Bill
Biosecurity Amendment (Ballast Water and Other Measures) Bill 2017
passed, as at 2017-05-17. Agriculture and Water Resources portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Agriculture and Water Resources
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2017-02-15
- second reading — 2017-02-15
- second reading — 2017-03-28
- second reading — 2017-03-28
- committee — 2017-03-28
- third reading — 2017-03-28
- introduced — 2017-03-29
- second reading — 2017-03-29
- second reading — 2017-05-09
- second reading — 2017-05-09
- third reading — 2017-05-09
- passed — 2017-05-09
- royal assent — 2017-05-17
Divisions
No divisions recorded. Most questions are decided on the voices; this does not establish that a bill was unopposed.
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2017-02-15.
This bill would change the Biosecurity Act 2015 to better protect Australia's marine life and people from pests and diseases.
It would apply the same ballast water discharge rules to Australian and foreign ships and let officials destroy disease-carrying insects on vessels and aircraft.
The changes would let Australia meet the international ballast water treaty when it starts on 8 September 2017.
- Equalise ballast water offence exceptions for Australian and foreign vessels.
- Create a power to update ballast water rules by legislative instrument instead of amending the Act.
- Broaden the existing power to destroy insects that carry human diseases on arriving ships and planes.
- Restore a power from the old Quarantine Act 1908 so health officials can direct private property owners to control disease-carrying insects.
Ship operators, human health officials, and the Australian community broadly.
Sources
em
em supp
em revised
billhome
frl act