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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-04 Daily Xml
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Solid Waste Levy

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Treasurer a question about the solid waste levy.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: On 1 January this year, as part of the budget, the solid waste levy increased from $100 to $140 a tonne—a significant hike that blindsided the waste industry. By 2022-23, that increase is expected to raise an additional $25 million a year. The levy is collected by the Environment Protection Authority, which it transfers to another government agency, Green Industries South Australia, which is supposed to use the funds to reduce solid waste in South Australia, including to 'save money, protect the environment and stimulate industry development'.

This fund now has about $100 million sitting in it—a level it has been at for the past four or five years. There are growing industry concerns the money is not being used for the purposes for which it is raised, and is being used to prop up the government's consolidated revenue. My questions to the Treasurer are:

1. Is the $100 million fund managed by Green Industries SA being used to prop up the government's budget bottom line to make it look healthier than it actually is?

2. Have you directed the environment minister to transfer some of the funds raised via the solid waste levy to general revenue as an inter-government transfer?

3. Can you explain the reasoning for the significant hike in the minister's inter-government transfer from $19 million in 2018-2019 to $49.6 million in 2019-20 (a hike of $30 million)?

4. Can you explain where that $30 million is being redirected?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:04): I think the government nationally is now being lauded as a very green-friendly, environment-leading government, led by the Premier and the Minister for Environment. I will be very surprised if other governments, both Labor and Liberal, over the coming months in their coming budgets, don't follow the trailblazing lead of the Marshall Liberal government in relation to increasing the waste levy and driving environmentally friendly waste reduction policies.

The discussions I have had with other jurisdictions have very much demonstrated great interest in the trailblazing work of the Marshall Liberal government in this area. I think people are acknowledging that governments, both state and federal, must do more in terms of the environment and must do more in terms of reducing waste.

An important part of this is to drive important financial incentives, or economic imperatives, to industries to say, 'Okay, you need to invest, but you also need to be encouraged to invest more in waste reduction strategies.' The more we can do to prevent lazy organisations just seeking a cheap option to dump waste to landfill, with all the problems that creates for the environment and for South Australia, the better it will be. As I said, I will be surprised if we don't see other governments, both Labor and Liberal, nationally follow the trailblazing lead of the Marshall Liberal government in this particular area.

To be fair, I think the New South Wales government was the first government to significantly increase the waste levy. The Marshall government adopted similar policies in the budget to which the member has referred. The use of the fund has been largely governed by policy decisions taken by this parliament and initiated by the former Labor government. They were supported by the parliament and that allowed a wider use of those funds than just waste-related policies.

There were a range of new provisions written into the legislation by the former government. The Hon. Mr Hunter might correct me if I'm wrong, but he may or may not have been the minister responsible at the time. Certainly, it was a former Labor government minister who drove these particular changes to say, 'We need to use this funding not just for waste reduction but for more climate-friendly policies.' That was a decision taken by the former Labor government and this government has adopted exactly that.

The last budget made it quite clear that, with some of those climate change responses and policies that we were adopting, we are very proud to say that, unlike 16 years of inaction under the former Labor government, we are going to save West Beach and we are going to save Henley Beach. We are actually going to stop the destruction of those beaches, which should be the pride of South Australia, by using some of the funds that have been generated through these sorts of levies, which under the legislation, on the advice of Crown law and others, we are entitled to use for these sorts of climate-friendly policies.

As I said, there may be some in this community—maybe even some in this parliament—who say, 'Blow West Beach. Blow Henley Beach. If it disappears, it just becomes bare rock pushing hard up against the road and against the surf lifesaving club down there and we're prepared to accept it.' Good luck to them. That was the policy adopted by the former Labor government. Every year, we would spend millions and millions of dollars transporting sand from the northern beaches down to West Beach to try to preserve it for a short period of time until the next storm came in and washed it all away again. We said, 'Enough of that. Let's have a long-term solution that involves a pipe and considerable expenditure.'

Over the forward estimates, some of this money to which the honourable member has referred, which is sitting in the fund at the moment, will be used to fund that sort of long-term thinking to resolve some of the issues. This government isn't about adopting a strategy to prop up the budget and pocket these sorts of funds. We are about trying to drive positive environmental policies, in relation to climate-friendly policies, in relation to waste reduction and all of those innovative areas that the Minister for Environment is better placed to talk about than I am, as a mere Treasurer, and our Premier, who is certainly very aware of these sorts of issues.

I will conclude by saying that I will be stunned if other states, both Labor and Liberal, don't follow the lead of New South Wales and South Australia in significantly increasing their waste levy.

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