How beverage companies joined forces to attack Baird recycling scheme

Kirsty Needham
February 8, 2015
The Sun-Herald
Beverage giants Carlton and United, Lion and Coca-Cola colluded in a secret plan to attack the Baird government’s proposed cash for containers recycling scheme, leaked emails reveal.
A group of 15 company executives and industry lobbyists held regular conference calls, and circulated emails, as they shared tactics and reported back on their meetings with politicians.
A “to do” list shared among the rival companies in December included Lion calling on Victorian environment minister Lisa Neville and Coca-Cola asking Queensland Premier Campbell Newman to “reach out” to the NSW Environment Minister Rob Stokes to get him to change his mind.
They also sought to enlist key Liberal Party figures including federal MPs Greg Hunt, Angus Taylor, Josh Frydenberg and Craig Laundy, as well as Barry O’Farrell’s former chiefs of staff Anna McPhee and Peter McConnell, now a Woolworths executive, to “assist with NSW”.
Mr Stokes took the container deposit scheme to a NSW cabinet meeting on December 17.
Brewers Association chief executive Denita Wawn told the group she had provided material opposing the scheme to the alcohol adviser in Deputy Premier Troy Grant’s office “who has assured me it will be included in the brief to the Deputy Premier”.
The lobbying of MPs ahead of the cabinet meeting included Lion external relations director Leela Sutton scheduling meetings with Police Minister Stuart Ayres, Disability Minister John Ajaka and Liberal MP Geoff Lee.
A spokeswoman for Mr Ajaka said he hadn’t disclosed the meeting with Lion on December 9 in his ministerial diaries because it wasn’t related to his portfolio.
Mr Ayres cancelled a December 16 meeting with Lion because of the Lindt cafe siege.
The executive director of the Association of Convenience Stores, Jeff Rogut, was tasked with warning off Nationals MP John Barilaro, the “to do ” list shows.
The Australian Food and Grocery Council’s director of communications James Mathews contacted the federal MP for Hume, Angus Taylor, to lobby Planning Minister Pru Goward. His response suggested a rift between Ms Goward and Mr Stokes that could be exploited.
Mr Mathews reported back to the group on December 11: “Spoke to Angus Taylor he said Goward needs the info but will usually oppose Stokes.”
Mr Taylor told the Sun-Herald the email wasn’t a true representation of his conversation with Mr Mathews, who is a constituent.
“I would have said Pru is very strong minded and motivated by policy and makes up her own mind. The truth is she plays the issue and not the person,” Mr Taylor said.
Most of the lobbying is undeclared in official ministerial disclosures, because it is made in phone calls and emails to ministerial staff, or to senior politicians who lobby on the group’s behalf.
Challenged on whether the beverage companies campaign exposed weaknesses in the Baird Government’s lobbying reforms, government sources point out the industry lobbying was ultimately unsuccessful.
Premier Mike Baird wrote to the industry on January 30 to inform them his government favoured the introduction of a container deposit scheme and invited the companies to get on board.
Cabinet is yet to make a final decision on the design of the scheme, but electoral material was circulated last week in Mr Baird’s seat of Manly promising the government would undertake the reform to clean up the environment.
The beverage companies continue to oppose it.
Carlton and United Breweries director of external affairs Jeremy Griffith said the company had “very real concerns” about offering a 10 cent deposit to encourage recycling.
Mr Griffiths claimed a NSW scheme could encourage cross-border smuggling of cans. “It will be difficult to stop the shipping of empty cans into NSW from interstate to claim the deposit. A truck full of crushed cans could generate up to $130,000 a load,” he said.
Coca-Cola group head of public affairs, Helen Karlis, said it was “entirely legitimate for industry to work together, through its industry associations, to make submissions and have its collective concerns heard”.
She said Coca Cola Amatil has been working in good faith with the NSW Government to develop a litter solution since mid-December.
Lion’s Ms Sutton said: “Since receiving feedback from the NSW Government on its policy objectives we have been engaging in good faith on the development of a litter and recycling program that will achieve the Government’s targets.”
Lion donated $47,000 to the NSW Liberals at the 2011 election and $65,800 to the federal campaign last year.