THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
RESERVOIR, VICTORIA
TUESDAY 27 AUGUST 2024
SUBJECTS: RECYCLING MODERNISATION FUND, MCPHILLAMY GOLD MINE, NATURE REPAIR MARKET.
JOHN CERINI, PRO-PAC PACKAGING LTD CEO: Welcome Minister Plibersek to ProPac's manufacturing site here in Reservoir. We thank you for the opportunity to host you and thank you again for the grant that we've received.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It's terrific to be here at ProPac today. I thank John for his welcome. Today we're talking about our $1 billion Recycling Modernisation Fund, a fund that we're cooperating with private industry and states and territories to rebuild Australia's recycling capacity. What we'll see with this more than $1 billion investment is 1.3 million tonnes each year of extra recycling capacity in Australia and, of course, the creation of around 3,000 jobs.
Here in Victoria today, we're announcing three new projects that are specifically aimed at those hard to recycle plastics, like soft plastics, that are otherwise ending up in landfill all too often in Australia. Today's announcement is about three new projects that will create around a hundred jobs and will recycle 43,000 tonnes of plastic every year. That's 43,000 tonnes of soft plastics that would otherwise end up in landfill. As well as the extra jobs, as well as the benefit to the environment, of course this is a great investment for Victoria's economy.
I'm very proud of the fact that the Albanese Labor Government is tackling the issue of too much soft plastic ending up in landfill. Of course, we're investing in modernising our recycling facilities. These three investments today come after an announcement last month of a $20 million investment in South Australia to increase South Australia's capacity to recycle soft plastics. And we've already committed to around 60 plastics recycling facilities. 16 of them are already starting up.
As well as increasing our capacity to recycle soft plastics, we have to use less virgin material in the first place. And that's why we're working with the industry on tough new packaging laws that will mandate a share of recycled content that will look at the design of packaging in the first place. We know that about 70% of the waste in our community is built in at the design phase of what we're using. So, if we can change the design of the packaging that we're using, we actually reduce the need for virgin materials to be used in the first place.
We're also a leading country in the Global Plastics Treaty that's been negotiated and partnered. Australia is part of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Waste because we want to see less plastic entering our environment in the first place. Year after year, we've been using more and more plastic. We need to change that trend to be using less virgin material, more recycled content, making sure that less plastic is going into our environment, particularly into our oceans, where it's creating such problems.
As well as the Global Plastics Treaty, investment in recycling, the reviews we're doing of packaging, we're working with the states and territories to make sure that they're able to collect that soft plastic in the first place. With the collapse of REDcycle, we've been working with these supermarkets to reestablish instore collection of soft plastics. And, of course, that's been rolling out in the first instance here in Melbourne. But we want to see more effort from the supermarkets right across Australia to reestablish that soft plastics collection in supermarkets.
But ultimately, of course, we have to work with states and territories, and the local government, to see more soft plastic collection capacity because we're never really going to get on top of the soft plastics issue until we have broader collection of soft plastics. We've got a Circular Economy Advisory Group making sure that our government is working on a circular economy. And, of course, our government Sustainable Procurement Policy makes sure that big projects, like infrastructure projects where the Commonwealth Government is spending a lot of money, prioritise sustainability in procurement.
So, the products that you're seeing here today, with recycled plastic being used for sleepers, sound buffers for highways, they're exactly the sort of things that the government's Sustainability Procurement Policy will encourage the purchase of.
JOURNALIST: Yeah, I've got some questions. Why won't you go to the Bush Summit in Orange on Thursday and answer questions from the local community about why you rejected the proposed gold mine?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: OK. Well, I've been to the Bush Summit. I went to the opening night in Townsville and to the following day in Townsville, and I have, of course, been to the Bush Summit in years past. I've got other engagements on Thursday and they're longstanding. But I would say this – your question suggests I've rejected the gold mine. I simply haven't. And let's be very clear here. I have said that the gold mine can go ahead but the company needs to find a new site for the tailings dam. We're talking about a 2,500 hectare site and I've said that the tailings dam can't be built on 400 hectares, which represents the headwaters and the springs of the Belubula River. The reason I've made that determination is because the Wiradjuri Traditional Owners have told me that this area is significant to them.
When Juukan Gorge was destroyed, we all said that we can't continue to allow the destruction of Aboriginal cultural heritage in the way that has happened in Australia. That means that, occasionally, projects will have to avoid areas that are culturally significant for First Nations Australians. That's the decision I've made in this case.
I’d also say that the group that I have taken advice from, the Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Corporation, is the same group that the previous Minister, Sussan Ley, took advice from when she made exactly the same decision under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act to prevent work on the top of Mount Panorama. Same group I took advice from, for the same reasons, in a site around 50km away.
I’ll also make very clear to you that as well as not preventing the gold mine going ahead, saying instead, we have to protect the river for its significance, this is a project that has been controversial in the local area. There is not universal support for it. And to suggest that there is universal support for it is not right. Any other questions?
