Shadow Minister for the Environment and Heritage Penny Sharpe was in Newcastle today to talk banning the plastic bag with Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp and local environmentalists.
They've labelled the governments in-action over the issue as a disgrace, with five other state's and territories planning to or have already banned plastic bags. Not only that, supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles have recently announced they'll be phasing out the plastic bag.
Newcastle, and the Hunter, has a highly regarded coastal environment and Labor say the risks to marine wildlife are too great for the government not to act.
"There are no more excuses left. The community supports these bags, most of Australia has banned the bag and now most of Australia is stepping up but we need to make sure it's not just the supermarkets but every retail outlet,"
The facts about plastic bags almost speak for themselves, Penny Sharpe says 30 per cent off the rubbish which enters the ocean is based on plastics with estimates it kills up to one million seabirds, countless fish and 100,000 sea mammals a year throughout the world.
On a smaller scale throughout Australia, 159 single-use plastic bags are used every second which means more than 10 million new bags every day. In NSW up to 61 million bags are littered each year.
"I've had hundreds and hundreds of people contact my office about banning plastic bags. Look Newcastle is all beautiful, magnificent beaches and Novocastrians love their beaches and the last thing they want to see is plastic bags littering them and getting into the ocean killing animal life," said Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp.
"I don't think people do realise how it does break down and does get into the ecosystems in the oceans. It gets right down into the guts of so many fish that get eaten by other fish, chokes turtles, chokes dolphins and kills so many marine life that we all love and want to live."
