Senate debates

Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Bills

Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment (Removing Re-approval and Re-registration) Bill 2014; In Committee

12:38 pm

Photo of Richard ColbeckRichard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Xenophon. We do have a different system. But, as I said a moment ago, we take the decisions of those other jurisdictions into account. That is an important element of our scheme. But ours is not a compulsory re-registration scheme. As I also said in my contribution earlier, one of the effects of the compulsory re-registration scheme in other jurisdictions is the loss of some chemicals because companies just do not re-register them. Their registration lapses and so industry loses access to chemicals that have been safely used for a long period of time. Companies choose just not to re-register them. So we are actually taking note of what is happening in those other jurisdictions. We cooperate with them. We have a different system, yes, but our system will not take off the market chemicals or actives, as they are termed, that just do not get re-registered because of the pure economics.

Comments

No comments