Dr WOODRUFF – The Australian Beverage Council has Tasmania listed as starting its CRS six months ago on its website. TOMRA welcomed the start at the beginning of 2022. Victoria is racing ahead with its CRS. It’s already contracted three network operators and those companies have contract certainty. Victorians are going to be getting 10 per cent for the containers they deposit by November. It’s taken them two years from announcing a scheme to getting one up. That’s how you stimulate and support a new industry.
Minister, you’ve taken four years so far. What’s happened to your CRS time frame? It was meant to start running this year but you haven’t even called for tenders. Is it going to start operating this year, as you’ve promised?
Mr JAENSCH – As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we are in the two-stage competitive tender process to appoint the scheme coordinator and the network operator. As part of this process we’re now working with a preferred scheme coordinator. We are committed, though, to taking time to get this right. We have advice regarding probity and the processes we need to ensure that we’re getting a competitive system for Tasmania. We’re also working across the table from large, experienced corporate parties who have negotiated these sorts of deals in the past. We need to make sure that we don’t take a knife to a gunfight and we do the job properly because this scheme’s going to be with us for a long time. It’s important that we get it right.
In the meantime, we haven’t been sitting on our hands. There’s a range of work underway while the tender process is operating, including to set in train changes to our planning system to accommodate the sorts of land use that collection points and refund points will represent. We have also drafted container refund scheme regulations. The regulations provide for operational elements of the scheme, including which beverage containers will not be part of the scheme, or be exempt, such as wine bottles and plain milk containers, the per container refund amount, the details that need to be included for container approval applications, and the process for transferring container approvals, circumstances where a refund will not be paid, the technical details for barcodes and refund messages and issuing future guidelines. That work is underway as well.
We are aiming at this stage to be able to announce our contracted partners to deliver this scheme this year. Then people will be able to see our container refund scheme rolling out somewhere near them.
Dr WOODRUFF – I have one follow-up question to the minister on the back of that. Minister, you accused me –
Ms WHITE – You come back to that after me. [Inaudible] about the order of questions.
Dr WOODRUFF – You had a bunch of them before we went to lunch.
Ms WHITE – Yes, because I get more than you.
Dr WOODRUFF – I want to finish up with the fact that the minister accused me and the Greens of being misguided in 2020 and said –
CHAIR – Order, Dr Woodruff.
Mr JAENSCH – Who did?
Dr WOODRUFF – You did. You accused me and the Greens of being misguided in the Mercury. You said we couldn’t be further from the truth in our criticisms of the slow progress of the container refund scheme. You said it’s on the public record that Tasmania has already committed to a container scheme by 2020. Minister, will you apologise for that comment and correct the record? It isn’t delivered by 2022. In fact, it’s not delivered by 2023. You continue to break promises and sledge the rest of us as we try to point out the fact that you’re snoozing on your portfolio.
Mr JAENSCH – Thank you. No offence taken there.
Dr WOODRUFF – I was offended. You can apologise. That’s fine.
Mr JAENSCH – I will always apologise if I’ve caused offence. I’m not apologising, though, for getting this scheme right. We’re a small jurisdiction –
Dr WOODRUFF – It sound like you don’t have the capacity you need.
Mr JAENSCH – We are being very careful with every step now, because the whole of the rest of the scheme is going to be built on the negotiations that we’re undertaking right now. We have very strong and clear advice on probity to ensure that we don’t get taken for a ride and that we deliver a scheme that is effective in its outcomes for the environment and the circular economy, but which is also affordable for the industries it involves, and for Tasmanians when they’re paying for their product in the first place. We need to get that delicate balance right because we’re going to live with it for a long time.
It has taken a lot longer than I had hoped for. I’m hoping, though, that later this year Tasmanians will be able to see and engage with the companies who are going to be involved in providing their refund points. They’ll be establishing their partners in our community organisations and in our local areas wherever we live across Tasmania and people will be able to see the scheme evolving. We know that they’re looking forward to it.
