Summary

Part of a package of five bills to establish a national framework to manage the ongoing use, handling and disposal of industrial chemicals, the bill: establishes decision-making principles that set out characteristics for categorising industrial chemicals according to their level of concern to the environment based on their use; enables the minister to make scheduling decisions to categorise an industrial chemical and set out the controls applicable to the use, handling and disposal of an industrial chemical; provides for consultation with the public and states and territories on matters relating to scheduling decisions and decision-making principles; establishes a register of scheduling decisions for industrial chemicals; establishes the Advisory Committee on the Environmental Management of Industrial Chemicals; provides for the sharing, protection, use and disclosure of information; enables the minister to delegate their functions and powers and make rules; and sets out matters relating to the scheduling charge.