QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator HODGINS-MAY (Victoria) (14:18): My question is for the Minister for the Environment and Water, Minister Watt. Minister, Labor has spent years promising stronger federal plastics packaging regulation. In 2023, Minister Plibersek conceded that voluntary targets are not working.

Now this Labor government is walking away from the national packaging reforms that it promised. This Friday's meeting of environment ministers is an opportunity for Labor to do what it said it would do. Minister, how many more rivers need to choke, how many more landfills need to overflow and how much more plastic needs to end up in our bodies before you finally do what industry, environmental groups and Australians are calling for and mandate a national packaging scheme?