New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ENVIRONMENTALLY HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS ACT 1985 - SECT 3

3 Definitions

(1) In this Act, except in so far as the context or subject-matter otherwise indicates or requires:
"approved" means approved for the time being by the Authority.
"authorised officer" means a person authorised in writing by the Authority to act as an authorised officer for the purposes of this Act.
"Authority" means the Environment Protection Authority.
"chemical" means any chemical element or any chemical compound or complex, whether of known or unknown or variable or invariant composition, by whatever means created, discovered or obtained, including any such element, compound or complex that is a complex reaction product or a component of any mixture or that may be characterised as biological material, but does not include:

(a) a physical mixture,

(b) a substance of a prescribed description, or

(c) a radioactive substance, within the meaning of the Radiation Control Act 1990 .

"chemical control order" means an order in force under section 22 or 23.
"Committee" means the Hazardous Chemicals Advisory Committee constituted under section 6.
"container" includes any receptacle and any covering.
"convey", in relation to a chemical or any chemical waste, includes carry, load, unload, transfer, transmit, pump and discharge the chemical or waste.
"Court" means the Land and Environment Court.
"declared chemical waste" means a substance the subject of an order in force under section 10.
"environment" includes all aspects of the surroundings of human kind, whether natural or artificial and whether living or inanimate.
"environmentally hazardous chemical" means a chemical (other than a declared chemical waste) the subject of a chemical control order.
"licence" means a licence that is in force after having been granted under this Act, whether it is an original or a renewed licence.
"licensee" means the person to whom a licence is granted under this Act.
"occupier", in relation to any premises, means the person in occupation or control of the premises and, in relation to a part of any premises where different parts are occupied or controlled by different persons, means the person in occupation or control of that part.
"plant" includes any equipment, apparatus, device, machine and mechanism.
"premises" includes a place (whether or not a public place) and a vessel.
"prescribed activity", in relation to a chemical or any chemical waste, means the act of manufacturing, processing, keeping, distributing, conveying, using, selling or disposing of the chemical or waste or any act related to any such act.
"prohibited activity", in relation to an environmentally hazardous chemical or a declared chemical waste, means a prescribed activity the carrying on of which in relation to the chemical or waste is prohibited by a chemical control order.
"public authority" means:

(a) a public authority or local authority constituted by or under an Act, or

(b) a person or body prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph,

but does not include an authority referred to in paragraph (a) which is exempted, for the purposes of this definition, by the regulations.
"public place" includes:

(a) a public road or a public reserve, as respectively defined in the Roads Act 1993 and the Local Government Act 1993 , and

(b) a place that is open to the public, or is used by the public, whether or not on payment of money or for any other consideration, whether or not the place is ordinarily so open or used and whether or not the public to whom the place is so open, or by whom the place is so used, consists only of a limited class of persons.

"regulations" means regulations made under this Act.
"vehicle" includes an aircraft.

(2) In this Act:

(a) a reference to a function includes a reference to a power, authority and duty, and

(b) a reference to the exercise of a function includes, where the function is a duty, a reference to the performance of the duty.