Fertilisers legislation

Press, 20 September 1982, Page 25

Fertilisers legislation

Parliamentary reporter The registration of fertilisers will become voluntary and there will be stronger controls on the quality of registered fertilisers if the Fertilisers Bill is passed by Parliament. The bill was introduced in Parliament by the Minister of Agriculture. Mr Maclntrye, and referred to a select committee for study. It is designed to replace the Fertilisers Act, 1960, which has provision for a compulsory registration scheme for fertilisers.

Mr Maclntyre said that the main changes made in the bill were that the registration scheme would become voluntary, sulphur would become a fertilising element, and the proportion of fertilising elements in a registered fertiliser would be increased from 3 per cent to 5 per cent. There were stronger controls on the quality of registered fertiliser and the power’ of the Director-Gen-eral of Agriculture and Fisheries to refuse to register fertilisers would be extended. The bill lays down require-

ments for the labelling of registered fertilisers. It forbids the sale of fertilisers containing excessive amounts of some elements. It requires manufacturers and importers of registered fertilisers ■ to have quality control programmes and to keep records of. the programmes. The cost of analysing the fertiliser will have" to be met by the manufacturer. 'The bill will come into force on December 1. Where a fertiliser is already registered. the manufacturer will have three months after then to apply for registration.