we volunteer at the Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club, so we understand the importance of protecting our pristine coastline and keeping our beaches beautiful. Since being elected in 2018, I have held annual Clean Up Australia Day events on the beach at Somerton Park, Glenelg South, Glenelg and Glenelg North. Last year's event at Glenelg North was very successful, and many bags of rubbish were picked up.

Over the years I have alternated between the suburbs. It is a bit like parents with their children; you love all of them equally, so it does not feel right prioritising one beach over the others, meaning that the others miss out for that year. Quite often locals come up to me after my Clean Up Australia Day events and say that they miss coming out and helping in their local area, and so to overcome that this year I decided to hold two Clean Up Australia Day events to give maximum opportunity for the community to come out and get involved.

This year we held one Clean Up Australia Day event at Glenelg South at the Broadway beach early in the morning and then later, by mid morning, we held another Clean Up Australia Day event at Glenelg North, meeting at Wigley Reserve just near the Little Eatery café. The first event at Glenelg South met just near the locally renowned Broadway Kiosk, where community members could come along and collect a rubbish bag and some gloves to then go off and clean up any litter they could find.

These clean up volunteers went off in all directions. Some went along the beach all the way up to the jetty at Glenelg, combing both the shoreline and also the rock wall where a lot of litter gets washed in. Others took the higher ground and went along the coast park that runs along the esplanade there. One couple who came along knew that I was holding two clean up events, and their aim was to walk along the esplanade all the way via Glenelg and make their way towards Wigley Reserve where they could continue at my next event.

Personally, I started cleaning up in the rock wall in front of the Broadway Kiosk. At first glance these areas look quite clean, especially on the pathway, but it is surprising how many pieces of litter had fallen into the rocks just the other side of the wall adjacent to the path. Compared to previous years there were certainly fewer cigarette butts and fewer single-use plastics; however, there were still a number of takeaway containers and napkins.

Thank you to all the Glenelg South locals who came out and cleaned up, and especially to Brad Flaherty, who helped set up and hand out the clean up items. We certainly left the area cleaner than we started.

I then made my way to Wigley Reserve and I was met there by Rubie, Annabel and their partners, who had already set up the marquee and got the event off to an early start with some keen Glenelg North locals, who set off combing around Wigley Reserve—which has the kids playground there as well—and then headed on to Glenelg Beach in front of the Marina Pier at Holdfast Shores. Others went off in a northerly direction along the Patawalonga there.

As I arrived, the couple I mentioned before from Glenelg South had arrived. They signed in and then kept on cleaning up, this time in Glenelg North. It just emphasises what a connected community we have in Morphett: very community-minded and a lot of synergies between all the suburbs there. I set off along the banks of the Patawalonga, starting near where the replica of the Buffalo used to be located and heading north towards the Michael Herbert Bridge.

I make special mention of Brooke Birkby and her fantastic children Olive, Darcy and Mabel. They go to one of the wonderful primary schools in Morphett, St Leonards in Glenelg North. They made a special effort to come out this year and they were there last year as well. As we walked along the rocky shoreline, we picked up all manner of rubbish: lots of clear plastic broken bottles, a smoke detector and lots of microplastics. We even picked up a sock and a shoe, so someone obviously had a difficult walk home at one stage.

It is so important to keep the waters of the Patawalonga clean because the lake has many fish and it also attracts dolphins that come in through the lock gates where boats come in and out of the Pat. It also attracts birds, and see-through plastic bags floating in the water particularly become a hazard as they can be mistaken for jellyfish.

Overall, we were able to pick up eight bags of rubbish, leaving both Glenelg South and Glenelg North beaches and the Patawalonga cleaner than we started. Thank you to everyone who came along to clean up Glenelg North on Clean Up Australia Day and also to the clean-up event at Glenelg South for making a real difference locally by taking practical environmental action as a community.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (11:36): I rise to support the motion and make the observation, as the mover has, that this year's World Environment Day held on Thursday is hosted by Korea with a focus on plastics pollution. I think it is well to remind ourselves, as we did just now earlier this morning when launching the third edition of Blackmore's that I hope is useful for the chamber and is a great credit to those who have been involved in that project, that South Australia far too often can be overlooked or derided as having a relatively minor place in the universe of things.

Just as it was with some unkind reflections from Victoria about that text, so, too, it is very easy for the rest of the world to overlook the fact that South Australia has in fact led the world on the banning of single-use plastics, certain specific plastics, going back to that groundbreaking legislation under the former Liberal government in 2020 and the schedule of banned plastics that has then come along in the year and two and now more since.

