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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-03 Daily Xml
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WASTE COLLECTION

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:56): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question about local government involvement in a state government trial.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In January 2008 the government invited councils to participate in a Zero Waste food waste trial and suggested that the councils trial a fortnightly collection of waste. In June 2008 the government announced that 10 councils would receive state government funding to participate in the trial, and the release indicated that four councils would trial fortnightly collection. Under the Public and Environmental Health (General) Regulations 2006, clause 4(2), owners of premises are required:

To ensure that refuse on premises that is capable of causing an insanitary condition is disposed of as often as may be appropriate in view of the nature of the refuse, but in any event at least once a week.

The key phrase is 'in any event at least once a week'. The maximum penalty for breach of this regulation is $1,000. My questions to the minister are:

1. When she implemented the fortnightly collection trial as the Minister for Environment and Conservation, was she aware that she was putting householders and councils at risk of breaching the public health regulations?

2. Will she now apologise to local councils and their ratepayers for the invidious predicament in which she has put them?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (14:57): As members would be well aware, currently my portfolio responsibilities include that of state and local government relations, amongst others, and I am no longer minister for DEH with the associated responsibilities in relation to Zero Waste. It eludes the member opposite—obviously, he has been asleep on the job since then. I am not the relevant minister any more. Obviously, Jay Weatherill is the minister for the environment and for Zero Waste, and it is important that I not discuss his portfolio or policy areas. Nevertheless, I think I can make a few relevant comments in relation to this issue.

The waste trial currently taking place was something on which, when I was minister for the environment, we set frameworks, sent out expressions of interest to councils encouraging them to consider participating in the trial and, having done that, took the next step, if my memory serves me correctly, and established an information forum where we informed interested councils of parameters around the trial. That was the extent of my involvement.

I recall, to the best of my knowledge, that some of the things we did with Zero Waste during those information sessions—and something in which the councils were interested—was to look at options available for them in relation to waste collection and at some of the financial implications of that as well. Clearly, councils were looking to bring about these changes in the most cost-effective way possible, and Zero Waste supported that—obviously, not forgoing any health considerations.

They were all matters that were talked about at the time, and I know that Zero Waste had various information on the different sorts of impacts that the waste collection scenarios have. That was really the extent of my involvement. Clearly, the trial was established to improve recycling here in South Australia. We are under great pressures environmentally due to greenhouse gas emissions and, of course, recycling and re-using our materials is a very important strategy to help address that. So, the principle of recycling and improving our rates of recycling is very sound. I visited other countries, including Germany, when I was environment minister, and some of those countries, in terms of their waste treatment management systems, are way ahead of us. There is a long way to go, even though we should be very proud that South Australia is in fact pretty much the leading jurisdiction here in Australia in terms of recycling. That should be recognised, also.

I had the carriage of setting up at least the first stages of the trial, and it was about trying to improve our responses to the environment and reduce greenhouse gases. It was a strategy consistent with those sorts of principles, and they are very sound principles. It was a trial. We were putting forward a trial for consideration and for people to try to see how it would work. That is why nothing was introduced at that time as a particular policy position. It was set up as a trial. It was a fairly new thing in this state. Burnside council had done some work on it beforehand and we had learnt some important lessons from that which we used in the second round of trials, but it was a trial and we were learning. No-one—the local councils and Zero Waste—pretended to know all the answers, and that is why this was established as a trial—so that we could apply these things, see whether they worked and then amend accordingly.

That certainly appears to be occurring now, and it is to be encouraged. The local communities have a strong view about how things are going and are feeding them back into their councils, and those matters are being considered and the trial is being adapted accordingly, as it should be. I think that is a very positive thing.

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