The South Australian Government is proposing reforms to modernise South Australia’s beverage container deposit scheme (CDS) via the draft Environment Protection (Beverage Container Deposit Scheme) Amendment Bill 2024. Proposed reforms focus mainly on scheme governance and system modernisation, however, the proposal includes the removal of the exclusion for wine glass from the ACT to include it in the REGULATIONS.
While on the surface this is being presented as government housekeeping to ensure all exemptions are together in one place (other exemptions from the CDS are included in the Regulations), the reality could be quite different. Placing wine glass in the Regulations would enable the government to remove wine glass from the Regulations with relative ease, as the delegated authority to amend the Regulations rests with the minister. If this were to happen, wine glass would no longer be an exclusion from the container deposit scheme in South Australia.
Amending regulations is generally quicker and not subject to parliamentary oversight or scrutiny in the same way a legislative amendment is.
Consultation on the reforms opened on Monday 2 September 2024 and submissions close on Friday 25 October 2024. Australian Grape & Wine will make a submission to the consultation and keep members updated.
