Ivan Dean, Speeches Index

Thursday 25 November 2010

LITTER AMENDMENT BILL 2010

Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - Madam President, I will once again make a brief contribution. Of course I support the bill because very clearly we have not improved the littering situation as much as we would have liked. Once again, it is an award that we win that we should not be winning. We would like to be at the bottom end of the scale rather than at the top end of the scale.

This matter was raised yesterday with our friends and the aldermen from Ikeda talking about litter. They raised the issue of cigarette butts in particular. They were saying what they have done over there now to stop cigarette butt littering. They have imposed heavy fines. They were very interested in what I was trying to relate to them about what we were doing as well, and they were taking notes as I was talking to them.

They were saying that they were imposing quite heavy fines for anybody dropping a cigarette butt. They were trying to clean up their city because they see cigarette butt littering as a major problem for them.

Once again, when you look at the document that has been referred to in the second reading speech - Tasmania at a Glance - , it is an interesting document and it identifies how litter has increased and where it has increased in Tasmania. It refers to the items found per square metre and that number has gone up quite significantly. It is not just a slight increase but the work that has been done in the 2009-10 year identifies a rather large increase. I will just read the first part:

'The overall average number of items per 1,000m2 across all of the 76 sites surveyed within Tasmania during the counts in the year 2009/10 was 86, while the overall average estimated litter volume per 1,000m2 was 9.40 litres.'

There is a significant jump. It continues:

'The number of litter items per 1,000m2 represents an increase from pervious years (up from 64 items in 2008/09, 61 items in 2007/08, 70 items in 2006/07 and 59 items in 2005/06).'

Madam President, that is telling us that we need to do a lot more because there is nothing more offensive and embarrassing than to drive around with people who are guests from other areas and see litter lying around. They comment on it. I have had guests with me as I have driven around and they will identify litter. It is important that we put in place improved strategies to try to get on top of this.

Yesterday I was telling our Ikeda friends that now any driver who sees a person in another vehicle drop litter out the window can ring and make a complaint. They asked what happens in that case. What is the process from there? I struggled a little bit but I assumed that when a complaint was made there would be officers that would go out and interview the person, the registered owner of the vehicle, and if it was found that it was somebody else they would probably interview that person in relation to that offence; on that interview they may or may not then elect to give them an infringement notice. Then they said well, what happens if they deny it? I said, well, I suspect that if there is no other evidence other than that of the one person, perhaps they would not proceed. They would probably need to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the offence was committed. So perhaps the Leader might be able to cover that point.

In the second reading speech, we are told of the number of offences, a total of 2 123 reports received in 2008 - I think that is the number of complaints that have been made since it has been accepted that you can report online and by phone. So, 2 123 reports were received and 971 infringement notices were issued. So, I am sort of deducting that perhaps out of that 2 123, 971 probably willingly accepted the offence and that the others did not and/or complaints were made against many of the others and they were not proceeded with or they went to court and were defeated. I would just like an explanation if it can be given there.

Mr Parkinson - Could you just repeat that because I have just noticed some changes in the occupants of the House -

Mr DEAN - Right, okay. We have been told that 2 123 reports were received and I suspect that they were received over the period of time that this has been in place, but only 971 infringement notices were distributed or given out as a result of those complaints made. Our Ikeda friends from Japan raised this with me. My question is, since only 971 notices were issued after 2 123 reports, did the others say they did not do it or you have got the wrong person, or was there not sufficient evidence to follow it up with? I am interested to know why there is that big difference between the number of complaints and the number proceeded against.

I want to touch on cigarette butts too but before I leave littering generally, we in the Launceston City Council, which is a similar example I guess to most other councils, know that to run a tip is very costly.

Mrs Taylor - We do not have tips anymore.

Mr DEAN - We do.

Mrs Taylor - They are waste management systems.

