Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment Bill 2013

The majority agreed to a motion that the remaining stages of the bill be agreed to and the bill be now passed.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. ) This means that the majority of senators agree with the bill and want to read it for a third time, meaning that is passed in the Senate. Since the bill has already been agreed to in the House of Representatives, it will now become law.

Background to the bill

The bill was introduced to implement one of the Government's 2010 election promises. This promise was made in response to recommendations of the Australian National Audit Office and the Productivity Commission.(Read more about the background to the bill in its bills digest. )

It amends the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Code (the Agvet Code) which is a Schedule to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Code Act 1994 to:

• through a risk-based approach, improve: the consistency and transparency of the process for making, and assessing, applications for approval of an active constituent for a proposed, or existing, chemical product; and the registration of a chemical product and approval of a label for the containers of a chemical product

• insert a new requirement that existing approvals and registrations operate for a finite period and, when that period has elapsed, a new application must be lodged for re-approval or re-registration and

• update existing offences, create new offences and insert civil penalty provisions.(Read more about the background to the bill in its bills digest.

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