What it does
This Act implements a mutual recognition regime for goods and for occupations across participating Australian jurisdictions. Mechanically, it does two linked things.
For goods (Part 2): goods that are produced in or imported into a State (the first State) and may lawfully be sold there, may be sold in another participating State (the second State) without compliance with a specified list of further sale-related requirements imposed by the second State (see sections 8-11). Those excluded requirements include, by way of example, local standards concerning composition, quality or performance; presentation requirements such as packaging or labelling; inspection, pass or similar processes; or domestic-only production steps (s 10). The regime also preserves a number of exceptions where the second State may continue to apply its own laws, notably laws regulating the manner of sale or seller conduct provided they apply equally to local goods (s 11(1)); laws directed at transportation, storage or handling aimed at health, safety or environmental protection provided they apply equally (s 11(2)); and inspection regimes not prerequisite to sale and similarly directed to health, safety or the environment provided they apply equally (s 11(3)). A statutory defence is supplied for prosecutions under second State law where a defendant claims mutual recognition, provided the goods were labelled at point of sale as produced in or imported into the first State and the defendant had no reasonable grounds to suspect otherwise (s 12). The Part also preserves permanent and temporary exemptions (Schedules 1 and 2; s 14) and allows State temporary exemptions of up to 12 months where the exemption substantially protects health, safety or the environment (s 15).
For occupations (Part 3): a person registered in the first State for an occupation, on lodging the specified written notice with the local registration authority of the second State, is entitled to be registered in the second State for the equivalent occupation and, pending registration, is taken to have deemed registration and may carry on the equivalent occupation (s 16-20, 25-27). The Act prescribes detailed content and form requirements for the notice (s 19), strict timelines for action by the local registration authority (registration must be granted within one month unless postponed or refused; see s 21), and explicit grounds and limits for postponement (maximum 6 months; s 22) and refusal (s 23). The second State may impose conditions to achieve equivalence but must not impose conditions more onerous than would apply in similar circumstances, except to match conditions already applying in the first State or where necessary to achieve equivalence (s 20(5), s 27(5)). The Act creates processes for determining equivalence of occupations by declaration (Ministerial declarations s 32; Tribunal declarations and orders s 31), and grants the Administrative Appeals Tribunal review rights of local registration decisions under the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (s 34). It also makes clear that disciplinary cancellation, suspension or conditions imposed in one State affect registration in other States, subject to possible local reinstatement or waiver (s 33).