Canberra hospitality sector dumps on new waste levy
A decision to introduce a new levy on food waste has been slammed by Canberra's hospitality sector.
The ACT government’s levy charged on commercial waste companies dumping food waste in the territory's landfills is expected to raise almost $20 million in the next four years.
But the hotel industry is worried it will dampen confidence in the sector which is already battling commercial rates rises.
The 2019-20 budget shows the government expects to spend $10 million over four years to upgrade the Hume recycling centre to accept food waste and start planning a broader ACT-wide food and garden organics waste service.
But the program would be funded by a levy expected to raise $18 million over four years, rising from $1.4 million in 2019-20 to $4.7 million the following year.
Estimates suggest the levy would then raise about $6.2 million in 2021-22, before falling to $5.8 million in 2022-23, while the cost of the recycling program it would fund would rise each year from $1.6 million in 2019-20 to $3.4 million in 2022-23.
Speaking to The Canberra Times, the Australian Hotels Association's ACT branch general manager, Anthony Brierley, said the levy amounted to a new 7 per cent tax on the hospitality industry with no warning or discussion.
"This new rubbish tax coincides with the government's extortionate commercial rates increases, the highest payroll tax in the nation, and extraordinary rises in electricity prices - from which the ACT government receives a healthy dividend," he said.
"It's about time the government stopped seeing the hospitality industry as its private piggy-bank, and instead institutionalised constructive and proactive engagement."
Sheridan Randall, 7th June 2019
