The dates given here are a guide only. When the consultations are opened for public submission, you will find them in the 'Open for submission' section. Each consultation will provide details about when and how you can have your say.

All public consultations currently underway can be found under the Public Consultations area of our website.

You can keep up-to-date with information about current applications and consultations in the news section of our website and by signing up to our newsletters.  

Implementing the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) – Consultation 2

We will soon be undertaking a second consultation on implementing GHS in New Zealand. The GHS is an internationally agreed system to classify chemicals and communicate their hazards through labels and safety data sheets.

We have now finished processing the submissions received on our first consultation which ran from October 2019 to January 2020. The focus of that consultation was to adopt GHS version 7 by issuing a new Classification Notice that incorporates GHS by reference. A series of proposals were also included around which GHS building blocks we should adopt.

Our recommendations on all proposals, along with the rationale, will be published in a submission analysis report that will be available on our website in May/early June 2020.

A consequence of adopting GHS 7 is that all HSNO approvals need to be updated to apply GHS classifications. This second consultation seeks feedback on our proposals to update all approvals, including group standards, to convert their current HSNO classifications to GHS classifications.

As part of this process, we also propose to revoke individual approvals that can be covered by a group standard approval, and will be seeking your feedback on which approvals we propose to revoke.

This second consultation is expected to start in early June 2020.

Amending the EPA Hazardous Substances (Storage and Disposal of Persistent Organic Pollutants) Notice 2004

We are proposing to amend the Hazardous Substances (Storage and Disposal of Persistent Organic Pollutants) Notice 2004.

This Gazette Notice prohibits the storage or disposal of any persistent organic pollutant (POP) in New Zealand, unless it is stored or disposed of in accordance with the requirements included in the notice.

The proposed amendments include:

• updating the requirements relating to the disposal of POPs
• updating the notice to take account of the legislative reform which occurred in December 2017
• adding new provisions for manufactured articles that contain POPs.

This consultation is expected to start in June 2020. This date may change in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.