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 A1198 which seeks approval for food derived from a new food produced using gene technology: corn line DP202216, genetically modified for enhanced yield and tolerance to glufosinate. The Authority considered the application in accordance with Division 1 of Part 3 and has approved a draft variation.
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 standard or 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 the draft variation to permit the sale and use of food derived from corn line DP202216, genetically modified for enhanced yield and herbicide-tolerance to glufosinate. The sale and use of food derived from corn line DP202216 would be in accordance with the Code.
3. Documents incorporated by reference
The variations to food regulatory measures do 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 A1198 included one round of public consultation following an assessment and the preparation of a draft variation and associated report.
The Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) granted FSANZ a standing exemption from the requirement to develop a Regulatory Impact Statement for permitting new GM foods (OBPR correspondence dated 24 November 2010, reference 12065). This standing exemption was provided because varying Schedule 26 is a consequential change of maintaining a permitted schedule of GM foods. Additionally, permitting new GM foods is deregulatory as using the GM technology will be voluntary if the application is approved. The standing exemption relates to the introduction of a food to the food supply that is voluntary and has been determined to be safe.
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
Item [1] amends Schedule 26 by inserting, in alphabetical order, new paragraph ‘(zc)’ into item 2 in the table to subsection S26—3(4) in Schedule 26. Item 2 relates to the commodity ‘Corn’.
The new paragraph refers to ‘enhanced yield and herbicide-tolerant corn line DP202216’. Corn line DP202216 is a corn line genetically modified for enhanced yield and herbicide-tolerance to glufosinate.
The effect of the variation is to permit the sale and use of food derived from that corn line in accordance with the Code.