South Australia has led the way, but we need to shout that from the rooftops—not just in this chamber but more broadly—because if we are not careful the rest of the world might look on as other states follow South Australia's lead and we do not get the recognition that we probably deserve. It was really a significant step to identify those single-use plastics to be banned and to take a step towards addressing what is truly a global problem.

Reference has been made to what has become such a global scourge that it is the subject of an acronym, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: plastics that are assembled in a large area by virtue of ocean currents in the North Pacific broadly between Hawaii and California that we are told occupy an area of about 1.6 million square kilometres—that is more than 1½ times the whole size of South Australia—and contain many tens of thousands of tonnes of plastics. They include that category of plastics that is described as the oxo-degradable plastics.

One thing that is overlooked, or perhaps not as often mentioned, in the reflection on that leading legislation in 2020 under the former Liberal government is that, as well as setting out bans on single-use plastics and a pathway for more single-use plastics to be added to that banned list, that act also created an offence, that is, an offence for the manufacture, distribution and sale of these oxo-degradable plastics. That is the subject of section 9 of the act.

As we saw back on 1 March 2021, the first three specific single-use plastics were banned and then, on 1 March 2022, the next group of four single-use plastics were coming in to be banned. At that time, on 1 March 2022 as well, that new offence came to its commencement. So there is a whole range of things that can be, and properly ought to be, reflected upon in the context of recognising World Environment Day. It is particularly relevant this year to highlight appropriately Korea, being a developed Asian country that is really at the centre of a lot of what we have seen in terms of the growth of the use of plastics over recent decades. The focus is on how to deal with this scourge of plastics and plastic waste.

Of course, the invention of plastics is a relatively modern phenomenon—we are talking not even a full century—and they are extraordinarily useful and convenient. With appropriate innovation and management, they make our lives so much more convenient. But we have to have ways of managing that waste, being smart about the kinds of materials that we use and being responsible about ways to avoid the build-up of waste and pollution. So it is well that there is a focus on that this year.

I want to say something then more broadly about World Environment Day and our responsibility as custodians of our own local environments, those in which we live and work. It is the subject of debate in this place this week. One thing I have learned through my involvement in particular with Nature Foundation South Australia is that we achieve our best in the environment, in my view and in my experience, when we understand and respect the capacity and the engagement of all of those who are in the environment—working, protecting, enhancing and experiencing living in our environment—in this state.

The various participants in Nature Foundation South Australia include such a wonderful spectrum of people, from those who are academically qualified as experts in knowing all about ecology, fauna and flora, those who have spent a lifetime and perhaps generations of lifetimes earning their income as farmers and pastoralists on the land, to those who enjoy being in the natural environment and any number of others in between. Barbara Hardy's vision in founding Nature Foundation and in being so all rounded, if I might put it that way, in terms of engagement, has led to such tremendous growth and achievement of that group in particular.

I have seen the joy that station people have seen, particularly in the north of the state, in seeing what can be achieved when there is an effective process to if not eradicate then certainly to reduce the numbers of those pest species that can flourish in the remote country, to look at what can happen when smart practices are adopted to manage pasture and when active intervention is taken in the interests of maintaining the sustainability of land for all purposes.

We do well when we avoid a tendency towards the binary when we are talking about the environment. The natural environment is something that we all share. It is something about which we would all do well to increase our knowledge so that we might more effectively interact with it and act as good custodians of it. I encourage everyone in this place to be focused in particular on the World Environment Day priority, that is, the reduction of plastic pollution, but in the broad to engage in ways that can better appreciate and in turn better enhance our thriving natural environment. I commend the motion.

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (11:46): I would very much like to thank those who have participated in the debate: the member for Gibson, the member for Bragg, the member for Giles, the member for Morphett and the member for Heysen. In particular, I thank the member for Giles for his kind words about me and my efforts of planting trees in my lifetime. I am proud to look at those trees and it gives me great satisfaction when I see those trees out there growing in the big wild world.

As we head to World Environment Day tomorrow, I think it is great if we can all have a think about what we do and what we can do. What small change can we make to our lifestyles to improve the environment tomorrow? As you are putting the rubbish in the bin, just make sure you are putting the rubbish in the right bin. Those little things make an enormous difference to where these plastics can end up, so it is important.

The challenges are not just here locally. As the member for Heysen mentioned, there are plastic issues around the world. Certainly very much embedded in my memory was when I visited the Taj Mahal in India and looked out on the river behind: plastic was literally right across the waterway, whether in the mud or in the water itself—it was quite sad to see. These are all challenges. They all end up in our worldwide system and are the challenges we need to keep addressing. I am very pleased to bring this motion forward and thank again those speakers who have spoken to it and really encourage the volunteers out there, but also every member of the public, to have a think about what they can do to help and improve our environment as we go forward.

Motion carried.