Annual reports

Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts Annual Report 2009-10

Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2010
ISSN 1441-9335

Operation of the Hazardous Waste (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act 1989

The Act and its 1996 amendments enable Australia to meet its obligations under the Basel Convention on the Control of the Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. The Basel Convention regulates the international movements of hazardous wastes.

Basel Convention

The Basel Convention was developed by the United Nations Environment Programme and adopted on 22 March 1989. Australia ratified the convention on 5 February 1992 and it entered into force on 5 May 1992. The convention imposes two kinds of obligations on members:

Purpose of the Act

The purpose of the Act is to regulate the export, import, transit and disposal of hazardous waste.

Operational aspects of the Act

Permits

In 2009-10 the department processed 34 applications for permits to import and export hazardous wastes (14 exports, and 20 imports). From these applications 16 permits were granted, 4 applications were refused and 14 applications were still to be resolved as at 30 June 2010.

All permit applications were processed within the statutory timeframes.

Compliance

The department strengthened its enforcement activities and acted in cooperation with the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service to prevent illegal traffic in hazardous waste. Enforcement action this year included detection of illegal shipments of electronic waste and waste batteries.

Freedom of Information

No requests were received under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

Two applications under section 57 of the Act, for review of a decision made by the minister, were received by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. One application was subsequently withdrawn.

Reporting

The annual report on the details of the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes from Australia was provided to the Secretariat of the Basel Convention.

Financial Information

For the purposes of section 32 of the Act, there are prescribed fees for the lodgment of permit applications.

Table 1: Permit fees
Type of fee Fee
Application for Basel Export permit $4,440 per application
Application for Basel Import permit $270 per application
notification of transit country $110 per transit country
Application to vary Basel export permit $370 per export application
Application to vary Basel import permit $210 per import application
Application to vary transit permit $110 per variation
Application for special export permit $480 per application
Application for special import permit $270 per application
Application to vary special export permit $270 per variation
Application to vary special import permit $110 per variation
Application to vary a special transit permit $110 per variation

This year income from fees totalled $22,120.

Committees

As set out in section 58D of the Act, the Hazardous Waste Technical Advisory group met on one occasion this year to advise the minister on issues relating to the administration of the Act.

Additional information

 

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