New Zealand Consults on Amendments to HSNO Act

The Environment Committee is calling for public submissions on the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Hazardous Substances Assessments) Amendment Bill (hereinafter referred to as the Bill). It was introduced to New Zealand’s parliament on 14 July, 2021 and passed its first reading on 10 August, 2021.The closing date for submissions is 3 October 2021.

The Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 (hereinafter referred to as the HSNO Act) is the primary legislation designed to manage hazardous substances across their life cycle in New Zealand. At present, the assessment and reassessment of hazardous substances in New Zealand is very time consuming and resource intensive. Delayed reassessments may also mean that chemicals continue to be used when their safety and environmental controls may no longer be fit for purpose. Therefore, the Environment Minister David Parker, said during the first reading of the Bill that it was introduced to improve the process for assessing and reassessing hazardous substances and to enable the EPA to make better use of relevant information from international regulators. The recorded video is available clicking here.

(The picture is taken from the video on the New Zealand Parliament website)

It should be noted that the changes being made relate to chemical substances, not to new organisms. The substances include the chemicals that are widely used in industry and in agriculture.

Proposed amendments to the HSNO Act include:

1. temporarily restricting certain uses of hazardous substances during a reassessment process;

2. providing a simplified process for the EPA to update hazard classifications of substances when the EPA has undertaken a recent assessment of a related hazardous substance;

3. enabling the delegation of some EPA decision-making;

4. aligning the time frames of assessment and reassessment of related hazardous substances;

5. setting specified criteria for the EPA to make rapid assessment for importation and manufacture of hazardous substances; and

6. including three technical amendments to correct omissions or ambiguous language.

The Bill also aims to increase the efficiency and transparency of the reassessment process by:

1. allowing the EPA to engage in targeted consultation about a hazardous substance

2. requiring the EPA to develop a publicly available work plan for any reassessment process.