Explanatory Statement
1. Authority
Section 13 of the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Act 1991 (the FSANZ Act) provides that the functions of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (the Authority) include the development of standards and variations of standards for inclusion in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code).
Division 1 of Part 3 of the FSANZ Act specifies that the Authority may accept applications for the development or variation of food regulatory measures, including standards. This Division also stipulates the procedure for considering an application for the development or variation of food regulatory measures.
The Authority accepted Application A1181 which seeks to align the MRL for imazapyr in barley with the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) in the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Code (MRL Standard) Instrument 2019 and the MRL set by the Codex Alimentarius Commission for residues of that agvet chemical that may occur in barley. The Authority considered the Application in accordance with Division 1 of Part 3 and has approved a draft variation to amend the Code.
Following consideration by the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation, section 92 of the FSANZ Act stipulates that the Authority must publish a notice about the draft variation of a standard.
Section 94 of the FSANZ Act specifies that a standard, or a variation of a standard, in relation to which a notice is published under section 92 is a legislative instrument, but is not subject to parliamentary disallowance or sunsetting under the Legislation Act 2003.
2. Purpose
The Authority has approved a draft variation to the table to section S20—3 in Schedule 20 of the Code to increase the MRL for imazapyr residues in barley from 0.05 mg/kg to 0.7 mg/kg.
3. Documents incorporated by reference
The variation to Schedule 20 of the Code does not incorporate any documents by reference.
4. Consultation
In accordance with the procedure in Division 1 of Part 3 of the FSANZ Act, the Authority’s consideration of Application A1181 included one round of public consultation following an assessment and the preparation of a draft variation and associated report.
Submissions were called for on 9 October 2019 for a two-week domestic consultation period. A minimum period of consultation was applied because the focus of the application was to align the MRL in Schedule 20 of the Code with the current domestic MRL for the chemical and food commodity in the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Code (MRL Standard) Instrument 2019 and, thereby also align it with the MRL set by Codex.
A Regulation Impact Statement was not required because the approved variation to Schedule 20 of the Code is likely to have a minor impact on businesses and individuals (OBPR reference 12065).
5. Statement of compatibility with human rights
This instrument is exempt from the requirements for a statement of compatibility with human rights as it is a non-disallowable instrument under section 94 of the FSANZ Act.
6. Variation
The approved draft variation amends the table to section S20—3 by removing the current MRL for the chemical ‘imazapyr’ in barley and replacing it with a new MRL for that chemical in that food commodity. The new MRL for imazapyr in barley is 0.7 mg/kg—the value that is gazetted in the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Code (MRL Standard) Instrument 2019 and is also permitted by Codex.