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Better regulation of agricultural and veterinary chemicals

The Australian Government has identified the regulation of agricultural and veterinary chemicals as an important area of reform. In July 2010 a first tranche of Australian Government Better Regulation Reforms took effect.

A second tranche of reforms is now being progressed. In September 2012 the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) released a revised draft of the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 (external site) together with explanatory documents and details of proposed regulations. The revised Bill includes amendments to address issues raised during the previous round consultation (external site) on legislative reform undertaken by DAFF in February 2012. 

Consultation on the revised Bill concluded on 22 October 2012. Submissions to this latest round of consultation are available on the DAFF website (external site).

APVMA's role in reforms

Contributing to policy and legislative reform

We are contributing to the reform process by providing operational insight into the effect of policy and legislative changes on the National Registration Scheme (NRS). We have worked with DAFF to inform the drafting process for the suite of new agvet legislation and to provide operational examples that inform the consultative process with stakeholders. More information about the consultative process and the submissions to the exposure draft can be found on the DAFF website (external site).

Working in partnership to deliver an efficient and effective regulatory system

We will work in partnership with other Australian Government departments, and our state and territory partners to deliver reform to the NRS and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of agvet chemical regulation.

Increasing transparency by publishing a comprehensive Risk Compendium

One measure proposed under the Better Regulation reforms is the publication of the comprehensive risk framework – known as the Risk Compendium. The compendium describes the policies and processes we will use to assess and manage risk across our regulatory activities.

The objective of the compendium is to make chemical assessment and reconsideration (chemical review) more predictable, and to better describe how our assessment effort is aligned with risk.

The compendium will be built and released over time as we work with our stakeholders to develop systems and processes to implement the new regulatory framework. The compendium will aid understanding of our regulatory processes, requirements and decision-making.

Risk Compendium

It comprises two volumes:

  • Volume 1 includes a series of framework documents describing the principles that will guide our regulatory decisions and activities
  • Volume 2 will contain more detailed process documents describing how we carry out our regulatory functions.

Diagram illustrating that the Risk Compendium comprises of two volumes. Volume 1 includes principles that underpin APVMA regulatory activities. Documents in volume one include: Overview of APVMA Operations and future direction, Re-registeration and Re-approval, Compliance and Enforcement Framework, Risk Analysis Framework, Permit Framework, Registration Framework, Reconsideration Chemical Review Framework and MLS Framework.Cutting across all of these frameworks is the APVMA Regulatory Posture. Volume 2 of the risk compendium includes information about the technical assessment methods, requirements and processes used by the APVMA to perform its functions including: Technical Manuals, Requirement Documents, Guidelines, Registration Models and Standards, Codes of Practice, Product Category Guidelines and Labelling Standards.

The APVMA’s firm and fair regulatory posture will support the delivery of efficiency and effective regulation across the variety of APVMA’s operations.

More information

Contact

Better Regulation

For enquiries about the reforms to the regulation of agricultural and veterinary chemicals.

Phone: +61 2 6210 4877
Fax: +61 2 6210 4813
Email: betterregulation@apvma.gov.au

Last updated on 27 March, 2013