Waste Levies

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:19): I seek leave to make a brief explanation prior to asking the Minister for Environment some questions about cuts and increases to environment levies.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: In the last budget we saw a situation where $1 million was being cut out of the natural resources management budget. That is a levy dedicated to the NRM and a levy that many people are unhappy about paying. The first of my two questions is:

1. Can the minister confirm that the $1 million—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Let the honourable member ask the question.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: —that is being cut from the NRM levy will be taken back to the taxpayers of South Australia in a reduction to the levy or, otherwise, can the minister explain to the house what he is doing with the quarantine levy?

2. Can the minister explain to the house why the solid waste levy, which has been gouged the most under Labor, and was once less than $5 per tonne when Labor won office, has increased by 863 per cent to $52 per tonne next financial year, when, if it was increased at CPI, it would have been just $7 per tonne, yet the minister has basically closed the office and little is being done to assist local government with zero waste initiatives? Therefore, why is the government increasing next year the solid waste levy by another 3 per cent?

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Good question.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:21): Actually it is a useless question but we do not expect anything more, do we?

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: An arrogant minister; a useless question he says.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Totally. I thank the honourable member for his first question back in this place. I would encourage him, however—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: He is a bit rusty because again the preface to the question and his explanation were completely wrong and I would encourage him to go back and do some research on where that $1 million was coming from. It is not coming from any NRM levies at all. Those levies are raised locally. There are no changes to that situation and he really misunderstands the difference between appropriations for state agencies versus what the NRM boards raise themselves through levies, but he can go back and do that research himself and work out where he has gone wrong.

In terms of the solid waste levies being collected, again the honourable member thinks we are an island state with no connection across borders with the other states. How does he explain the fact that every other state does this? Every other state does this except for Queensland, and Queensland now has the problem of people from New South Wales driving across the border to dump their waste because they do not have a levy reflective of what is happening across the border.

If the honourable member is serious about this, what is going to happen when waste is carted across the border from Victoria and dumped in South Australia because, as he wants, there is no levy here? It is just a disaster. This is a price signal to industry. It is driving industrial development in the resource sector. It is turning what was previously waste into a resource. It is employing people in a very important sector of a growing and burgeoning industry and the honourable member just doesn't get it. He just doesn't get it.