Explanatory Memorandum
(Circulated by authority of the Assistant Minister for Health, the Hon Dr David Gillespie MP)Outline
The Industrial Chemicals (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2017 (the Bill) is part of a legislative package that establishes a new risk-based regulatory scheme for the Commonwealth to continue to regulate the introduction of industrial chemicals in Australia. The scheme will see regulatory effort more proportionate to the level of risk to human health and safety or the environment from the introduction and use of industrial chemicals, while maintaining Australia's robust health, safety and environmental standards.
The Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS) will replace the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS).
The other Bills in the reform package include the: Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Amendment Bill 2017; Industrial Chemicals Bill 2017 (the Industrial Chemicals Bill); Industrial Chemicals Charges (General) Bill 2017; Industrial Chemicals Charges (Excise) Bill 2017; and Industrial Chemicals Charges (Customs) Bill 2017.
The main purpose of this Bill is to provide the legal framework to transition the old arrangements to the new and to deal with other transitional matters that arise from the enactment of the Industrial Chemicals Bill 2017 as it replaces the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) 1989 (referred to throughout this explanatory memorandum as 'the old law').
In summary this Bill has 2 Schedules - Schedule 1 addresses Repeals and amendments of Acts and has 3 parts. Schedule 2 contains transitional provisions across 8 parts. The main features of this Bill are that it:
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- repeals the old law, as well as the Industrial Chemicals (Registration Charge - Customs) Act 1997 , the Industrial Chemicals (Registration Charge -Excise) Act 1997 and the Industrial Chemicals (Registration Charge - General) Act 1997 (Part 1 of Schedule 1)
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- makes consequential amendments to Acts that reference the old law (Part 2 of Schedule 1), and
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- provides for certain matters under the old law to transition to being managed under the
Industrial Chemicals Act 2017
('the new law') (Schedule 2) by:
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- taking the Director and Authorised Inspectors under the old law to be similarly appointed under the new law (Part 3)
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- recognising people registered for the 2017 registration year to be considered registered under the new law (Part 4)
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- recognising existing approvals as approvals under the new arrangements (Part 5) and aligning permits issued under the old law with relevant approaches under the new law namely recognising:
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- commercial evaluation permits as commercial evaluation authorisations
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- low volume and controlled use permits as assessment certificates
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- low volume or low concentration exempt introductions as reported introductions
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- research, development or analysis as exempted introductions.
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- defining existing exempt information as confidential business information and identifying a process to manage applications for the protection of confidential business information for existing assessment certificates (Part 6)
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- recognising existing listings on the Australian Inventory of Chemical Substances as industrial chemicals listings on the Inventory established under the new law (Part 7)
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- establishing the power for the Minister to make transitional rules (Part 8).
Financial Impact Statement
The Bill has no financial impact on the Commonwealth, as it remains Government policy that the cost of the Commonwealth industrial chemicals scheme is fully recovered from the regulated industry.