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First phase of consultation - completed
In 2014 and early 2015 we considered the issues of agvet chemical regulation and developed a range of ideas to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our agvet chemical regulatory system and improve access to chemicals. These issues and ideas were presented in a public discussion paper in April 2015 (see below). We then engaged the chemicals industry, chemical users, state and territory governments and community members in a discussion about the merits of these reform ideas.
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Participating stakeholders showed a willingness to identify issues, explore ideas and to continue contributing to reform development.
There was general agreement to the reform objectives set out in the discussion paper. Overall, stakeholders supported reforms being made to improve the competitiveness of Australian producers by lowering the cost of regulation and improving access to chemicals for farmers and other users. Some individual proposals garnered more support than others and some specific feedback we received about all the measures enabled us to decide on whether to recommend proceeding further.
Stakeholders said the department should continue to pursue ways to:
- deliver improved access to chemicals, both to new chemicals entering the market and to new uses of existing chemicals
- increase efficiency in the regulation process and reduce red tape, principally by better aligning regulatory effort and burden with chemical risk
- improve the effectiveness of regulatory system overall to manage the risks agvet chemicals pose to people, animals and environment.
Second phase of consultation - completed
We used stakeholder views to refine the detail of possible individual reforms and to identify potential operational or implementation issues. We further developed the ideas, adding some suggestions raised by stakeholders and removing some other ideas that were not viable. These formed the basis of a second phase of stakeholder collaboration in late 2015 and 2016. Below is a collection of discussion papers, each addressing a specific area of reform. The papers detail the approach, issues and discussions and debates raised in the first phase of consultation on each area of reform.
Discussion papers
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Following the second phase of consultations and subsequent discussions with the APVMA and key stakeholders, the department has prepared the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment (Operational Efficiency) Bill 2017 and the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment (Streamlining Regulation) Bill 2018, as well as amendments to regulations. The government is also considering further improvements to agvet chemical regulation, including more amendments to regulations. Separately, the APVMA has committed to business improvement initiatives and to simplify the registration process for clients and stakeholders.