Mackey Moana: Waste Minimisation Bill — In Committee 
Mackey Moana: Waste Minimisation Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:648;Page:17575] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I want to jump up and take just a quick call on this part. I feel that we are all on the same page here and I do not want this evening to be one of all of us getting up and saying the same things over and over again— 
Jacqui Dean 
: Oh no no! 
MOANA MACKEY 
: —no matter how wonderful the speeches are I say to Jacqui. I endorse what has been said. 
This is an important part dealing with product stewardship and it is probably one of the most important parts of this bill. When we think about it logically it just seems sensible that when someone is purchasing a product it is probably the best time to make that person aware of the costs that come with disposing of that product and the packaging at the end of it. If we can all think about that up front then it will allow people to make choices about the products they purchase while realistically having a sense of the costs of that product both on them and on the environment at the end of that product’s life. 
We have seen this in the emissions trading scheme where we have been looking at the issue of products that contain refrigeration gases and the importance of product stewardship schemes. These gases are so greenhouse-gas intensive that if they leak into the atmosphere the effects will be far worse than many of the other gases we are talking about when it comes to climate change. But if these gases are contained then they have absolutely no impact on the environment at all so why should the people who produce them be penalised for that? It just goes to show the importance of product stewardship schemes not just when it comes to waste minimisation but also when it comes to climate change. 
I know that there has been some concern—and that Zero Waste in particular has indicated that it would like to see some kind of modelling or some kind of leadership taken—about directing the way in which these product stewardship schemes are run. Zero Waste is worried that if it is left to industry alone to deal with this it might be too onerous and it might not happen. Also participants like Zero Waste may not have the opportunity to get involved in it. We have talked about that a bit tonight. We have discussed the importance of leaving this to the industry to work it out. There are many good product stewardship schemes out there already and there are a number of voluntary schemes out there too. We have given them the ability to become accredited if they so wish and I think that that probably is the best way to go. 
I would mention to anyone who may be concerned about this issue that the Local Government and Environment Committee did consider this issue. We took it very very seriously. I think it can be seen from the agreement amongst members of the Committee of the whole House today about the importance of these schemes that probably all parties will be willing to monitor the situation and to come back to it if it becomes an issue. But I think we felt that the desire to do it was already out there and that perhaps we did not need to come down on schemes too heavy-handedly in terms of us directing what is best for them when they are already doing a pretty good job of doing some of those things. 
The priority list of products is very important. When we were going through it it became very tempting to end up with everything being a priority product so it will be a difficult task to make sure that we get up front those products that need to be dealt with first. 
Generally I think that the changes the select committee made were good. I acknowledge the work of Steve Chadwick the former chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee who took the bill through the first part of its consideration. I came in once all the hard work had been done and took it through its last part. I acknowledge of course the former member Nandor Tanczos for his work on the bill and also the current member Russel Norman. I hope that we get to see this bill complete its Committee stage tonight.