QUEENSLAND BANS THE BAG – NSW SHOULD FOLLOW

28 March 2018

The Queensland Government has announced it will impose a ban on single-use plastic bags from 1 July 2018 leaving New South Wales the only remaining state not to take any action.

South Australia (2009), the ACT (2011), the Northern Territory (2011) and Tasmania (2013) all have bans in place.

Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria have all indicated that they will act this year.

In addition, Woolworths, Coles and Harris Farm Markets have agreed to a voluntary ban on plastic bags.

Yet the Berejiklian Government still refuses to follow suit.

A Foley Labor Government will ban single-use plastic bags in 2019, if elected on 23 March 2019.

In 2016, NSW Labor introduced legislation – Plastic Shopping Bags (Prohibition on Supply by Retailers) Bill – into the NSW Parliament to ban single use plastic bags in NSW.

The NSW Labor Bill was defeated on 19 October 2017 by the NSW Liberals and Nationals – 20 votes to 17 votes.

The environmental impact of plastic bags on the environment is stark. They include:

Every second, 159 single-use plastic bags are used in Australia – which is more than 10 million new bags each day;
In NSW, up to 61 million bags are littered each year;
More than 70 per cent of the rubbish entering our oceans is identified as plastic;
The average time a plastic bag is used between the shop and home is 12 minutes before it is discarded; and
Plastic kills up to one million sea birds, countless fish and 100,000 sea mammals each year.

Comments attributable to Paul Scully MP:

“New South Wales is now the only jurisdiction in the country without a ban on single-use plastic bags.

“All the other States and Territories and even major supermarket chains have taken action to ban the use of single-use plastic bags.

“Yet the Berejiklian Government still stubbornly refuses to take any action.

“NSW Labor has already tried to ban the use of single-use plastic bags by introducing a Private Member’s Bill into the Legislative Council, which was defeated by the Berejiklian Government in October 2017.

“If the Berejiklian Government still refuses to follow the path of other Australian States and Territories and supermarkets to ban the bag, a Foley Labor Government will do it if elected on 23 March 2019.”