Dr Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Environment spokesperson
The Greens will be bringing our Single-use Plastics Bill on for debate next week in Parliament. We can’t keep waiting for the Liberals to act.
Single-use plastics are often used for minutes and discarded. They make up a third of the litter on our streets and in waterways.
Plastic items like cutlery, bowls and straws end up in the environment harming birds and marine life, and break down to contaminate our food chain. They’re expensive and difficult to clean up.
Our Bill is an easy legislative fix that would reduce the impact on our precious native species. Every other state and territory has committed to banning single-use plastics. Under the Liberals, Tasmania lags shamefully behind.
We’re following the lead of our Green colleagues on Hobart City Council – who successfully pushed for Hobart to become the first jurisdiction in Australia to ban single-use plastics in March 2020.
Under the dithering Minister Jaensch, Tasmania is the national laggard. We’re tired of waiting for the Liberals, so the Greens are taking action.
We’ll be bringing on our Waste and Resource Recovery Amendment (Single-Use Plastics) Bill 2022 for debate in our Private Members Time next week. We hope Labor and the Liberals will follow their state government colleagues in other states and support this solution.
The Greens’ Bill is here: https://tasmps.greens.org.au/bill/waste-resource-recovery-amendment-sing...