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CLAUSE NOTES
Health Miscellaneous Amendments Bill 2019
Clause 1 Short Title
Provides for the Act to be cited as the Health, Miscellaneous
Amendments Act 2019.
Clause 2 Commencement
Provides for the Act to commence on Royal Assent.
Clause 3 Consequential Amendments
Provides for miscellaneous amendments to legislation as specified
in Schedule 1.
Clause 4 Repeal of Act
Provides for automatic repeal of the Amendment Act one year
after commencement, as the amendments are incorporated into
the relevant amended legislation.
Schedule 1 Consequential amendments
Ambulance Service Act 1982
1. Amends the definition of non-emergency patient transport in
Section 3 of the Principal act to specify that regulated NEPT
relates to transport on public roads or by air or water to
remove uncertainty relating to private property and to change
the types of services that may be provided from “basic care
and observation” to better define the current activities
undertaken by NEPT providers and allow for possible
increased scope of care for NEPT as a result of national
registration of paramedics.
2. Amends penalties in the Act as follows::
Section 35F NEPT licence subject to conditions
Decreases the penalties to 50 penalty units and a daily penalty
of 5 penalty units.
3. Section 35M Notification of changes
Decrease the penalties to 15 penalty units and a daily penalty
of 1.5 penalty units.
4. Section 37 Unauthorized provision of ambulance services
Increases the penalty from 20 penalty units to 200 penalty units
and includes a daily penalty of 20 penalty units.
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5. Section 37A Unauthorized provision of non-emergency patient
transport services
Decreases the penalty to 100 penalty units with a daily penalty
of 10 penalty units
6. Section 37B Representation of person as licensed NEPT
Service
Decreases the penalty to 100 penalty units with a daily penalty
of 10 penalty units
Food Act
The amendments to the Food Act 2003 primarily reduce red-tape.
These include removing the duplicated approval process in the
principal act for laboratories already accredited with the National
Association of Testing Authorities Australia, removing the
requirement for mobile food businesses to be separately notified in
each local government area and clarifying notification and audit
processes.
Specific changes include:
1. Definitional changes through removing the definition of
‘approved laboratory’ from section 4, including a new definition
for ‘accredited laboratory’
2. Section 36 is amended to introduce an alternative ‘notice’
method for an order made to several persons, a class of
persons, or all persons (as noted at s.36(1)(b)). Such a notice
may be given in accordance with the existing s.36(2) (via
newspaper), or by serving the notice on each of the persons
bound by the order.
3. Section 77 is amended to reflect the new definitions by
replacing ‘approved laboratory’ with ‘accredited laboratory’ and
removing the requirement for an approved form. A certificate
of analysis no longer needs to be in a form approved by the
Director of Public Health. The amendments therefore remove
the requirement from subsection 77(2).
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4. The amendments removing all of Division 3 of Part 6 and
substitutes a new section 78 which is essentially section 80 of
the current Act renumbered and with the term ‘approved
laboratory’ replaced with ‘accredited laboratory’.
5. Section 83G(2) has been amended so that an audit required
under s.83G(2) must be conducted by a food safety auditor.
The Act already contains a scheme for approving food safety
auditors (ss.83A-83E). Food safety auditor is defined in s.4 as a
person approved under Division 1 of Part 6A but the link
between the existing requirement to audit and the existing
approved auditor scheme needs to be made explicit.
6. Section 84 sets out who must notify what information and
when. Changes are needed to specify whom the notice goes
to. The Food Safety Standards say is to be notified to the
relevant council, but it doesn’t impose the obligation to actually
provide the information to the council. This section has been
amended to make that obligation clear.
7. Section 85 sets out exemptions for who must notify under
section 84. Two additional exemptions are required as follows.
any food business that is not required by regulations to
notify.
a food business conducted in whole, or in part, at or
from a mobile structure need only notify one council
(not every council in whose municipal area the business
operates). There are no requirements for which council
they must choose. This approach is similar to s.88 which
provides for single state-wide registration for such
businesses. Mobile structure is currently defined in s.4.