JOURNALIST: Why won't you release all the information made available to you, including information from the local Indigenous group, that led to the decision to not back the mine?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I’ve made very clear the reasons. But you've said again that I've knocked back the mine, that's simply not right. You simply continue to suggest that the mine has been knocked back. That's not right. And you need to get the details right if you're going to ask questions about this. I have said that the tailings dam needs to be relocated. This is a 2,500 hectare site, of which 400 hectares has been protected because it is culturally significant. And there's plenty of information on the public record. I've done multiple interviews on this. I've made it clear on social media. There is plenty of information about the reasons for my decision, including the fact that this is an area where young men were brought for initiation. It's been used for thousands of years. It's significant because it's got two Creation Stories associated with it. The suggestion that there's not public information available about this – it is wrong. There's a wealth of public information that I have referred to and that the Wiradjuri Traditional Owners have referred to as well.
JOURNALIST: I've just got four questions for you. The first one I've got is, how are your discussions progressing with the Coalition and the Greens on the Nature Positive laws?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I'm talking to both the Liberals and Nationals, and to the Greens, about support for the second tranche of our Nature Positive legislation. And we passed the first tranche of our legislation at the end of last year, which included an expansion of the water trigger. That means better protection for water resources when there's an unconventional gas [indistinct], for example. And we also established our Nature Repair Market in that first tranche of laws. Our second tranche of laws has passed through the House of Representatives, going to be soon going to the Senate. I would say to the Greens political party that they should support these laws because it establishes Australia's first ever Environment Protection Agency with strong new powers with the ability to levy massively increased fines for deliberate wrongdoing and environmental destruction. Because these new laws establish Environment Information Australia to give us much better information about how we can avoid threatened species and better protect our environment, as well as support job creating, economy driving proposals.
I've said to the Liberals and the Nationals that they should support these laws because, as well as better environmental protection, we'll get faster, clearer decisions for project proponents. Everybody agrees that our environment laws, as they are at the moment, are not fit for purpose. Professor Graeme Samuel, when he reviewed those environment laws for the previous government, said that they had to be completely overhauled. I'm keen to do that work. And I believe that both the Greens and the Liberals and Nationals should be supportive of this second tranche of the legislation because it balances better, stronger environmental protections with faster, clearer decisions for business.
JOURNALIST: Do you agree with Jim Chalmers that Peter Dutton is the most divisive leader of a major political party in Australia's modern history?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I certainly think Peter Dutton is deliberately divisive. But I would also say, here we are, three years into a three year term of government, and we have an Opposition that has no policies to address cost of living. It has, frankly, no costed policies at all. And as well as that, they're now saying that they want to make $315 billion in cuts to the Budget. So, nothing for cost of living and $315 billion worth of secretive cuts. I think they're the questions that Peter Dutton should be answering right now. What is his plan?
I'm out campaigning all the time in my own electorate and around the country, and I tell you what people are raising with me day after day. It's pressure on the family budget. That's why our government has a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer, it's why we supported wage increases that have increased the minimum wage by around $7,000 a year. It's why we support cost of living measures like electricity relief, cheaper child care, cheaper medicines, free TAFE. And it's why we're investing in job creating opportunities, like the one we're visiting today.
Our government is firmly focused on the cost of living, which is top of mind for every Australian right now. Peter Dutton has got no policies to address cost of living, he's got no costed policies at all. All he's got is a secret plan for $315 billion worth of cuts.
JOURNALIST: Chris Minns says he's disappointed the Blayney gold mine has been torpedoed by you. Did you consult him beforehand?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I’ve just reminded you that my decision does not apply to the gold mine. The gold mine can go ahead as long as they are prepared to relocate the tailings dam so that it doesn't permanently destroy the river. The company itself has said that they investigated four different sites for the tailings dam, with 30 different design proposals. The company has said that there is $7 billion worth of gold in the ground. I think if there's $7 billion worth of gold in the ground and they've got four alternate sites that they've looked at, then perhaps it's in their interests to take up the New South Wales Government's offer to help them design a new tailings dam location that doesn't permanently destroy the river.
JOURNALIST: The EU has announced a ban on the importation of anything linked to deforestation from next year. The biggest supermarkets in the UK say they won't sell any either. Would you like to see Australia with a similar policy?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, look, I think this is a really important decision for Australian business because it shows why it's important for Australian businesses to start to think about their risks when it comes to their impact on nature, and the opportunities they have of being nature positive. I know that there are Australian farmers who are the best stewards of their farms, they love the environment that they live in. Many have lived in that same environment for generations and they care about the natural landscape around them. They want to be nature positive. As a government, we are offering them opportunities to demonstrate their nature credentials. And when they do that, they get better access to those high value markets, like the ones we see in Europe. Australia is an absolute frontrunner to be able to sell into markets that are looking for those nature credentials, because we're good at it. We're going to be establishing a Nature Repair Market next year that will give Australian farmers, and Australian businesses, another opportunity to demonstrate their nature credentials.
END
