WASTE LEVY — ADMINISTRATION
184. Hon TJORN SIBMA to the minister representing the
Minister for Environment:
I
refer to the answer the minister provided me on 25 May concerning the origin of
information that was provided in an answer to an earlier question about data
relating to the diversion of construction and demolition, or C&D, waste.
(1) Does the minister's answer imply that
official statistics derive from self-reporting of the operators themselves?
(2) If yes, what
specific process does the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation
currently undertake to validate the integrity of this self-reported
information?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following answer is provided on behalf of the
Minister for Environment.
(1) Recyclers are
required to report waste and recycling data annually under regulation 18C of
the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Regulations 2008. Regulation 18D
requires information to be calculated or estimated in accordance with gazetted
procedures approved by the chief executive officer.
In
relation to the waste levy, licensees must make a record under regulation 17 of
the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Regulations, and, under regulation
18, use these records to make a return in the approved form setting out details
of the waste received, and lodge this return with the chief executive officer.
(2) An audit program is undertaken each year to verify
the integrity of the data reported for a sample of returns. In addition,
validation is undertaken for each return. Returns are compared against data
reported in the previous year. Returns are also checked against data reported
under licence conditions.