Recommendation 21

That the Victorian Government lead Government action to support the expeditious ratifying of changes made to Appendix B of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Government commitment:

Seek assurance from the Commonwealth Government that it will complete the RIS process and take actions to ratify the 2009 amendment decision.

If and when the amendment decision is ratified, it will work with the Commonwealth, other states and territories to update the National Implementation Plan under the Convention and to develop any legislative amendments that may be required in Victoria to bring this into effect.

Lead agency

Status DELWP

Ongoing

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (the Stockholm Convention) is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from organic chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods.39

PFOS chemicals were added to the Stockholm Convention in 2009 due to increasing concern over their negative health and environmental impacts. Australia is a party to the Stockholm Convention but has not ratified this amendment.

The government response supported ratification of the amendment in principle but noted that the Australian Government is responsible for leading the ratification of international treaties. The Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy (DOEE) led a RIS consultation process to inform a decision on the ratification of changes made to Annex B of the Stockholm Convention regarding PFOS chemicals. The RIS proposed options for a national phase out of the PFOS chemicals added to Annex B. DOEE released the consultation RIS document in October 2017 and the consultation period closed in February 2018.

DELWP advised that the Australian Government has now assessed submissions on the consultation RIS, and that to enable ratification to proceed, a statutory mechanism to restrict the use of PFOS is required, in the form of a proposed National Standard for the Environmental Management of Industrial Chemicals (the standard). A draft of the standard was publicly released in November 2016. DELWP and EPA have worked closely with the Australian Government in the standard’s development. The proposed standard would provide a framework for managing the risks that industrial chemicals may pose to the environment. Industrial chemicals would be categorised according to their risk and assigned management measures indicating how these risks should be addressed by chemical manufacturers, suppliers, users and disposers. DELWP advised that PFOS, if scheduled under the standard, could have its use restricted through the standard to reflect Stockholm Convention obligations. DELWP advised that the standard would need to be given statutory effect through national legislation. States and territories would be responsible for compliance and enforcement of its obligations. In Victoria this would occur using heads of power in the Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018.

39 Refer to Appendix B for a definition of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.