On 7 February 2019, the department engaged ACIL Allen Consulting Pty Ltd to undertake the independent review of the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment Act 2013 (the Act).
Section 4 of the Act requires the Minister to cause a review of the operation of the amendments made by the Act, and table a written report before the parliament. The Act also requires at least one person conducting the review to be independent of the Commonwealth, and that the review consider public submissions.
The report from the review was tabled in parliament on 29 July 2019. This review has now concluded.
Review process
- To commence the review, ACIL Allen published a discussion paper on its website on 18 February 2019.
- Stakeholders were then invited to provide comments on the paper, or on any related matter, by 29 March 2019.
- ACIL Allen received 14 written submissions by the closing date and published all of them on its website, except one that was confidential.
- The discussion paper, final report and copies of the public submissions received during ACIL Allen’s consultations are available below for downloading.
Review outcome
- ACIL Allen found that the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment Act implemented a wide range of reforms designed to simplify, modernise and improve the effectiveness of agricultural and veterinary (agvet) chemical regulatory arrangements.
- The review also found that the public submissions that were received generally supported the operation of amendments in the Act and identified no major concerns. The report notes that some of the changes resulted in tangible improvements to the regulatory system, such as greater efficiency, transparency and predictability in the agvet chemical review process.
- Another key finding of this review was that a comprehensive examination of the entire agvet regulatory framework in the near future could be beneficial due to its complexity and long history of piecemeal reform.
- ACIL Allen was unable to review the operation of every amendment made by the Act because certain changes have not yet been implemented (and are therefore not in operation), the need to implement them has not yet arisen or insufficient time has elapsed to assess their full effect.
- Finally, the report notes that a number of submissions also raised other matters outside the statutory scope of this review. The Department of Agriculture will continue to consider these matters as appropriate through its policy processes.
Review documents
Download
The above document(s) was not prepared by the department and may not meet accessibility requirements. If you have difficulty accessing this file, visit web accessibility for assistance.
Public submissions
Download
| Document | Pages | File size |
|---|---|---|
Aerial Application Association of Australia PDF  |
13 | 167 KB |
| Andrew Johnston and Robyn Wood PDF |
2 | 87 KB |
| Animal Medicines Australia PDF |
2 | 143 KB |
| Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance PDF |
17 | 756 KB |
| Cotton Australia PDF |
2 | 705 KB |
| Croplife Australia PDF |
15 | 667 KB |
| Dairy Australia / Aglign Ag Pty Ltd PDF PDF |
3 | 432 KB |
| Grain Producers Australia PDF |
18 | 1.9 MB |
| Grains Research & Development Corporation PDF |
5 | 189 KB |
| Infopest (Growcom) PDF |
2 | 167 KB |
| Name withheld by ACIL Allen PDF |
1 | 52 KB |
| Name withheld by ACIL Allen PDF |
2 | 192 KB |
| Veterinary Manufacturers and Distributors Association Ltd PDF |
2 | 102 KB |
The above document(s) was not prepared by the department and may not meet accessibility requirements. If you have difficulty accessing this file, visit web accessibility for assistance.