State 'soft' over plastic bags
The Victorian Government has been accused of letting industry decide environment policy after replacing a promised compulsory plastic bags levy with a system run voluntarily by retailers. Victorian Environment Minister Gavin Jennings this week announced a pilot scheme by the Australian National Retailers Association representing major supermarket chains that will charge up to 25 cents a bag at the checkout. This followed federal and state environment ministers failing to agree on a national scheme to phase out plastic bags by the end of the year.