Goudie Sandra: Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Approvals and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Goudie Sandra: Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Approvals and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:828] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 Speaking to clause 20 I say it is interesting to look at what the group standards allow because there are two different ways in which this happens. Section 96A in clause 20 states the purpose is “to issue amend and revoke standards … for groups of hazardous substances … that have a similar nature are of a similar type or have similar circumstances of use so that the risks of the grouped hazardous substances can be effectively managed by 1 set of conditions.” A number of submitters did recognise that there was perhaps a saving in that regard—that it would not increase compliance costs but would actually reduce them. It is a bit of a surprise that the current Government has come up with something that might be useful but perhaps it was the participation of the National members on the select committee that brought that about. 
The Environmental Risk Management Authority issues group standards by notice in the  
Gazette 
 and a notice is a regulation for the purposes of the Regulations (Disallowance) Act 1989 but is not a regulation for the purposes of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989. As a consequence group standards are a type of instrument commonly referred to as deemed regulations and are subject to the following requirements: presentation to the House within 16 days of being made scrutiny by the Regulations Review Committee and disallowance. So I guess that raises the question about their being issued within a reasonable time frame which was mentioned by my esteemed colleague Eric Roy. He made a fantastic contribution and it was very perceptive of him to have picked that one up. So there is a time frame around when that notification is required to be made. Group standards would not be subject to other requirements that apply to statutory regulations which include drafting by parliamentary counsel Cabinet approval and inclusion in the statutory regulations. 
So yes this move will reduce the costs to industry by lowering the number of applications businesses would have to make to the Environmental Risk Management Authority which is a good thing and it will provide simpler prescriptive alternatives to the technical controls and regulations which have been difficult to implement to date. In turn that will give industry a lot more certainty on exactly how to comply. 
But there was some concern about consultation with affected parties and a recommendation was made around that issue to ensure that industry and other affected parties have an opportunity to comment during the development of group standards. I am unsure whether that is actually being considered and recognised within the provisions of this bill so perhaps the Minister might like to take a call and let members know whether he has supported the ability for affected parties to be part of the consultative process in the establishment of group standards. Of course that move will result in a more robust outcome which is what we all want to see as it helps to encourage compliance in the industry. So I hope those concerns are noted. 
One of the other concerns raised was the duplication of the Resource Management Act with regard to group standards for regulating waste that has hazardous characteristics. As was mentioned in one of the submissions under section 31 of the Resource Management Act territorial authorities are required to control any actual or potential effects of the use development or protection of land including the implementation of rules for the prevention or mitigation of any adverse effects of the storage use disposal or transportation of hazardous substances. The Resource Management Act has a broad definition of “hazardous substance” which includes but is not limited to any substance defined as a “hazardous substance” in section 2 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996. Therefore that definition would include imported and manufactured hazardous substances registered under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act but would not be limited to them. So that whole section of the Resource Management Act refers to hazardous substances and we now have the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. Perhaps the Minister might like to take a call to clarify that relationship between the two Acts so that the responsibilities and the use are clearly defined because we do not want to see any confusion about who is responsible for what and where. I think it is very important that those matters are clarified and perhaps the Minister could take a call on that. 
It is pretty disappointing that the opportunity was not taken during the process of this bill to perhaps streamline some of the provisions for increasing our biodiversity in this country because we cannot develop our entrepreneurial skills in our agricultural sector if we cannot import.