This removes the requirement for mobile food businesses to
be separately notified in each local government area. This
supports the amendments to the Food Act in 2015 that
extended single state-wide registration to all mobile food
businesses.
8. Under s.86, the Director of Public Health may, by notice in the
Gazette, require food businesses to register (with the relevant
council). The amendments enable the Director of Public
Health to approve a food business risk-classification-system for
the purposes of s.86. The Director’s notice can then require
registration in accordance with that approved system. It isn’t
practical to set out the entire system in the notice as it is quite
lengthy. A similar approach is already in place for s.83H. That
section uses the phrase ‘approved priority classification system’,
where approved means approved by the Director of Public
Health (s.4).
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9. Section 110 (j) is amended to reflect the new definitions by
replacing ‘approved laboratory’ with ‘accredited laboratory’.
10. Section 77 is amended to reflect the new definitions by
replacing ‘approved laboratory’ with ‘accredited laboratory’
Mental Health Act 2013
1. Amends section 204 to clarify the provisions around how
orders made in another jurisdiction will be recognised under
Tasmanian law where forensic mental health patients are
transferred to Tasmania from another jurisdiction.
Pharmacy Control Act 2001
1. Amends section 71K of the Act to provide a fee making
power to prescribe fees for the regulation of pharmacy
depots.
Poisons Act 1971
1. The definition of Poisons List in Section 3 of the Principal Act
references Appendix C. Substances in Appendix C have now
been transferred to Schedule 10 of Part 4 so the reference to
Appendix C can be deleted.
2. Section 36 has been amended to allow possession of a
declared restricted substance under a permit, licence or
authorisation under the Act or Regulations in accordance with
the conditions of that permit, licence or authorisation.
3. Section 40 (2) (c) contains a reference to section 15 which
has been repealed. The reference has been amended to
Section 14 as this provides the relevant power to make
Orders relating to the Poisons List.
4. Section 48 has been amended to allow possession of a
narcotic substance under a permit, licence or authorisation
under the Act or Regulations in accordance with the
conditions of that permit, licence or authorisation.
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5. Section 54G has been amended to provide a grace period to
accept late applications from poppy growers for renewals of
licences to grow alkaloid poppies. This is because of the
move from annual licences to licences of up to five years
duration is expected to result in more late applications from
poppy growers. Currently under section 6 of the Act an
application for a licence must be made 30 days before
renewal with discretion to accept an application lodged less
than 30 days before renewal. Currently any late application
after the expiry of a licence must be treated as a new
application under the Act. The amendments will allow a late
application for a poppy licence renewal to be made for a
period of three months following the expiry of a licence.
6. The amendments correct the references in Schedule1 of the
Principal Act to fix erroneous cross references in the
provisions around Board appointments.
Public Health Act 1997
1. Changes to the Public Health Act 1997 have been identified
for the definitions associated with regulated systems (which are
systems where Legionella bacteria are likely to proliferate –
increasing the risk of Legionnaires’ disease). Existing systems
include warm-water systems, cooling towers, and air-handling
systems. Regulated systems can be required by the Director of
Public Health to register under the Act, and then comply with
relevant requirements in the Act and guidelines. The existing
definition of a warm-water system is not consistent with
current national standards.
1. The changes will ensure water distribution systems (including
warm-water systems) that create environments where
Legionella are likely to proliferate are included as regulated
systems. Strictly speaking, an Act change is not required to
achieve this as the definition of regulated system includes any
system or process that may involve a risk of Legionnaires’
disease. Specifically including the change in the Act is
supported for transparency. The amendments also remove
unnecessary words from the definition of regulated system to
clarify the provisions. Section 3 of the Principal Act is amended
to provide new definitions of ‘exempt system’, ‘hot water
system’, ‘regulated system’ and ‘warm water system’. Further,
new Section 112A is inserted into the Principal Act to allow
the Director of Public Health to declare an air or water
system as a regulated system or to be an exempt system.
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