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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-05-12 Daily Xml
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PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS

The Hon. L. STEVENS (Little Para) (14:52): My question is to the Minister—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. L. STEVENS: My question is to the Minister for Environment and Conservation. How has the ban on checkout style plastic bags been received by South Australians?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (14:53): Last Monday, South Australia took an important practical step in reducing waste in this state—we implemented the ban on light-weight checkout style plastic bags. Thanks to the actions of South Australians, 400 million fewer of these plastic bags will be going into our landfill and litter. Banning checkout style plastic bags is a small change but will reap big results for our environment.

I am very pleased to say that it has been embraced by most South Australians. It is great to see the schools getting involved. We have the Hills Christian Community School distributing 1,000 re-useable bags in local supermarkets. The Star of the Sea students have created their own designs for environmentally friendly bags. We have also seen the implementation of the ban go particularly smoothly. Most South Australians are keen to do the right thing and bring their own re-useable bags to do their shopping. They are also keen to do the right thing by checkout assistants by bringing clean bags and enough of them so that they do not get overloaded.

It is not surprising that, on the whole, the feedback we are getting from customers across the state has been very positive. The manager of Coles in Bridgewater has commented that there are 'no dramas at all'. Likewise, Steve Mackay, who owns the Mount Barker Foodland, said that people have accepted the change well. In fact, Russell Markham, Chief Executive of Foodland, said that the ban had a good start across all Foodland stores.

The Hon. K.O. Foley: And Ryan Foley—

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Apparently, Ryan Foley has given it the big thumbs up. Woolworths spokesperson, Kerry Fotie, said that the implementation of the ban went very well at Woolworths. Just before question time I called the Secretary of the SDA, Mr Malinauskas, and he said—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: To see how the employees of retailers were faring. He said that it was 'so far, so good'. A large part of the reason it has gone smoothly has been the preparation. There has been a lot of good work happening between retailers, the union and the employees. There was a good education campaign, and a lot of work went into that. Also, during the transition, retailers worked hard to make sure that shoppers were aware of the upcoming change and, of course, the union ran an important campaign advising people to respect the shop assistants.

Some retailers have taken extra steps. Target recently announced that its experience in South Australia had been so positive that it is now banning checkout style plastic bags from Target stores across Australia. Joseph Romeo, from Romeo Foodland and IGA, demonstrated his commitment to the change by giving away 10,000 re-usable bags to help his customers make the change. Support for the ban is coming from all quarters. Anne Marie Byrne from Planet Ark, Ian Kiernan from Clean Up Australia, John Dee from Do Something! and David West from the Boomerang Alliance have all praised South Australia for providing a great example to the rest of Australia by biting the bullet to make these changes.

Lachlan Jeffries, who runs one of the state's biggest composting businesses, has also publicly welcomed the ban. As well as the environmental benefits, one of the important benefits is to ensure that these plastic bags do not end up in the green bins, which has the effect of contaminating the organic recycling stream. And, of course, last Wednesday the Editor of The Advertiser told readers that the environmental benefit outweighs any minor inconveniences that the ban may cause.

I have always been confident that South Australians would easily make this change, and last week has shown that my confidence in our community is justified. Of course, there have been some people who have been reluctant to make this small change. It has been difficult to discern the attitude of the Liberal Party. Barely audible, in fact, has the Liberal Party been on this question—although we did have the highly relevant contribution of a federal senator, Mary Jo Fisher, on radio last week, who said that she opposes the ban. So, we must presume that that is the Liberal Party position on this measure.

Some of the media commentariat have had difficulty coming to grips with the ban. Some have predicted that it would be the end of the world. To those curmudgeons, can I just repeat the words of a listener—

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No. The member for Port Adelaide is often seen around the shops of Port Adelaide doing his own shopping and carrying his own recyclable bags. He is a man who shops for himself: he is a man of the people. Some useful advice was tendered by Jenny of Malvern on talkback radio, one of Matthew Abraham's listeners, who said, 'Oh, Matt, you need to have a bit of a lie down and a cup of tea.' I think that was a—

Ms Thompson: One which doesn't have to be in a plastic bag!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Exactly. That is great advice for those who cannot come to grips with what is a tiny change that will have important environmental benefits.

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