Mr DEAN - Oh whatever; waste management, tips or whatever. They are very expensive to run whether they are called a tip or waste management centre. The Launceston City Council now normally annually increases the fee to keep up with CPI adjustments and the other adjustments that are necessary. So, the more you increase the cost of a vehicle going to a management centre to deposit litter, the more you might see scattered around the roads and dumped in areas where it should not be dumped, in off-road tracks. I suppose you could deduce from that, if we had free visits to these waste management centres then we might not have anywhere near the amount of litter that we have now distributed around the roads. I know that there are some property owners just out of Launceston on the Lilydale Road who have had to specially fence their properties and have put special boom gates in to stop people entering their properties and dumping rubbish. It has become a fairly big issue. But, unfortunately, waste management centre prices have to continually go up. It is going to happen and that is a given.

Madam President, the other thing I wanted to know about was the butts situation. I quote from page 96 of the same report:

'Cigarette butts were the most frequently identified item across all sites in Tasmania with 56 butts per 1 000 square metres being dropped.'

I raised this yesterday in another bill. Cigarette butts are a big problem, making up about 50 per cent of all litter. In volume, of course, they are small, but in the number of items they are very high. Not only do they look terrible, they are environmentally damaging to our waterways and systems. I just wonder how much emphasis we place on this. I really do ask that question. I asked in another forum about three weeks ago in the Launceston City Council how many infringement notices had been issued for littering in the past 12 months. I asked about butts as well and they had issued none - not one. But if you walk around the streets of Launceston, it is a disgrace. Outside Henty House, for instance, walk outside there on any day, and it smells like some smoke-infested area. I think the member for Launceston often does not go out one door because of what is happening and elects to go out another way because -

Mr Wing - I seldom go out the rear entrance because people go there to smoke.

Mr DEAN - The smoke in itself is terrible but the butts are just as bad and strewn all around the place. I walked through the Elizabeth Mall in Hobart last week and I counted the butts as I wanted to know how many I could find there since they brought in the new legislation. I counted six butts. On the Friday, I walked through the Launceston Mall and I counted about 60 to 70 butts and that was just walking up one side. So we need to do a lot more about this. It is a problem. I will certainly support this legislation. The headline in the Examiner, I think it was after this legislation went through the lower House, was 'Dob in Plan to Fight Litter'. It is a great concept and I think the more people that we can have out there, dobbing in those who are dropping litter, the better. It is a great strategy and we need other people to help us with this to get on top of it. If we give it a lot of publicity and let people know that there are people out there watching and willing to report because they are fed up with this litter, it might have some impact.

Mr Parkinson - I was in Singapore recently and you do not see litter there.

Mr DEAN - You do not, and I was going to mention that. I visited Singapore just after Christmas and you just do not see cigarette butts.

Mr Hall - Nor any other litter.

Mr Parkinson - No chewing gum, no paper.

Mr DEAN - No. It is a $500 fine, and the Singapore dollar was equivalent to the Australian dollar when I was over there. You can also be shamed there. On a second offence you are given a jacket to wear and it has imprinted on the back -

Ms Rattray - A shame jacket?

Mr DEAN - Yes, it is a shame jacket. It is a fluorescent type of jacket and under supervision those people are required to go around the streets for a certain period of time cleaning up the streets. They really are passionate about keeping their streets clean and it is an indictment on us that we have the dirty award for litter. It is not something to be proud of at all. I admire our officers who have obviously taken the effort to try to bring in the legislation that is necessary to fight this.

In today's Examiner, there is another letter from a well-known Launceston identity, Mr Bill Carney, who is very passionate about Launceston. He raises the issue about littering and I will quote part of his letter to the Editor:

'What a mess wherever smokers congregate to have their little puff, then discard their bumpers on the ground, leaving a nasty mess for someone else to clean up.

Unfortunately, these piles of cigarette butts are mostly not cleaned up, but left as an eyesore. A classical example of this litter is outside the Launceston General Hospital in Charles Street.'.

He makes a strong message. I will support the bill; anything to make our cities and towns cleaner.

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