Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 13 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 3758 ..
MS TUCKER (continuing):
The commissioner has maintained an ongoing interest in the no waste strategy and recently reported on progress towards the target in his 2001/02 annual report. Overall, the commissioner remained disappointed with progress on the implementation of his recommendations.
He noted that the government may be almost one year behind schedule in the completion of various tasks in the strategy. He also expressed concern that the level of funding by government for this strategy may not be sufficient for it to progress at the necessary rate to achieve the target. The bottom line on his comments are that we are now reaching a critical time in the no waste strategy, and I quote from his report:
I see this no waste strategy as an activity that has captured international attention, and in being successful, can bring new business to Canberra as well as a steady stream of visiting delegations that want to learn how we have done it. Failure would not be a beneficial outcome, directly or indirectly. The ACT is showing world leadership in this world-wide problem. I suspect that 2002-2003 will be a critical year in determining how realistic the strategy can be.
He concluded that publication of the goals and programs of this strategy had only been partly implemented and that additional funding for community education and the identification of community champions was essential at this time.
He also noted that there was a lack of clear evidence that the government was taking the lead in implementing its own best practice of waste management and in communicating with other business sectors as to how they can become more efficient and effective in their management of waste.
It was also unclear as to what role the government was taking in national intergovernmental forums, such as the national environment protection measure on used packaging materials. The government reported that over a year ago it had set up an interdepartmental committee to coordinate work on the strategy but the commissioner couldn't really work out what it had done. He wanted much clearer reporting of its outcomes.
So overall, the government's success in implementing the no waste strategy is far from clear. It has to be recognised, though, that these concerns were directed more at the previous government's performance, as they set the no waste target and have done much of the work so far in implementing the related strategy. However, the Labor government has now had a year in office and should have had time enough to take over control of the no waste strategy. It is now time for the Labor government to commit itself to completing the task started by the former government.
There is no doubt that achievement of the target will become harder the closer we get to it, when we are forced to seriously address the more intractable waste materials. Ways to reduce these waste streams need to start being identified now and progressive targets should be set to help measure progress towards the 2010 target.
It has to be recognised as well that we need to focus much more on reducing the amount of waste being generated in the first place and not just think about more ways to recycle the waste that is produced. More work has to be put into promoting waste-wise buying practice by the public and business-for example, accepting less packaging of goods and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .