Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS (NOTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2003 (NO. 1) 2003 NO. 121

STATUTORY RULES 2003 No. 121

Issued by the authority of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing

Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989

Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Amendment Regulations 2003 (No. 1)

The object of the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989 (the Act) is to provide for a national system of notification and assessment of industrial chemicals for the purposes of aiding in the protection of the Australian people and the environment, to provide information and make recommendations about industrial chemicals to Commonwealth, State and Territory bodies, to give effect to Australia's obligations under international agreements and to collect statistics in relation to these chemicals.

Section 111 of the Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

The purpose of the regulations is to introduce consistency between information required for a Commercial Evaluation Permit (CEP) and that required for other notification and assessment categories in the Act.

The regulations require applicants for a CEP to provide a summary of the chemical's health effects and environmental effects. The CEP system under Division 1A of Part 3 of the Act allows a manufacturer or importer of a new industrial chemical to bypass the stringent assessment certificate system under Divisions 2 and 3 of Part 3 of the Act. The CEP system applies where the introduction of a new industrial chemical is required for the sole purpose of commercial evaluation and authorises the applicant to introduce up to 2,000 kilograms of the chemical for a period not exceeding two years. Currently applicants for a CEP are only required to provide a minimal data set to the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS). The amendment adds a small but important information requirement for a CEP to introduce consistency between the information required for a CEP and that required for other notification and assessment categories under the Act. For example, applications for assessment certificates for new industrial chemicals and applications for permits to introduce small quantities of new industrial chemicals require that information.

Details of the regulations are set out in the Attachment.

The regulations commence on gazettal.

ATTACHMENT

Details of the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Amendment Regulations 2003 (No. 1)

Regulation 1 states that the title of these Regulations will be the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Amendment Regulations 2003 (No. 1).

Regulation 2 provides for these Regulations to commence on gazettal.

Regulation 3 provides that Schedule 1 amends the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Regulations 1990 (the Principal Regulations).

SCHEDULE 1-

Item 1 in effect adds new paragraph 6A(c) to the Principal Regulations. New paragraph 6A(c) requires manufacturers and importers making an application to NICNAS under the Commercial Evaluation Permit System (Part 3 Division 1A, section 21D(2)(b) of the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989) to provide a summary of the industrial chemical's health effects and environmental effects.