Local Nuisance and Litter Control (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill – Second Reading speech

Thursday 16 May 2024 

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (16:04): I am pleased to rise to speak on this bill, as I hope it will have a positive impact on my community. The location of my office, right next to Westfield Marion, does mean that I can see out of my office window and there are invariably abandoned trolleys nearby. Unfortunately, if they have been there a long time, they turn into rubbish bins, which nobody wants to touch. Recently, I have been doorknocking in Oaklands Park and the amount of trolleys dumped along the train line is extraordinary. In fact, I was speaking to one woman who counted 42 abandoned trolleys on her walk back to her house one day. 

This bill will introduce sensible measures to ensure timely collection and clear identification of trolleys. The changes will benefit the retailer, customer and our general community. The retailer should likely lose fewer trolleys, the customer hopefully have cleaner trolleys and the general community will have an environment free of plastic or metal pollution. The dumping of shopping trolleys is a considerable issue for a number of councils and an issue not unique to South Australia. However, it is timely that we update our laws to remove trolleys from our streets, parks and unfortunately from our waterways. 

I note, too, that this bill will apply not only to major supermarkets but to any retail premises that provide them to customers as part of their business. You will often see trolleys provided by hardware stores, liquor stores, office suppliers, pet suppliers and even discount stores. As the minister outlined in her second reading explanation previously, the City of Marion reported collecting more than 230 shopping trolleys around the Westfield Marion and Castle Plaza shopping centres in just four days—a considerable issue to be managed. 

This bill strikes a balance between the needs of the retailer and the needs of the community by not placing unreasonable expectations or penalties on retailers, particularly for small business, while also seeing trolleys removed from the environment in a timely manner, not the significant delay that we often see in some areas. 

It can sometimes be hard to identify who is the responsible owner of the trolley, therefore this bill will require a business that provides shopping trolleys to ensure that they are marked or have securely attached to them the trading name of the business, a contact telephone number, email address or QR code that can be used for the reporting of trolleys left in a place outside the business premises. 

This provision will require minimal change by retailers, as many do have the trading name on the trolleys and may just need to add contact details so the trolley can be returned if it is abandoned. For existing stocks of trolleys, a weatherproof sticker containing the required information will be sufficient, and for new stock, the information can be incorporated into the branding on the trolley or through the application of such weatherproof stickers. 

This bill requires trolleys that are causing a hazard to be collected immediately and the collection of abandoned trolleys that are not causing a safety hazard within three days, this being three business days in recognition of some traders not working seven days a week. For one-site retailers and limited site retailers, such as office suppliers or large liquor retailers, it is easy to identify the source of the trolley. However, for supermarkets and other multisite retailers, the origin of the trolley can be unclear, so the nearest store will be responsible for the removal of the trolley. 

Recently, a resident contacted my office about plastic debris from a factory blowing onto a footpath and into the adjacent waterway. While I have been out park running on a Saturday morning along the Sturt River, I have, unfortunately, seen trolleys at the bottom of the river. This bill will hopefully reduce this. 

The bill also addresses particular areas of local nuisance, being the installation of an air conditioning unit or an external light. Whilst most properties will have these items installed, they should not affect neighbouring properties. You do not need the hum of an air conditioning unit or the blinding light from a neighbour's security light keeping you awake at night. The sound of an air conditioning unit can provide great stress on people and also, if it is interrupting your sleep, have a great impact on the productiveness of the next day for you. 

The bill places the responsibility now on installers of air conditioners and external lights to give due consideration as to the placement of this equipment so that it does not cause local nuisance. Prevention is indeed better than cure. Additionally, this bill inserts a new section 30A, which will allow councils to register a nuisance abatement notice to land. These notices apply controls regarding local nuisance that are caused by fixed equipment such as noisy air conditioners, pool pumps or external lights and will ensure they are applied to new owners of property given the source of the nuisance transcends ownership. This is currently not possible. 

I am pleased to see the introduction of a general duty to prevent or minimise litter generated from a business. This duty may be reasonably met through the provision of adequate bins for customers, reduced packaging, or signage advising customers to dispose of their waste properly where litter from customers or product is concerned. We are pleased to hear this. With more business development occurring in the electorate and particularly as we see more small service stations and small fast food retailers coming into our community, we find them at the end of residential streets, and the impact of litter on those can be very detrimental. 

Additionally, currently the installation of stormwater management systems such as gross pollutant traps and oil plate separators is often a requirement of development approvals; however, there is no obligation upon businesses to maintain them. That changes under this bill, again protecting our waterways and oceans. 

A definition of 'property' will be added in this bill to ensure that bill posting or flyering provisions can be accessed by the owners of car parks where flyers are being posted on vehicles within the car park without the permission of the owner of the car park. Currently the owner of a car park, where much of the litter can end up, has no recourse to stop the practice from occurring. 

Councils will, additionally, gain an avenue through this bill to recover costs in situations where they clean up litter because it is a hazard to the community before the identity of the alleged offender is known and, at a later date, the alleged offender is identified. The current act only allows cost recovery where councils clean up following noncompliance with a litter abatement notice, which provides unnecessary delay if a hazard exists. 

Lastly, this bill delivers more efficient processes for assessment and issuing of exemptions and differing expiation amounts for body corporates and natural persons to achieve greater deterrence for businesses that may otherwise absorb expiation fees into the cost of doing business. This bill will put measures in place to improve our environment and public realm, and I commend it to the house.