Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be summing up on the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Amendment Bill 2015. I thank the member for Tangney and the member for Throsby for their contributions. As we have discussed, this bill amends the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 to ensure that Australia's regulation of radiation activities remains international best practice. Radiation protection and nuclear safety is a dynamic area. It is constantly evolving. International approaches and industry practice have changed a lot since 1998, and Australia needs to remain at the forefront of these changes. Australia is fortunate to have a strong regulator in the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency—ARPANSA. The regulatory scheme has stood the test of time and provided Australians with essential protections, but the time is right to update the legislation and to ensure that ARPANSA has the powers it needs for the decade ahead. To this end, this bill improves capacity for end to end risk management and provides ARPANSA with greater powers to monitor compliance with the legislation.

The amendments also support the CEO of ARPANSA to better respond in the event of an emergency by enabling the CEO to issue directions to licence holders to minimise any risks to people and the environment in unforeseen circumstances. Importantly, all action taken by ARPANSA in response to noncompliance or to emergencies will continue to be reported quarterly and annually to the parliament, and also publicly on the ARPANSA website. This ensures that there is absolute accountability and transparency about the radiation activities being undertaken by Commonwealth agencies and about the actions taken by the regulator.

Consistent with this government's commitments, the changes do not have any financial impact and nor do they increase any compliance burden for individuals, business or community organisations. The amendments simply update and improve the legislation.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

See this speech in context