EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 28
QUARANTINE (ANIMALS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Health Section 87 of the Quarantine Act 1908 (‘the Act’) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters which by the Act are required or permitted to be prescribed or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Sub-section 46A(1) of the Act provides that where goods have been ordered into quarantine, a quarantine officer may approve a place other than a quarantine station as a place where the goods may perform quarantine. Sub-section 46A(2) further provides that where, in relation to any goods, a place has been approved under sub-section 46A(1) of the Act, any reference, inter alia, in section 56 to a quarantine station shall, in relation to those goods, be read as including a reference to that place. Under sub-section 5(1) of the Act, ‘goods’ includes a reference to an animal.
Section 56 of the Act provides, inter alia, that all animals ordered into quarantine may forthwith be conveyed to a quarantine station and may be detained there for such period as is prescribed.
Regulation 35 of the Quarantine (Animals) Regulations provides that an animal of a certain class which is ordered into quarantine and conveyed to a quarantine station shall be detained in that quarantine station for the period specified in Schedule 2 to the Regulations.
New procedures for the control of the importation of live fish have recently been developed in response to the massive increase in the importation of aquarium fish made possible by the development of rapid air transport.
The increase in the importation of aquarium fish has raised concern about the risk of introduction of diseases of fish, prohibited fish species, water-borne disease organisms and exotic pests such as snails and weeds.
The Senate Standing Committee on National Resources in its report on the ‘Adequacy of Quarantine’ has recommended the introduction of appropriate controls over these imports to prevent the possible introduction of pests or disease.
Quarantine Proclamation No. 112A, which was made on 11 November 1983 as part of the new system for the control of the importation of live fish, places conditions on the importation of fish into Australia so that their importation would not introduce or lead to the spread of pests or disease. The regulations extend the new system to ensure appropriate protection against the introduction of disease through post entry controls.
Regulation 1 of the regulations inserts sub-regulation 35(5) into the Regulations to provide that where an animal that has been ordered into quarantine is conveyed to a place approved under sub-section 46A(1) of the Act, a reference in this regulation to a quarantine station shall be read as a reference to that approved place. Sub-regulation 35(5) ensures fish are quarantined in premises specially designed and built to accommodate them and operated by the importer subject to regular supervision by Quarantine officers.
Regulation 2 amends Schedule 2 to the Regulations to provide that fish must spend a period of 14 days detention in a quarantine station or other approved place.