24Notice of proposed agent organisms

24 Notice of proposed agent organisms

24 Notice of proposed agent organisms

(1) Where the Council has unanimously recommended to the Authority that prescribed organisms of a particular kind should be agent organisms, the Authority shall publish in the Gazette (and, if the Council has so recommended, in the Commonwealth Gazette), and may publish in such newspapers or journals as the Authority thinks appropriate, a notice that the Authority is contemplating declaring those organisms to be agent organisms.

(2) A notice under subsection (1) in relation to organisms of a particular kind (in this subsection referred to as the relevant organisms) shall—

(a) set out particulars identifying the relevant organisms,

(b) specify the organisms which it is intended to control by the release of the relevant organisms,

(c) set out brief particulars of the manner in which the relevant organisms would control the organisms specified in the notice in accordance with paragraph (b),

(d) state that the Council has unanimously recommended that the relevant organisms should be declared to be agent organisms,

(e) where the recommendation of the Council followed an agent application in relation to the organisms—inform the public that copies of the agent application can be perused at a place specified in the notice, and

(f) invite any persons who object to, or support, the relevant organisms being declared to be agent organisms to submit written particulars of the grounds for that objection or support, as the case may be, to the Authority within the period of 6 weeks after the date of the publication of the notice in the Gazette, or within such further period as the Authority (either before or after the expiration of that period) allows.

(3) Where the Authority publishes a notice under subsection (1) in relation to an agent application, the Authority shall cause copies of the application to be available for perusal at the place specified in the notice in accordance with subsection (2) (e).

(4) Where the Council has recommended to the Authority that 2 or more kinds of organisms should be agent organisms for the purpose of the control of the same population of particular organisms, a notice under subsection (1) relating to one of those kinds may be combined with a notice under that subsection relating to the other kind or kinds.