HSNO Industry Review Group view on commencing the
HSNO Act for Hazardous Substances
(Letter to Minister for the Environment, 16 August 1999)
The key industry members of the Expert Review Group met on the 5th August
at the premises of Du Pont (NZ) Ltd. to consider the impacts of the possible
timings of commencement of the Hazardous Substance portion of the HSNO
Act and the proposed Amendments to the HSNO Act.
The options considered by the group were:
-
Proceed with the Order in Council bringing the Act into force as
soon as the Regulations are completed and gazetted, and use administrative
tools within the scope of the Act to work around the anomalies in
the current Act until the amendments take effect.
-
Wait until the amendments to the Act are in force before proceeding
with the Order in Council bringing the Act into force.
Once again the group was indebted to Dr. Steve Vaughan of MfE and Dr.
Donald Hannah of ERMA for meticulously laying out the procedures which
would take place with each option and giving without biasing the pros
and cons of each argument.
The group debated these options at great length as a 2 hour meeting extended
into 4 hours. When every detail raised had been discussed a vote was taken
and the majority was in favour of the first option laid out above. In
doing so the majority of members of the group made it clear that they
supported this option only if the Bill amending the HSNO Act was introduced
to Parliament before the Act itself was brought into force.
The group recommends that the Act be commenced for hazardous substances
as soon as possible after the necessary regulations are gazetted and the
Bill amending the HSNO Act has been introduced to Parliament.
A.J. Haggerty
Chairperson
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