{"id":944822,"date":"2026-10-29T06:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944822\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T06:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:08:16","slug":"i-use-disposable-cups-chris-minns-backflips-on-takeaway-coffee-cups-after-media-and-business-backlash-new-south-wales-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944822\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I use disposable cups\u2019: Chris Minns backflips on takeaway coffee cups after media and business backlash | New South Wales politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New South Wales government has backflipped on its plan to force cafes to offer customers who dine in the option of mugs and glasses instead of takeaway cups.<\/p>\n

Chris Minns\u2019 government will also ditch a law that would have required businesses to participate in a reusable cup scheme or risk a fine up to $110,000.<\/p>\n

Labor reversed its position a week after the legislation passed parliament, following a backlash from small businesses and News Corp Australia.<\/p>\n

The reforms were part of the Minns government\u2019s wider plan to reduce plastic waste given Sydney\u2019s landfill is projected to run out by 2030.<\/p>\n

The laws to be axed would have made it a requirement for cafes to offer mugs or glasses when customers dined in from 2028.<\/p>\n

The NSW environment minister, Penny Sharpe, told 2GB radio on Wednesday morning that the government would repeal the laws relating to mugs and glasses and the potential $110,000 fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know small businesses are under pressure and we want them to be able to operate in the way that they need to operate, to run their business,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always the plan that there would be extensive exemptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separate reforms requiring businesses to accept customers\u2019 own reusable cups<\/a> \u2013 so long as they are \u201cclean\u201d \u2013 will remain in place. So too will a law requiring single-use takeaway cups to be recyclable by 2028.<\/p>\n

The Daily Telegraph ran a front page last week<\/a> with the headline \u201c\u2018Nup\u2019 to the Cup\u201d. There were multiple stories with small business owners criticising the cost of participating in the reusable cup scheme.<\/p>\n

The Daily Telegraph front page<\/p>\n

When the legislation passed, the government said reusable cup schemes would \u201cnot be mandatory for small businesses\u201d. Trials would be run at government-owned venues including stadiums and office buildings, it said.<\/p>\n

The premier, Chris Minns, defended the legislation in an interview on 2GB on Tuesday, stating the government was \u201cnot getting rid of disposable cups anywhere in any place\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use disposable cups, most people use disposable cups,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know whether we\u2019ve done a good enough job of explaining the policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But on Wednesday, Sharpe said she had spoken with Minns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said: \u2018Look, do we need to mandate this?\u2019 Sharpe said. \u201cNo, we don\u2019t, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s really important that we need to clear this up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharpe has asked the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to issue a \u201cstatement of regulatory intent\u201d to make clear the government was not progressing with certain changes.<\/p>\n

The legislation won\u2019t be repealed until after the March 2027 election. Only two sitting weeks remain before parliament is dissolved.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the opposition had said if elected next year it would repeal the laws which it claimed \u201cadd another layer of regulation that is suffocating NSW businesses\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Labor has an aversion to real change\u2019<\/p>\n

The NSW Greens environment spokesperson, Sue Higginson, criticised the premier\u2019s \u201ccoffee cup captain\u2019s call\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said it was \u201ca sad day for the Minns Labor government when the Daily Telegraph has more sway on decisions that impact on our environment than the environment minister and the parliament of NSW\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think a single voter in NSW would balk at being asked to use a mug or a glass if they aren\u2019t taking away their coffee, and it\u2019s alarming that NSW Labor have capitulated on yet another environmental commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The director of the Boomerang Alliance, Jeff Angel, said the NSW backdown came after the federal government shelved a longstanding commitment<\/a> to introduce packaging standards intended to cut plastic waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the Minns government caves on reusable cups, one of the best ways to reduce plastic in the environment,\u201d Angel said on Wednesday. \u201cIt seems Labor has an aversion to actually making real change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minns, Sharpe and News Corp Australia were contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Labor is under pressure from the Coalition and One Nation. Both are running pro-small business platforms and pledging significant cuts to payroll tax.<\/p>\n

One Nation has said it would cut the tax employers pay on wages by half, slashing it completely in regional areas.<\/p>\n

Last week, Minns backed down from implementing changes to several local and regional rail line timetables after criticism from commuters.<\/p>\n

Another reversal came after the opposition leader, Kellie Sloane, attacked a breastfeeding policy for parliamentary staff which came into effect in October.<\/p>\n

Sloane on social media criticised the use of gender-neutral phrases \u201cparent,\u201d \u201ccarer\u201d and \u201clactating parents\u201d, with the story subsequently picked up by News Corp.<\/p>\n

Minns said the guidelines would be changed to reflect \u201ccommonsense language like \u2018mother\u2019 and \u2018breastfeeding\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Guardian Essential conducted last week suggested Labor and One Nation were neck and neck on 28% of the primary vote nationwide with the Coalition on 23%.<\/p>\n

Minns told 2GB on Tuesday that \u201cby any poll, by any measure\u201d, NSW\u2019s One Nation leader, Mike Newman, would be premier or opposition leader after the March poll.<\/p>\n

The premier has called on One Nation to cost its election policies through the NSW budget office but Newman has refused to commit the party to this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New South Wales government has backflipped on its plan to force cafes to offer customers who dine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-944822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}