The ACT Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the Canberra Liberals’ promise to repeal the territory’s plastic bag ban, but the Greens are vowing to try to block the move.
Opposition Leader Zed Seselja confirmed yesterday that his party would seek to overturn the ban on thin plastic shopping bags.
Shop owners would be able to choose whether they brought them back and gave them away.
Chamber ACT chief executive Chris Peters said businesses would be delighted if the ban, which began last November, was repealed.
”We opposed the introduction of the legislation to start with. We believe it is a solution looking for a problem and it has achieved nothing from the point of view of rubbish in the community, because with a tiny number of exceptions, we didn’t have any to start with. What it has seen is an inconvenience to the public,” he said.
Repealing the ban would have no logistical issues for business, and reduce costs for those giving away the thicker, legal bags.
Supaexpress Richardson owner Marinos Haridemos is enthusiastically backing the Liberals’ policy. He gives away the legal bags, but at about 10c each they cost him double the more traditional thin ones. However, his customers appreciated it.
He also believed the ban also had an unintended consequence of increasing shoplifting, as people were able to hide items in the bags they brought into the store.
The territory’s history of minority governments means the Liberals will likely need cross-bench support to be able to repeal the ban, which was put in place by Labor and the Greens.
”I would hope that if we come into government that there be some respect that there is a mandate for changes and whether that is from the cross bench or the [Labor] opposition,” Mr Seselja said.
But Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury said his party would not support overturning the ban, regardless of the election result.
”This is a backward step for Canberra. The ban is now in place, it is reducing the use of plastic bags in the city, and the proposal as I understand it will only see an increase in plastic bags,” he said.
”We are open to considering adjustments in the legislation, for example, whether we move to insisting that only biodegradable bags can be offered. These are the sort of positive approaches that could be taken.”
Environment Minister Simon Corbell said he would wait to see the results of the departmental review into the effectiveness of the ban. This will report in November, just after the October election.
”People are doing the right thing. They are being proactive, they are reducing the use of plastic bags, they are relying on reusable bags that have less impact on the environment, but we will commence a thorough review of the operation of the plastic bag ban,” Mr Corbell said.
He noted the Liberals had gone to the 2004 election calling for plastic bags to be banned. But they voted against the ban when it was debated in the Assembly in 2010.
Mr Selseja said he did not feel he needed to wait for the results of the review. ”I think it is important that that information is put out there ahead of the election so people can make judgments, but I think that certainly there is enough evidence [to repeal the ban],” he said.
