Page 2325 - Week 07 - Thursday, 17 August 2006
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has served the territory well for over 20 years. The bill assigns to the radiation council the functions of making a range of decisions concerning the registration of regulated radiation sources and licensing of their users. Critically, the radiation council will continue to have the function of providing advice to me on matters of radiation safety.
The bill maintains the overall registration and licensing arrangements for the ownership and use of regulated radiation sources in the territory. Those dealing with radiation sources will be required to be licensed and those with radiation sources will still be required to register them. Through these mechanisms the bill ensures a high level of accountability for licensees and for owners of registered sources.
A key difference between the bill and the Radiation Act 1983, which the bill will repeal, is that the bill takes a more outcomes-based approach, in contrast to the largely proscriptive approach in the existing legislation. There is also improved flexibility for the radiation council in terms of arrangements and procedures in conducting its business. An example is the ability of the council to add members with expertise in areas that may later be regulated under this legislation.
References to national standards for a range of matters relevant to licensing the use of radiation sources have been included in the bill, including contemporary standards and safe levels of radiation exposure. This is yet another way in which the bill provides outcomes-based approaches to radiation regulatory control. Accordingly, an activity will be licensed if the applicant can meet the national standard to which it relates, and a radiation source will be registered if it is set up and stored in a way that meets the national standard.
Ionising radiation, such as X-rays and the radiation emitted from radioactive materials, is regulated by the bill. The bill also provides for the range of regulated matters to be expanded by regulation. The NCP review recommended that non-ionising radiation, which includes things such as ultraviolet radiation, laser radiation and radio frequency radiation, also be regulated. However, the provisions in the directory for regulating non-ionising radiation have not yet been finalised. For this reason, the ability for those sources to be added into the scheme by way of regulation is critical in order to appropriately and effectively regulate non-ionising radiation sources at a later stage.
Contemporary radiation protection has a role beyond the radiation safety arena and now also incorporates the notion of physical security of radiation sources. Consequently, the bill explicitly prohibits abandoning a regulated radiation source, as well as prescribing procedures in case a regulated radiation source has been abandoned. Furthermore, the bill introduces the notion of a prohibited radiation source and makes a serious offence if a person intentionally deals with such a source.
The bill gives authorised officers extensive powers to enforce the legislation through the exercise of powers of entry, search, seizure and allied powers. These powers are comparable to those contained in a variety of territory laws and are appropriately measured in their impact on personal rights and liberties. To this end care has been taken to ensure that the bill is consistent with the Human Rights Act 2004.
In accordance with contemporary regulatory approaches that have also been employed in ACT legislation regarding occupational health and safety and dangerous substances, the
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