The new operator of Canberra's popular tip shops has not been incentivised to charge higher prices or accept fewer items by new reporting requirements in the contract, the City Services Minister says.
Tara Cheyne said the new contract, awarded to the St Vincent de Paul Society which has taken over from The Green Shed the operation of two sheds where goods destined for landfill can be resold, had new reporting obligations.
"The new contract does contain reporting requirements to ensure that the territory is able to monitor and to detail the amount of goods received, the value of goods received, and transparently account for how they are reused in the community," Ms Cheyne said in Legislative Assembly question time on Tuesday.
But Ms Cheyne rejected the suggestion from the Greens' Jo Clay that the requirements would push up prices and reduce the amount of material the new operator, Goodies Junction, could accept.
Ms Clay noted in her inaugural speech to the Assembly she had worked with the team that operated The Green Shed before entering politics.
Ms Cheyne said the new contractor must have an acceptance and rejection policy to be agreed in partnership with the ACT government.
"The government's not being prescriptive in how the contractor achieves this. And the contractor is encouraged to propose efficiencies in collecting this data, so that reporting is simplified," she said.
"It does not require the operator to weigh every item received but rather to price items in a transparent way."
Ms Cheyne said the government needed the data and did not accept the suggestion the contract contained "elaborate tracking requirements".
"I do not shy away that we need to have the data so that we know what the measurements are and so we know how we're tracking towards and against targets. My understanding is that the contract was not able to detail minimum recycling requirements because the previous reporting under the old contract was not available," Ms Cheyne said.
The Green Shed, a private company, in March lost the contract to operate two reusable facilities, located at the Mugga Lane tip and the Mitchell waste transfer station. The decision was met with community opprobrium.
Operation of the two sheds was handed over to Goodies Junction, operated by the St Vincent de Paul Society, last week.
The new operators have said items will be priced, unlike the arrangement with The Green Shed where customers took items they intended to purchase to the counter to be priced by staff.
"We expect pricing to be the same," Vinnies director of commercial operations Lindsay Rae told The Canberra Times last week.
Goodies Junction has already opened for donations and will open for sales on July 1.
