| AHV | Aboriginal Housing Victoria |
| CSV | Court Services Victoria |
| CV | Corrections Victoria |
| DELWP | Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning |
| DET | Department of Education and Training |
| DHHS | Department of Health and Human Services |
| DJCS | Department of Justice and Community Safety |
We prepare and table an annual plan before 30 June each year that sets out our work program and the resources we need to deliver the program. The annual plan is a key accountability mechanism that gives Parliament, the public sector and the Victorian community the opportunity to assess our goals and understand our audit priorities.
Independent assurance report to Parliament
Ordered to be published
VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT PRINTER June 2019
PP No 37, Session 2018–19
Dear Presiding Officers
We have consulted with the four agencies and two councils included in the audit, and we considered their views when reaching our audit conclusions. As required by section 16(3) of the Audit Act 1994, we gave a draft copy of this report, or relevant extracts, to those agencies and asked for their submissions and comments. We also provided a copy of the report to the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Responsibility for the accuracy, fairness and balance of those comments rests solely with the agency head.
Responses were received as follows:
A key policy objective of government is to reduce Victoria's reliance on landfill. Changing community behaviour to prioritise waste avoidance, re-use, and recycling will be key to achieving this. Landfills create social and environmental problems, including greenhouse gas emissions, soil and water pollution, and amenity issues such as odour, dust and vermin for surrounding communities. Therefore, we should save landfills for wastes that cannot be recycled or recovered.
Waste management is complex. It relies on varying types of infrastructure, private businesses, export markets, and multiple agencies across multiple levels of government. The potential impacts of failure of this system on human and environmental health are significant. As such, waste management is a critical function of government that warrants high levels of risk assessment and management to address factors that:
Government's planning and policy decisions need to be informed by reliable waste data.
While waste data collection is a shared responsibility among SV, EPA, councils and WRRGs, SV is responsible for the statewide oversight, coordination and reporting of waste data. SV provides two performance reports relating to waste—VLGAWSR and the Victorian Recycling Industry Annual Report (VRIAR).
As Victoria's population grows, so too does the volume of materials we discard. In 2016–17 available data suggests that Victoria generated 12.9 million tonnes of waste. SV predicts that by 2046 this will reach 20 million tonnes—an increase of 55 per cent.
Victorian residents and businesses threw away some 12.9 million tonnes of waste in 2016–17. SV predicts that this waste will reach 20 million tonnes by 2046. Metropolitan Melbourne accounts for around 80 per cent of total state waste.
Sustainability Victoria (SV) estimates from available data that in 2016–17 Victorians:
Victorians recover a range of recyclable material from three waste streams: