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On March 14, 2022, the New Zealand’s Environment Committee published a report of the analysis and recommendations on the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Hazardous Substances Assessment) Amendments Bill (hereinafter referred to as the Bill) which has passed its first reading and was issued for public consultation on August 10, 2021 (CL news).
The Bill previously proposed to improve the process and make more information available for the assessments and reassessments of hazardous substances, mainly through the following aspects:
1. Enable the authority to recognize oversea bodies as “international regulators” if they meet certain criteria;
2. Improve the reassessment process, e.g., enabling the authority to temporarily restrict certain uses of a hazardous substance (subject to specific requirements being met); and
3. Add some technical amendments to assist in improving the overall implementation of the Bill, such as imposing penalties on offences that fail to comply with certain notices from the authority.
According to the report published before the second reading of the Bill, the Environment Committee has examined and agreed on all the above amendments. In addition, further amendments are proposed as below, including.
Adding Section 20B into the Clause 4 of the Bill to specify notification requirements when the authority makes certain decision, which requires the authority to give a copy of the decision to the applicants/submitters rather than just give written notice.
Adding Section 20C into the Clause 4 of the Bill to introduce a statutory requirement for the authority to develop a work plan that sets priorities for reassessments of hazardous substances.
Adding Section 74E(4) into the Clause11 of the Bill to provide an express power to amend notices about international regulators.
Notably, a strict liability offense for breaching a temporary restriction on the use of a hazardous substance will be created under the Bill, as well as a corresponding fine of not exceeding $50,000 for a natural person or $100,000 for other legal persons (such as a company).
More details can be learnt from this report (click to download the official document).
