Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

·              That this bill be now read a second time.

I am pleased to introduce the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Amendment (Cosmetics) Bill 2007. The bill presents amendments that deliver on the government’s commitment to reforming the regulation of cosmetics, creating long-term, sustainable and competitive advantage for the cosmetics industry while ensuring the continued safeguarding of health, safety and environmental standards.

The bill makes a number of changes to the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989. The act establishes a system of notification and assessment of industrial chemicals to protect health, safety and the environment and to provide for registration of certain persons proposing to introduce industrial chemicals. The Department of Health and Ageing, through the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme, NICNAS, administers the act.

As part of the government’s broader initiatives to reduce regulation, NICNAS established the Low Regulatory Concern Chemicals Task Force to investigate reform of the regulation of chemicals of low regulatory concern. While many of the reforms recommended by the task force were implemented through amendments to the act in 2004, the proposed reforms in relation to cosmetics regulation were further developed through a Cosmetics Implementation Working Group. In particular the working group was tasked with examining reform options to address interface issues relating to the regulation of cosmetics by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and NICNAS.

In November 2005, the government endorsed the proposed reform of cosmetic regulation in Australia—as reflected in the Regulation of cosmetic chemicals: final report and recommendations—including the establishment of NICNAS Cosmetic Guidelines. It was also noted that the reforms would be underpinned by legislation.

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