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Foreword

The Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 (HSNO) was an ambitious and innovative law when it was introduced. Its aim was to tackle some long-term systemic problems with the way New Zealand managed the various chemicals and nasty substances that we use every day.

It sought to do this by bringing all substances together under one regime, including the previously neglected ecotoxic substances, and by proposing a national compliance system for all types of substances. In doing so it brought New Zealand into line with the international Globally Harmonised System for the Classification and Labelling of Hazardous Substances.

The Act was based on three key principles:

  • acting cautiously where there is scientific uncertainty
  • providing for the right of the public to know about the effects of the substances that surround us
  • considering the full life-cycle of the substance from manufacture to disposal.

These are all worthy aims, but there was niggling and noise around the way the Act worked in practice, which detracted from its achievements.

In response, we got together a group of knowledgeable people from industry and local government to draft a plan for dealing with these workability issues. The plan developed into the Government's Hazardous Substances Strategy, which was announced by the Minister for the Environment, Hon Marian Hobbs, in June 2003.

Since then the work has been non-stop and all of the short-term actions identified in the strategy are now complete. You can see the effects of this work already. The most obvious is that the Environmental Risk Management Authority was freed up to transfer single-component dangerous goods to HSNO controls on 1 April 2004.

This two-volume discussion paper represents the second phase of work under the Hazardous Substances Strategy and aims to address any remaining workability issues with the Act. We want feedback on the proposals here so we can make sure that the Act complements how the real world works, and that the benefits of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 can be realised.

 

Barry Carbon

Chief Executive


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