Madam Speaker, I move that the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Approvals and Enforcement) Amendment Bill be now read a first time.

At the appropriate time I will move that the Bill be considered by the Education and Science Committee and that the Committee report the Bill finally to the House by 3 June 2005.

Madam Speaker, in June 2003 the government announced its strategy to improve the workability of the hazardous substances provisions of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996. This strategy was developed in close consultation with industry leaders and focused on improving workability to achieve the purpose of HSNO - that is, to protect the environment and the health and safety of people and communities by preventing or managing the adverse effects of hazardous substances.

This Bill is the second of two legislative actions identified in the strategy. This Bill, like the first one, deals only with hazardous substances. The first legislative change, the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Transitional Provisions and Controls) Amendment Bill, was passed in early 2004. This focused on removing immediate barriers to the transfer of hazardous substance management from the old regime to the new HSNO regime. The main barrier was the requirement to transfer substances by regulation. Transfer can now happen by Gazette notice. At the time that legislation passed last year I flagged the need for a further, more detailed, amendment to HSNO to improve the workability of the Act and to remove barriers to innovation and sustainable economic growth.

The key amendment in this current Bill is the provision of a new approval mechanism - known as a ‘group standard’. When ERMA is satisfied that a group standard is an efficient and effective way of managing the risks, they will be able to group substances based on similar type, use or risks (e.g. groups for paints, cosmetics and animal vaccines) and to set user-friendly conditions for the group.

Madam Speaker, because this Bill will improve the workability of the HSNO Act, it will reduce costs to industry and the government, while continuing to protect the environment and the health and safety of people and communities.

The group standards mechanism will reduce costs to industry by:
·reducing the number of applications businesses need to make to ERMA; and by
·providing simpler prescriptive alternatives to the technical controls in regulations, which small and medium enterprises have found difficult to implement. Through this legislation a group standard could say what ought to be on a label and how that label should look. This will give businesses a lot more certainty.

The group standards mechanism will reduce costs to government by providing ERMA an efficient way to transfer the vast majority of approximately 70,000 notified toxic substances to the full HSNO regime by June 2006. Without group standards, it is anticipated that transfer would cost the government in the order of an extra $2 million.

There is an additional aspect of the group standards mechanism that I believe is very important. Many wastes and some manufactured articles have hazardous characteristics that exceed HSNO thresholds. In other words, they really should be regulated under HSNO as they are, for instance, corrosive, eco-toxic, flammable etc.

However, HSNO controls cannot be applied at present because controls are linked to a HSNO approval and an approval is only needed if someone intends to manufacture or import a hazardous substance. Obviously waste by-products such as toxic wastes from pulp and paper and tannery industries are not manufactured or imported, so, to date, HSNO controls could not have been applied to them. This Bill changes that.

Waste by-products can be very dangerous and should be controlled. Existing legislation only goes so far. The Resource Management Act controls the discharge of waste but does not sufficiently manage the hazards posed by these wastes or articles – particularly during storage and transport. Nor does the RMA provide for tracking of such materials.

A new group standard on tanning waste for instance, would be able to control the containment and labelling of that waste prior to transport, treatment and disposal. Bringing such wastes into the ambit of HSNO is a significant advancement in environmental risk management and supports the initiatives of the NZ Waste Strategy.

Because hazardous wastes are not currently controlled by HSNO, a group standard for a hazardous waste may potentially increase costs to businesses producing the waste. However, the process of developing a group standard, includes public consultation, so businesses and industry will have the chance to have their say on whether the benefits of managing that waste outweigh the costs of doing so.

Madam Speaker, I would now like to turn to two other key proposals in this Bill. Firstly, the government has become aware that there are gaps in the enforcement of HSNO controls, particularly in the environmental area.

The Bill identifies regional councils as an agency that may enforce HSNO controls - thus gaining from the skills and experience regional councils have in environmental monitoring and enforcement, providing opportunities for efficiency gains, and promoting more comprehensive environmental protection regimes. This Bill will also enable regional councils to cost recover their checking for compliance with HSNO.

Secondly, for hazardous substances such as pesticides, the Act currently provides exposure limits as a key method to ensure safe use. However, very few exposure limits have been set because the process of establishing such limits is prescriptive and overly onerous to undertake at the same time as the substance is being approved. This Bill increases flexibility so ERMA can adopt an international value (so we don’t have to do each pesticide for example, ourselves). The values ERMA set can be used by regional councils as guidelines so they can then be adjusted for local conditions. Exposure limits will also be able to be set and applied for substances after the substance has been approved or transferred.

Madam Speaker, this Bill also contains amendments to make HSNO work better in specific cases for enforcement agencies, for businesses, for research institutes, and the New Zealand Defence Force. I list these for the information of this House.

For businesses:
1.extending the current rapid assessment process to include provision for substances that are reformulated to have lesser hazardous properties;
2.gaining efficiencies by narrowing the reassessment process when the focus is limited to specific aspects of the approval;
3.removing necessary costs by extending the provision for a containment approval to include hazardous substances imported for the purpose of re-labelling, repackaging or formulating for export;

For enforcement agencies:
4.gaining efficiencies by enabling Health and Safety in Employment inspectors to inspect for compliance with HSNO controls when using the powers of entry and inspection of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992;
5.improving information management by providing for a centralized register of test certificate information;
6.strengthening compliance and enforcement by enabling the cancellation of test certificates for approved handlers or approved fillers where incompetence, negligence or false information is involved;
7.improving the relationship with the Customs and Excise Act by enabling Customs to direct importers to re-export unapproved hazardous substances, and clarifying that s54 of the Customs and Excise Act, relating to prohibited imports, is a breach of HSNO;

For research institutes
8.supporting innovation by enabling sales between exempt laboratories and overseas provided the purpose is still for research and development or teaching;
9.supporting innovation by extending the activities of exempt laboratories to allow use of hazardous substances in any scientific investigations;

For the New Zealand Defence Force:
10.removing unnecessary costs by enabling Defence Force codes of practice and methods to be consistent with controls set by the ERMA on an approval or the default regulations;

For the administration of the Act:
11.improving the monitoring of risks by ensuring all diagnosing medical practitioners report injuries caused by hazardous substances; and

For emergency management:
12.providing for timely use of hazardous substances needed in emergency situations e.g. clean up of an environmental emergency.

Conclusion
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, this Bill includes a number of provisions, some of which represent a significant innovation for HSNO and some of which are targeted to address very specific barriers. Overall these provisions will greatly increase the workability of the Act, providing meaningful reductions in costs to industry and government, while not compromising the level of protection provided to the environment and the health and safety of people and communities. Further, for the first time, there will be provision for managing the effects of hazardous wastes and articles.

Madam Speaker, this Bill will ensure that the hazardous substances provisions of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act work better to deliver a key outcome the Act was intended to contribute to – a healthy environment for all New Zealanders.
Madam Speaker, I have asked that the Bill reported by 3 June. ERMA needs a year to organise and consult with the people onthe group standards for the transfer to be complete by July 2006. If we could pass this Bill by August we would be helping businesses in New Zealand.

Madam Speaker, I commend the Bill to the House.