Tremain Chris: Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Approvals and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Tremain Chris: Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Approvals and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:830] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 I would like to take this opportunity to speak to Part 2 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Approvals and Enforcement) Amendment Bill but before doing that I want to review the purpose of the bill. This bill aims to improve the workability of the hazardous substances provisions of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. When I was doing some research prior to this people were telling me that it was a droll bill to be considering but as a new member of Parliament I thought that the hazardous substances may have had more to do with recalcitrant members of this House. But as time went on and as I looked through the pages of the bill I did not see the names of Rodney Hide or Winston Peters there. So as I got deeper into the research on the bill I found it had more to do with chemicals and a vast variety of other hazardous substances. 
Putting that aside let us look at Part 2 which provides for the insertion of a new Part 6A “Group standards” into the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. Today I would like to address five areas within Part 2. Firstly I will address new section 96C regarding the notification of group standards and secondly new section 96D regarding the issuing of group standards; thirdly I would like to focus on the efficient and effective management of group standards in new section 96D which is a very key issue; fourthly I will look at the most effective means of dealing with the standard which is in new section 96D(1)(b); and lastly I will focus on considering the best use of group standards in terms of international practice. 
I turn firstly to new section 96C to look at group standards in general and the issue of group standards. I believe that this provision which allows group standards to be put by notice into the  
Gazette 
 will improve the efficiency with which we are able to bring hazardous substances into the marketplace generally. I think it will speed up the process significantly and will allow for our farmers our manufacturers and our entire economy to put hazardous substances into the marketplace quicker which is generally a good thing for the Act and for the economy. 
I move to new section 96D which covers when group standards may be issued or amended and I will focus on new section 96D(1)(a) which provides that the authority must be satisfied that issuing or amending group standards is a more efficient and effective way of managing the risks of all hazardous substances. I think it is a very important point that before those substances are brought into the marketplace the Environmental Risk Management Authority which is responsible for making the decisions seriously takes heed of this particular point. In issuing group standards it must be certain that there is a more efficient and effective way of managing the risks posed by those substances. New section 96D which provides that the authority must be satisfied that issuing or amending group standards is a more efficient and effective way of managing the risks of those hazards is pointless. All that provision does is to increase the bureaucracy and the costs of bringing those materials into the marketplace rather than improve the ease of bringing new hazardous materials into the marketplace which would allow our businesses to be innovative and grow. 
I move to new section 96D(1)(b) the fourth point I will focus on which states: “(i) the benefits associated with a reduction of environmental and health risks outweigh the economic costs associated with complying with the group standard;”. That is a very important point. When we bring new hazardous substances into the marketplace we should consider whether they will have a much better economic benefit for our farmers or for ourselves. So bringing them in is as important an issue as the compliance costs or the regulations that we put on bringing those hazardous substances into the marketplace. 
Lastly I would like to focus on new section 96D(d) which raises a point that Nick Smith brought up early in the debate on this bill. When we bring in hazardous substances we need to focus on the best international practices and standards for the safe management of hazardous substances. I think that point out of anything is very important. Nick Smith talked a lot about having joint standards across New Zealand and Australia.