Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Amendment Act 2015 (Transitional Controls) Regulations 2017.

These regulations are made under the transitional regulation-making powers in clause 8 of Schedule 7 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 (the HSNO Act). Schedule 7 contains transitional provisions relating to existing approvals and classifications under the HSNO Act and is fully in force on 1 December 2017. As a consequence of the operative provisions of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (the HSW Act) and HSNO Amendment Act, the regulation of hazardous substances is primarily split between notices created under the HSNO Act (EPA Notices) and hazardous substances regulations created under the HSW Act (HSW HS Regulations). Some controls are moving over to the HSW HS Regulations, but they are not being reproduced in full and the gaps created will need to be filled under the HSNO Act to ensure that risks to the public and the environment are managed to the same level as before the split. The gaps are being filled by controls in a new EPA Hazardous Substances (Hazardous Property Controls) Notice (HPC Notice), but the HPC Notice will not apply to existing hazardous substance approvals until they have been reissued. These regulations will require users of existing hazardous substance approvals to comply with the gap-filling provisions in the HPC Notice prior to the reissue of approvals.
The applicable provisions in the HPC Notice are as follows: clause 13, which provides that certain substances can be supplied only to a workplace or an authorised person; clauses 15 to 25, which prescribe controls on substances in places other than workplaces; clauses 26 to 32, which prescribe controls on the storage of LPG, the storage of stationary container systems for domestic oil burning installations and internal combustion engines, and the filling of SCUBA cylinders; clause 34, which provides that the HSW HS Regulations apply to substances on board ships that are workplaces that are not subject to the HSW Act; clauses 36 to 44, which prescribe site and storage controls for ecotoxic substances: clauses 47 and 48, which prescribe requirements that relate to equipment and data records for ecotoxic substances; clauses 59 to 66, which prescribe qualifications to be held by persons who apply ecotoxic substances.