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About the Bill

On Thursday, 26 March 2026, the Hon Andrew Powell MP, Minister for the Environment and Tourism and Minister for Science and Innovation, introduced the Waste Reduction and Recycling (Strengthening the Container Refund Scheme) Amendment Bill 2026 (Bill) into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill was referred to the Health, Environment and Innovation Committee for detailed consideration.   

View: Explanatory speech
View: Bill
View: Explanatory Notes
View: Statement of compatibility

On 16 October 2025, the Committee tabled its Report No. 14, 58th Parliament - Improving Queensland’s Container Refund Scheme. The Committee made 21 recommendations which included improving the governance, transparency and accountability of the Scheme. The Bill gives effect to the Queensland Government’s response to the Committee’s report, which was tabled on 26 March 2026.

Accordingly, the overarching purpose of the Bill is to improve oversight and governance arrangements of Queensland’s Container Refund Scheme (the Scheme).

To achieve this objective, the Bill amends the Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011 to:

• clarify that the Product Responsibility Organisation (PRO) is a unit of public administration for the purpose of the Crime and Corruption Act 2001 to enhance oversight mechanisms for the Scheme
• require an annual audit of the PRO Board by an independent auditor and enable the Minister to require an audit of the PRO
• establish a fixed term for appointment of the PRO and renewal framework
• require that the majority of directors of the PRO Board be independent of the beverage industry and ensure the composition of the PRO Board includes expertise in waste and recycling, local government, community and social enterprise capability
• establish that all directors must be appointed by the Minister with fixed term appointments and regular renewal
• expand the functions of the PRO to include supporting environmental or community programmes as well as the development of infrastructure required to recycle or transport waste in Queensland
• adopt legislative safeguards to prevent unfair conduct by the PRO
• require the development of a governance and investment plan which will include the investment and allocation of surplus and retained scheme funds
• require the development of a network of container refund points plan that will detail the plan for expansion of the Scheme’s network and ensure that the economic viability of the existing return points is considered
• provide for Scheme pricing to consider the impact on small beverage manufacturers and enable exemptions to provide relief for small beverage manufacturer; and
• allowing eligible container lids to be collected and recycled through the Scheme.

The explanatory notes anticipate that these legislative changes will incur some financial cost to implement enhanced oversight of the Scheme, but the Bill responds by introducing cost recovery of government expenditure through Scheme funds. This is consistent with other State jurisdictions.

Further information

Further information including written briefings, correspondence, response to submissions, transcripts and answers to questions taken on notice are available under the Related Publications tab.

Call for submissions

The committee invites submissions on any aspect of the Bill, from all interested parties.  Guidelines for making a submission to a parliamentary committee are available here: Guide to making a submission. Please ensure your submission meets these requirements.

Click here to make an online submission to the Bill.

If you are unable to provide a written submission, please contact the secretariat to discuss other options.

The closing date for written submissions is 10.00am on Wednesday, 15 April 2026. 

Submissions must include:

• the author’s full name
• if the submission is made on behalf of an organisation, the level of approval (e.g. a local branch, executive committee or national organisation), and
• at least two of the following:
• email address
• mailing address, and
• daytime telephone number.

Please ensure your submission includes the above or it may not be considered by the committee.

Please note: Your name and submission may be published on the committee’s inquiry webpage, which will mean it can be viewed on the internet. You can request for your name to be withheld from your published submission, or for both your name and your submission to be kept confidential (i.e. not published). Decisions about whether and how submissions are published are at the discretion of the committee.

PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS

The committee has scheduled a public briefing on the Bill by officers of the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation on Thursday, 9 April 2026, and a public hearing with invited stakeholders on Wednesday, 22 April 2026.  See timeline below for further information.

Committee’s report

The committee is due to table its report on Friday, 15 May 2026. The report will be published here.

Once the committee’s report has been tabled, the Government has three months to respond to the report’s recommendations (if any). At that time, the Government Response will be published here.

Timeline