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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-29 Daily Xml
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Bills

Local Government (Waste Collection) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (10:31): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Local Government Act 1999. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (10:32): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I would like to make a contribution on the Local Government (Waste Collection) Amendment Bill 2023, which sits today in my name. Right now, South Australians are suffering through a cost-of-living crisis not seen for a generation. Mortgage rates are skyrocketing, rent is going through the roof, the cost of food is increasing in ways that we have not seen for a significant period of time, the cost of power bills is skyrocketing, the cost of petrol is going up and the cost of general goods and services is getting beyond the reach of the average household. In fact, a typical South Australian family are now more than $20,000 a year worse off than they were at the point of the 2022 state election.

The average household does not have an extra $20,000 just sitting around. They have not had wage increases of $20,000 in the previous 12 months—that is almost unheard of—so they have to dip into savings, they have to seek support from family members or, in some more extreme cases, they have to reach into the equity within their homes.

Many of these typical families live in communities that I represent in my electorate, communities such as Hallett Cove, Sheidow Park and Trott Park, which are amongst the most mortgaged communities per capita in our state. These families that I represent are representative of many other families across the state of South Australia. They are worried about opening their next energy bill, they are concerned about what the Reserve Bank will do, they are worried about filling up at the bowser.

As we head into Christmas, there will be many families who will be choosing to go without things so that they can afford to pay for presents for their children. We know that the tourism sector in particular is suffering because people do not need to go on holiday. It is a luxury, it is a discretion, and they are choosing to stay at home to save money. That trend is magnified across many other sectors.

At a time like this, we need governments at both state and federal level to be doing their utmost to ease the cost of living but, unfortunately, there appears to be no relief in sight. In fact, during a recent Budget and Finance Committee meeting, it became apparent to the opposition that the state government was looking at potentially introducing a pay-as-you-throw scheme approach to kerbside collection of waste. Appearing before the committee, the Chief Executive of Green Industries SA, Ian Overton, was asked:

So pay-as-you-throw is an option that is on the table, where people get charged more based on the weight of their rubbish; is that right?

To which Professor Overton answered, 'It is an option on the table.' To charge people more based on the weight of their rubbish would place an extra financial burden on South Australian families. Families with young children would be particularly impacted as the weight of things, like nappies, builds each week. In fact, we know through the analysis of bins and their contents that nappies are the most common thing, from the point of view of weight, to be placed in the municipal bin.

To charge people more based on the weight of their rubbish is, in the view of the opposition, an abhorrent way to manage waste in this state. The opposition is all for finding ways to reduce waste and we had a solid record of doing so when in government, but what basically amounts to a nappy tax would unfairly target larger families and families with children at a time when they can least afford it.

These families are already bearing the brunt of cost-of-living crises. They are more likely to have higher than average mortgages, they are more likely to need to put more fuel in their vehicles, and they obviously buy more food at the supermarket. They will suffer more than anyone else as a consequence of the government's proposed nappy tax. On top of the extra financial burden on young families—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Listen to the outrage, Mr Speaker. At every turn the nappy tax—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Florey! Member for Elizabeth!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The architects of the nappy tax hate it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, Deputy Premier! The leader has the call.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: They hate it because they have been caught out by their dodgy nappy tax behaviour.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Florey is warned.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: It was not me who was the architect of the nappy tax. In fact, I told the public servants to put the idea away.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Florey!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Get rid of it, get it off the table, Dr Overton.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: It is disgraceful, but they allowed the boffins to continue it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson! Member for Florey!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: They allowed the model to continue to be developed.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Waite!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: There is a great embarrassment, the member for Florey, stuck up the back there. We love them on the back bench. He is supposed to be one of their mates.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Listen to this. We are hoping you are going to come down the front over summer.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Unbelievable.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Florey is warned for a second time.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: I wonder what the good constituents of Florey think of the nappy tax that he is defending.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader, please be seated. Member for Florey, your interjections will cease. The leader has the call.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: I feel I need to repeat the quote that I provided before. In the Budget and Finance Committee hearing, the question was asked:

So pay-as-you-throw—

which we are using euphemistically as the nappy tax—

is an option that is on the table, where people get charged more based on the weight of their rubbish; is that right?

To which Professor Overton answered, 'It is an option on the table.' When I was minister, I got it off the table—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Deputy Premier!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —because it is a disgraceful concept.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: It has not been taken off the table, but there is an opportunity to take it off the table today.

The Hon. S.E. Close: We have already ruled it out.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Well, we are just making sure it gets ruled out. We are going to legislate against it. We are going to try to legislate against it—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Waite!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —so the good constituents of Florey are not pinged for the nappy tax that is so strongly supported by their local member by the sounds of it. The opposition is all for finding ways—

Mr BROWN: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader, there is a point of order from the member. Please be seated, leader.

Mr BROWN: Point of order: I will ask the member to withdraw that last remark about me supporting this imaginary nappy tax.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader, the member for Florey has taken offence.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: I withdraw that statement.

