Do manufacturing businesses need to register + categorise industrial chemicals (Industrial Chemicals Act 2019)?

Register + categorise industrial chemicals (Industrial Chemicals Act 2019). Under the Industrial Chemicals Act 2019 (Cth), a business that imports or manufactures ('introduces') industrial chemicals for commercial purposes, including finished products that contain them such as cosmetics, soap and cleaning products, must register with the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS) at the correct registration level. Every introduction must be categorised before it happens: listed (on the Australian Inventory of Industrial Chemicals), exempted (very low risk), reported (low risk), assessed (medium to high risk), commercial evaluation, or exceptional circumstances.

Trigger: Importing or manufacturing an industrial chemical, or a product containing one, for commercial purposes. The registration level, and the fee and charge, is set by the value of industrial chemicals introduced in the previous financial year, not by sales or profit.

Rules Mate runs its applicability engine across 9 business structures and 6 size bands for each of the 35 industries it maps. For 34 of those industries the answer for "Register + categorise industrial chemicals (Industrial Chemicals Act 2019)" is no. Manufacturing is one of the 1 where the answer is different: only if.

The deciding fact for manufacturing businesses: Industry: Manufacturing; applies only if you import or manufacture industrial chemicals.

About the industry: Industrial manufacturing operations subject to plant safety, chemical handling, and environmental approvals.

Compare a professional services (general) business with 6–19 employees structured as a Pty Ltd company: the obligation does not apply (Requires a trigger outside this questionnaire).

Each cell is the engine's outcome for a business in manufacturing with that structure and size, assuming it sells to consumers and small businesses and holds customer contact details. "Check" means the obligation turns on a fact the industry does not settle.

When due

Register before introducing. Categorise each introduction before it occurs and lodge any pre-introduction report or assessment application first. The AICIS registration year runs 1 September to 31 August; the annual declaration for that year, and any once-off exempted introduction declaration, is due by 30 November.

Evidence to keep

AICIS registration at the correct level; categorisation records for every chemical and product; pre-introduction reports and assessment certificates where required; annual declaration lodgement; commercial records of the value of chemicals introduced (invoices, purchase orders, receipts, import declarations), kept for 5 years after the end of the registration year and produced within 20 working days if AICIS asks.

Maximum penalty

Introducing an industrial chemical while unregistered for the registration year (s 13) or where the introduction is not authorised under ss 25 to 30 (s 24) is a fault-based offence and a civil penalty provision, each carrying 500 penalty units ($182,000), with a strict liability offence of 60 penalty units ($21,840). Failing to make the annual declaration (s 99) or to keep the information needed to demonstrate categorisation (s 102) carries up to 300 penalty units ($109,200). AICIS can also use infringement notices, enforceable undertakings and injunctions (Part 7)

Regulator

See source

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth (national)

• Stockholm + Rotterdam Convention chemicals (POPs ban): Only if
• Asbestos management — workplace + dwelling rules (state): Yes
• Button + coin battery safety standard (mandatory): Only if
• Comply with mandatory product safety standards + bans (ACL): Yes
• Comply with the respirable crystalline silica workplace exposure limit (0.05 mg/m³): Yes
• Maintain Hazardous Chemicals Register + manifest (WHS Reg): Yes
• All 17 answers for manufacturing