New laws in the ACT for 2024

New tree protection laws, a ban on heavyweight and boutique plastic bags and changes to the hospitality sector to improve night-time economy took effect from 1 January 2024.

Plastic bags

The ACT Government has introduced a ban on all single-use shopping bags that are made fully or partially of plastic. This includes soft plastic bags greater than 35 microns in thickness, and bags made from plastic-laminated paper or cardboard.

The Government will monitor exemptions which will apply for certain plastic bags:

1. bags without handles

2. unsealed bags used to package perishable food such as fruit or cooked poultry

3. shopping bags made of nylon, polyester or woven polypropylene

4. non-woven polypropylene bags with a minimum weight of 90g/m² with sewn seams.

The ban follows the phase out of other single-use plastic items which have been introduced in three stages since July 2021. These include:

1. single-use plastic plates and bowls

2. expanded polystyrene loose fill packaging and expanded polystyrene trays

3. plastic microbeads in rinse-off personal care and cleaning products

4. single-use plastic straws (with exemptions for those who need them)

5. cotton buds with plastic sticks

6. all oxo-degradable plastics – these are often used in products like dog waste bags and rubbish bags and can be labelled as degradable

7. single-use plastic cutlery

8. single-use plastic stirrers

9. expanded polystyrene takeaway food and beverage containers

10. single-use plastic shopping bags at or below 35 micrometres in thickness.

Tree protection

New tree protection laws under the Urban Forest Act 2023 also took effect from 1 January 2024 to provide a stronger legal framework to protect, grow and manage Canberra’s trees.

The new laws not only retain Canberra’s leafy character, but make it more resilient to a changing climate by reducing the urban heat island effect.

The new laws protect more trees by:

1. classifying all public trees as protected

2. reducing the size requirements for protected trees on private land from 12 metres to 8 metres in height or canopy width

3. classifying dead native trees with a circumference of 1.88m or more as protected to provide essential habitat elements for local fauna

4. encouraging existing trees to be retained, including introducing new requirements to ensure trees that have to be approved to be removed are replaced or, where new planting is not possible, a financial contribution to support tree planting elsewhere

5. introducing a tree bond system to ensure trees are not damaged during construction work as our city continues to grow

6. expanding the ACT Tree Register which celebrates and protects our most significant trees.

7. improving compliance provisions, for example, the introduction of penalties for people caught damaging a tree or breaching a tree protection plan or direction.

If a protected tree is eligible and approved for removal, the applicant will be required to enter into a canopy contribution agreement with the ACT Government.

This disincentivises developers to remove trees in the first place. If trees have to be removed, it ensures that the canopy cover is replaced, either onsite or through a financial contribution to grow the canopy across Canberra.

The agreement sets out:

1. how many replacement trees are to be planted on the block to replace those removed, and

2. if some or all of the trees cannot be planted, what financial contribution is required to grow and enhance our urban forest.

Information sessions with industry were held last year to help educate stakeholders on the changes and the ACT Government will continue to engage with key stakeholders this year.

Night-time economy

In addition, changes have been introduced to further enhance the ACT’s nighttime economy and foster a more vibrant hospitality sector.

From 1 January 2024, the ACT Government is:

1. automatically allowing smaller licensed restaurants and cafes to trade until 2am

2. reducing liquor licensing fees for smaller restaurants, cafes, bars and general licences

3. removing the requirement for general licensed businesses to have separate areas for the sale of liquor for on-premises and off-premises consumption.