Tas Waste & Resource Recovery Board Annual Report 2023-24 - consideration & noting

Tuesday 11 March 2025

[3.36 p.m.]

Ms ARMITAGE (Launceston) - Mr President, for the member for McIntyre, Pangaea Festival is for arts, culture and sustainability, and they are taking a break during 2024‑25. The last one was in 2023.

Ms Rattray - How did you spell that again?

Ms ARMITAGE - P-A-N-G-A-E-A.

Ms Rattray - They missed out an A in this one.

Ms ARMITAGE - Sounds that way.

Ms Rattray - Fix that next time.

Ms ARMITAGE - I thank the member for McIntyre for bringing this motion forward. I believe this report is reasonably important to reflect on. The Tasmanian Waste and Resource Recovery Board was established in July 2022 following the enactment of the Waste and Resource Recovery Bill. I remember speaking on that bill in March of 2022 because at the time I was undertaking research into the then‑proposed container deposit scheme policy and draft legislation. I was gaining a lot of interest and insight into the issues.

As I discovered throughout that time, there is quite a lot of money to be made in the waste management industry, especially when the bill is being settled from the public purse. Of course, no-one can make any good argument for not supporting circular economy principles and encouraging people to recycle. To do that, we need to have good, reliable systems in place and reward good behaviour like recycling, reusing and being innovative with our waste. No-one is arguing against that whatsoever.

In addition to the board, the act consequently went on to establish a statewide compulsory levy, which was to increase the cost of sending waste to landfill, making resource recovery a more competitive option and generating funding for the initiatives of the waste strategy. The economic modelling that the act was based on found that the optimal waste levy rate for Tasmania would be $60 per tonne of waste disposed of in landfill. As was mentioned by the member for McIntyre, this was to be introduced in a staged manner to prevent price shock, with $20 being the introductory amount, increased to $40 per tonne after two years, and then to $60 two years after that.

At the time of discussing the Waste and Resource Recovery Bill I said:

While I entirely support the principles which inform waste management policy … I want to ensure it is done with a good degree of financial responsibility and does not unduly penalise Tasmanians who are already under immense financial pressures. … Tasmanians have been through enough external shocks through the past two years, and these are not easing up, with petrol prices rising, rents through the roof and with a likely interest rate rise in the not-too-distant future. [okay]

I made that speech on 9 March 2022. While I may not have been exactly right on all fronts, I think of how much worse things have become for people in the years since then and the continuing financial pressures that people are finding themselves struggling with. It is a bit of an eerie feeling knowing now how much worse things would become for people. At the time of discussing the bill, I simply wanted to know how much this new policy and the establishment of the Waste and Resource Recovery Board was going to cost the average person and whether that was a priority, especially at that point in time. I ended up voting against that bill because I was not entirely convinced that it was.

Additionally, the act established yet another board. As members here are likely well aware, and as mentioned by the member for McIntyre, I like to keep an eye on the many boards and the board members that Tasmania's taxpayers furnish very comfortably. The cost of these boards - supporting and resourcing them, recruiting them, especially those from interstate, paying for meetings, accommodation, meals, and their time and expertise - all adds up. I was pleased to say that five of the six board members are Tasmanian‑based. As I have said many times before, we need to be looking for more board members from our own backyard, if we really want to leverage existing local knowledge about Tasmania and Tasmanian issues. To this end, it is a good opportunity to see how the Waste and Resource Recovery Board is carrying out its mandate.

The board is empowered to do several things, including providing advice and recommendations to the minister, preparing and assessing the effectiveness of a waste strategy and operational plan, promoting and supporting resource recovery activities across the state, promoting market and local infrastructure development, overseeing the use of waste levy funds, and administering assistance programs as specified in the act. The activity summary of the board includes things like, 'worked with the minister for the release of the Tasmanian Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2023‑26; received updates on the progress of the Waste Data Readiness Grant program; approved the high priority investment package as the first funding round supported through the Landfill Levy; received updates on the NRE Tas attendances at interjurisdictional meetings, national policy meetings and briefings; received updates on large grants in the waste and resource recovery sector funded through Commonwealth programs; received updates on large grants in the waste and resource recovery sector funded through state programs; and attended and delivered workshops and forums to seek stakeholder import.'

A lot of updates were received from the board in 2023‑24 and I wish I knew more about what they really meant. I wanted to take a look at what this really meant for people working in the waste and resource recovery sector. What programs are now happening because the board funded or assisted with it? Well, the board report states that in February 2024, they approved the high priority investment package. This includes four fundraising schemes and the following amounts were allocated: $2 million to the High Priority Infrastructure Grants program intended to assist private industry and local government with critical infrastructure to increase resource recovery; $250,000 for infrastructure in schools to support waste reduction - who knows, member for McIntyre, maybe that is to do with education - $500,000 to support remote councils with their infrastructure and operational needs, including investigation into upgrades like larger processing sheds and upgrading trucks for freight and logistics; and $250,000 to work with industry peak bodies to allow them to undertake an environment scan of waste and resource recovery issues within their sector.

Unfortunately, that is all I could really find in the report. I would love some more details about how the infrastructure and schools funding has helped local businesses engage with building infrastructure in schools and how our kids are learning more about recycling and reusing, or what businesses have benefited from the $2 million allocated to the High Priority Infrastructure Grants program, what infrastructure is being built and how this is directly helping to reduce waste and landfill?

It would be really good to have a little more understanding and a little bit more -

Ms Rattray - Detail.

Ms ARMITAGE - Detail or clear detail of what is happening on the ground in the annual report. For the moment, however, I note the annual report.