Benson-Pope David: Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Approvals and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Benson-Pope David: Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Approvals and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:728] 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 I move  
That the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Approvals and Enforcement) Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. This debate marks another step in delivering the Government’s hazardous substances strategy to improve the workability of the hazardous substances provisions of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. The strategy does three things. First it improves the way the provisions work for business; secondly it improves the way they work for the Government; and thirdly it improves the way they work for the environment and the health and safety of all of our people. 
The strategy was designed to achieve these sometimes competing objectives. It is able to do so largely because of the way in which it came about. It was conceived developed and refined in partnership with industry. We shared our ideas and we had more ideas to bring together. It was the inclusiveness of the process that enabled the strategy to deliver on sometimes conflicting objectives. This bill is a key deliverable in that strategy. Its primary functions are to introduce a new approval mechanism known as a group standard to add regional councils as hazardous substances and new organisms enforcement agencies that may enforce the Act to increase the ability to set practical exposure limits that protect people and the environment and to improve the workability of rapid assessment and reassessment and several other provisions including those for exempt laboratories. 
Through these functions this bill will reduce costs to both the Government and industry; most important reduce barriers to innovation; and better protect the environment and the health and safety of people in our communities. 
 The new group standard mechanism is the major contributor to realising those benefits. Group standards will reduce costs by reducing the number of applications that businesses need to make to the Environmental Risk Management Authority and by providing simpler prescriptive alternatives to the technical controls and regulations. Group standards will also reduce the Government cost to transfer approximately 110000 notified toxic substances to the full hazardous substances and new organisms regime by 1 July 2006 the statutory end of the transition period. 
Group standards will also be able to be made for wastes and manufactured articles that have hazardous properties that exceed hazardous substances and new organisms regime thresholds. Applying group standards to those wastes or articles will reduce risk to people and the environment associated with storage transport and through to disposal. Group standards have become an important tool for implementing the New Zealand waste strategy. 
The bill was referred to the Education and Science Committee on 22 February this year. The committee received 26 submissions and thoroughly considered the bill. The committee has reported back to the House recommending that the bill be passed with the amendments shown. I thank the chairman and the committee for their timely work on this bill. 
Submitters generally expressed support for the measures in the bill. Strong support was given for the new group standard mechanism for the involvement of regional councils in hazardous substances and new organisms regime enforcement and for other measures that improve the workability of the legislation. The select committee has made a number of changes as a result of submissions received. I draw the attention of members to some of those changes. 
The change to clause 6 ensures that the register of exposure limits is able to record the parts of a substance for which the exposure limits can be set. The change to clause 9 clarifies when the rapid assessment provision can apply—that is to a substance with lesser hazardous properties than any substance already approved. The change to clause 10 adds reference to the storing of a substance to the provision for containment approval that is used for substances formulated packaged and labelled as for export only. 
The change to clause 14 clarifies that a modified reassessment can only change an approval not revoke an approval—to revoke an approval would require a full reassessment. Changes to clause 20 clarify the operation of the new group standard mechanism. The first change spells out each of the four situations in which a group standard can apply. The term “product” is defined to ensure that wastes and manufactured articles to be managed under group standards exceed the hazardous substance thresholds. Another change ensures that a proposed group standard will be notified and accessible to the public that public input will be sought and that full consultation will take place. 
Changes to section 96F and section 96G inserted by Part 2 clarify the effect and applicability of group standards—that a group standard creates an approval for the substances in the group and that a group standard transfers substances out of the traditional provisions and into the main part of the hazardous substances and new organisms regime. 
Other changes to the provisions regarding the group standards mechanism provide improved clarity such as the re-evaluation of the controls applying to a substance that is already approved in the light of new data or information. 
The amendments have tightened and improved the bill and I commend the Education and Science Committee for its work. I will move further amendments when the House moves into Committee on this bill. The first of these amendments will remove a legal circularity that prevents New Zealand from meeting its obligations under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants which includes polychlorinated biphenyl. I will also move amendments that further clarify the Environmental Risk Management Authority’s consultation obligations around group standards and provide consistency around the Environmental Risk Management Authority’s powers to incorporate materials by reference in group standards and notices of transfer. 
Some submitters argued the line that if it is good for business it must be bad for the environment. This bill is not about environment versus economy. This bill is good for the environment and for the economy. It is very good for the people of this country. It represents a significant step in protecting the environment and improving the living standards of all New Zealanders. It will help us to reap the advantages of using hazardous substances without suffering their potentially adverse effects. It does that by managing the risks those substances present to us. This bill enables us to safely manage risks from a great many hazardous substances that have gone unmanaged before and in a much more efficient and appropriate way. The bill significantly improves the workability of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. It is good for business the Government New Zealanders and the environment. I am delighted to commend the bill to the House.