AGRICULTURE CHEMICALS RED TAPE REDUCTION

On March 26 the Federal government has set aside the inaugural red tape “Repeal Day” with a special sitting of government is a focus of the Prime Minister and key Ministers to save $1 billion a year by abolishing excessive red and green tape. It is targeting duplicative and unnecessary annual fees and red tape.

Importers of agricultural chemicals such as household weedkillers or agricultural fertilisers will no longer need to re-register well-established products if they have not changed.

The coalition’s changes will cut red tape in three key areas including extending the frequency of chemical registration renewal processes and allowing extra compliance rules for the APVMA to test imported products, using existing data.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said “these reforms focus on removing unnecessary and costly regulation but at the same time don’t reduce the high safety standards that Australia requires for agricultural chemicals. Because Australia is a small market for agricultural chemicals, the passing of this legislation is crucial to keeping a lid on the price that farmers pay for agricultural chemicals – but also in maintaining our country as a destination for the introduction of safer new chemicals”.

The question is will this have a benefit to the turf production industry?