The National Waste Policy Action Plan 2019 is an agreement between the Commonwealth, state and territory governments, industry and stakeholders that establishes a series of goals and targets to avoid waste and improve resource recovery. These include a ban on the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres by 2024, reducing total waste generated in Australia by 10 per cent per person, 80 per cent average resource recovery from all waste streams, and halving the amount of organic waste sent to landfill by 2030.

In 2020, the Commonwealth announced $59.6 million to implement its commitments under the plan, alongside $190 million for a Recycling Modernisation Fund to be delivered by states and territories under National Partnership Agreements. Commonwealth commitments under the plan include establishing nationally consistent definitions and specifications by 2020, developing a legislative framework by 2020 to ban waste exports, evaluating and improving the product stewardship framework by 2021, and improving and sharing waste data by 2022.

This audit would examine the effectiveness of the implementation of the Commonwealth's commitments under the plan, as well as its arrangements to coordinate the plan's early delivery.