The SPEAKER: The member for Florey is seeking withdrawal and an apology as I understand it, leader.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: I withdraw the statement with regard to the member for Florey, but clearly all the members—and they can all be offended; I was not asked to apologise.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader, be seated. That will not be sufficient. As you may be aware, the standard is a subjective one and the member for Florey has taken offence. The convention is to withdraw and apologise.

The Hon. D.J. Speirs: He did not ask for an apology.

The SPEAKER: I understand that he is seeking an apology. I understand that he is.

Mr BROWN: Just for clarity, sir, I am seeking an apology for the false statements made by the member.

The SPEAKER: Very well. Leader, so as not to disrupt your contribution—

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: I withdraw and apologise.

The SPEAKER: Very well.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: We have the nappy tax. I should probably pivot at this point and talk about the picnic tax as well, their other tax grab.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Hutchesson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Waite!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: But today is not about the picnic tax; it is about the nappy tax—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Waite!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —so let us keep on talking about the nappy tax. What is next is the question. With the member for Schubert's recent very happy news, she is particularly concerned about the nappy tax.

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell: It is the best thing we have going for us.

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Listen to them. On top of the extra financial burden on young families that the pay-as-you-throw model—the nappy tax—approach to kerbside collection could have, there would also be some significant unintended consequences of such a model being introduced.

Those not wanting to pay the extra tax for their waste collection could resort to sneaking rubbish into a neighbour's bin. This would be difficult to police and could potentially result in ugly neighbourhood disputes. This is absolutely the last thing we want to see in our communities, but it could very much become a reality if the nappy tax were introduced in the seat of Florey, perhaps, or any other seat.

When I was environment minister and this idea was floated past me—and it was floated—I swiftly told them to put it in the bin, get rid of it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: I swiftly shut it down because the reasons I just mentioned were of great concern, but there would also be administrative burdens on local councils who would be forced by the government to subsidise and construct the nappy tax.

Reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill is something that I am passionate about, and I know there are many on this side of the house who are, but implementing a pay-as-you-throw scheme is not the way to do it. Implementing the nappy tax is not the way to do it. Implementing a nappy tax on families who are most vulnerable at this time of cost-of-living pressures—cost of living added to significantly by the inflationary pressures put on households by state and federal Labor governments—is just not the way to do it.

Education is the critical way to drive down the creation of waste at a household level. I think that Green Industries SA has done a fantastic job of promoting household recycling and green organic disposal over recent years. Many of the products we use today do not need to go to landfill and can be correctly disposed of via our yellow or green bins. This allows the products to be re-used or repurposed, which means that going to landfill is just not going to be necessary.

The Which Bin? campaign, which was run by Green Industries SA, was an effective way to educate South Australians on the best approach to household waste management, and perhaps there is an opportunity to increase funding to that education program.

Having raised the issue of a nappy tax through the media, I was actually heartened to hear the Premier come out very quickly and say that he would rule out implementing such a scheme. The scheme was on the table; it existed. It was an initiative of the Labor government.

Mr Fulbrook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: But thankfully the Premier stepped in and got rid of the initiative that had been cooked up by the bureaucrats in his deputy's department. Thankfully, the Premier did show some common sense here. While it took the opposition to raise this issue publicly to have it killed off, there are still question marks hanging over its existence, the same way as there are question marks over the existence of the abhorrent picnic tax at the Wittunga Botanic Garden.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Waite!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The Wittunga Botanic Garden, the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden, the city Botanic Garden—

Ms Hutchesson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite is warned.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —but particularly suburban Wittunga to be charged—

Ms Hutchesson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Waite!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —to enter the botanic gardens—

Ms Hutchesson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite is warned.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —at Wittunga. The community up there are outraged that their local member will not stand up for them. She will not stand up against the picnic tax or the nappy tax.

The SPEAKER: Leader, please be seated. Member for Waite, I do not wish to give a formal direction but it may be wise for you to leave the chamber at this time.

The honourable member for Waite having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: Very well.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: It is important that the good residents of the seat of Waite know what sort of representation they have.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Mr Speaker, I was called a liar and I take offence.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: She will have to withdraw and apologise. She has not really gone. No-one can ever be gone from this place.

The SPEAKER: The member has left the chamber—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! However, I will raise it with the member on her return.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: I am concluding. Pay-as-you-throw—the nappy tax—and of course the picnic tax which we will come to at another point, these are cruel tax grabs on South Australians when they are at their most vulnerable. While the Premier has wisely ruled out the nappy tax, we think it is critical that it is ruled out permanently in our state's statute book. We look forward to the government supporting it, because if they do not, the nappy tax is well and truly part of their policy platform. We look forward to them supporting the legislation that is before the house today to ensure that the nappy tax is killed off once and for all, that the nappy tax is put in the bin—because that is what needs to happen to it.

Mr Odenwalder interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Elizabeth!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: We are sick of the tax grabs from those opposite and it is time we got a way to end it into the statute book.

The SPEAKER: I see that the member for Waite has re-entered the chamber. I invite her to, from her place, withdraw and apologise.

Ms HUTCHESSON: I withdraw and apologise.

The SPEAKER: Very well, the matter has been resolved, but I do emphasise to the member for Waite that unparliamentary language will be addressed immediately upon my attention being drawn to it.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Odenwalder.

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