Commencement information
Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
Provision(s)	Commencement	Date/Details
1. Sections 1 to 3 and anything in this Act not elsewhere covered by this table	The day on which this Act receives the Royal Assent.
2. Schedule 1	The later of: (a) the start of the day on which this Act receives the Royal Assent; and (b) the day on which the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, done at Rotterdam on 10 September 1998, enters into force for Australia. If the provision(s) commence on the day mentioned in paragraph (b), the Minister must announce by notice in the Gazette the day on which the provision(s) commenced.

Note: This table relates only to the provisions of this Act as originally passed by the Parliament and assented to. It will not be expanded to deal with provisions inserted in this Act after assent.

(2) Column 3 of the table contains additional information that is not part of this Act. Information in this column may be added to or edited in any published version of this Act.

3 Schedule(s)

Each Act that is specified in a Schedule to this Act is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this Act has effect according to its terms.

Schedule 1—Amendments

Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989

1 After Part 5

Insert:

Part 5A—Information exchange under the Rotterdam Convention

Division 1—Definitions

100D Definitions

In this Part:

Australia’s designated national authority means the Department, agency or person who is Australia’s designated national authority:

(a) for the purposes of Article 4 of the Convention; and

(b) for industrial chemicals.

Convention means the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, done at Rotterdam on 10 September 1998, as amended by any amendment of the Convention that has entered into force for Australia.

Note: The text of the Convention is set out in Selected Documents on International Affairs Series 1998 No. 4619. In 2004 this was available in the Australian Treaties Library of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, accessible on the Internet through that Department’s world-wide web site.

If the Convention enters into force for Australia, the text of the Convention may be set out in the Australian Treaty Series (also available in that Library).

notified industrial chemical means an industrial chemical that has at any time been the subject of a notification by Australia, or any other Party to the Convention, in any of the ways mentioned in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 5 of the Convention.

Secretariat means the Secretariat established under Article 19 of the Convention.

Division 2—Notification of final regulatory action

100E Notification of final regulatory action

Scope of section

(1) This section relates to Australia’s obligations under paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the Convention.

Director to notify Australia’s designated national authority

(2) The Director must notify Australia’s designated national authority in writing if the Director is satisfied that the Commonwealth has one or more laws banning or severely restricting the use of an industrial chemical in Australia.

(3) The Director must also notify Australia’s designated national authority in writing if the Director is satisfied that both of the following apply:

(a) one or more of the following:

(i) a State;

(ii) the Australian Capital Territory;

(iii) the Northern Territory;

have one or more laws banning or severely restricting the use of an industrial chemical in their jurisdiction;

(b) the law or those laws have the effect of banning or severely restricting the use of the industrial chemical in Australia.

(4) A notification under subsection (2) or (3) must:

(a) specify the industrial chemical; and

(b) specify the relevant provisions of the law or those laws; and

(c) contain the information set out in Annex 1 to the Convention to the extent that it is available; and

(d) occur as soon as practicable after the Director is so satisfied.

Australia’s designated national authority to notify Secretariat

(5) Australia’s designated national authority must then give the Secretariat written notice of the information set out in the Director’s notification.

(6) Australia’s designated national authority must do so as soon as possible, but no later than 90 days, after the first day on which all of the relevant provisions of the law or those laws are in force.

Director to make information available in the Chemical Gazette

(7) The Director must publish in the Chemical Gazette a notice setting out the information referred to in paragraphs (4)(a) and (b). The Director must do so as soon as practicable after the Director’s notification.

(8) The Director may also publish in that Gazette a notice setting out all or any of the information referred to in paragraph (4)(c).

Division 3—Exchange of certain information about industrial chemicals

100F Exchange of certain information about industrial chemicals

Scope of section

(1) This section relates to Australia’s obligations under paragraph 1(a) of Article 14 of the Convention.

Director to give information to Australia’s designated national authority

(2) The Director must, as soon as practicable after 1 February in each year, give Australia’s designated national authority such information of the kind mentioned in paragraph 1(a) of Article 14 of the Convention, as the Director considers appropriate, about a notified industrial chemical that was obtained during the 12 months ending on that date.

Australia’s designated national authority to give information to Secretariat etc.

(3) Australia’s designated national authority must then give the Secretariat the information as soon as practicable after receiving it.

(4) Australia’s designated national authority may also give a country that is a Party to the Convention, or the appropriate authority of such a country, all or any of that information.

Division 4—Information gathering

100G Director may obtain information and documents

Making of request

(1) If the Director believes on reasonable grounds:

(a) that a person has particular information or a particular document; and

(b) that it is necessary to obtain the information or document to allow Australia to comply with its obligations under the Convention;

the Director may request the person to give the information, or produce the document, to the Director.

Form of request

(2) A request given to a person under subsection (1) must:

(a) be made in writing; and

(b) state what information the person must give, or what document the person must produce, to the Director; and

(c) specify the day on or before which the person must give the information or produce the document (which must be a day at least 14 days after the day on which the Director makes the request); and

(d) specify how the person is to give the information, or produce the document, to the Director; and

(e) contain a statement to the effect that a failure to comply with the request is an offence.

Offence

(3) A person commits an offence if the person fails to comply with a request given to the person under subsection (1).

Penalty: 60 penalty units.

100H Self-incrimination

(1) An individual is not excused from giving information or producing a document under section 100G on the ground that the information or the production of the document might tend to incriminate the individual or expose the individual to a penalty.

(2) However:

(a) the information given or the document produced; or

(b) giving the information or producing the document; or

(c) any information, document or thing obtained as a direct or indirect consequence of giving the information or producing the document;

is not admissible in evidence against the individual in criminal proceedings other than:

(d) proceedings for an offence against subsection 100G(3); or

(e) proceedings for an offence against section 137.1 or 137.2 of the Criminal Code that relates to this Division.

100J Copies of documents

The Director may inspect a document produced under section 100G and may make and retain copies of, or take and retain extracts from, such a document.

100K Director may retain documents

(1) The Director may take, and retain for as long as is necessary, possession of a document produced under section 100G.

(2) The person otherwise entitled to possession of the document is entitled to be supplied, as soon as practicable, with a copy certified by the Director to be a true copy.

(3) The certified copy must be received in all courts and tribunals as evidence as if it were the original.

(4) Until a certified copy is supplied, the Director must, at such times and places as the Director thinks appropriate, permit the person otherwise entitled to possession of the document, or a person authorised by that person, to inspect and make copies of, or take extracts from, the document.

2 Application

Section 100E of the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989, as inserted by item 1, applies in relation to provisions of laws, where those provisions come into force after the commencement of that item.

 

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