Address to the 2025 SETAC AU/ACTRA Conference
The Commissioner recently spoke Society at the Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Australasia (SETAC AU) and the Australasian College of Toxicology & Risk Assessment (ACTRA) conference on building a lasting legacy for future generations.
He discussed how chemicals are managed in New Zealand and what more needs to be done, noting limited progress in implementing the recommendations in his past report, Knowing what’s out there: Regulating the environmental fate of chemicals, published in March 2022.
The principal recommendation from that report was that the Ministry for the Environment should create a common framework to prioritise the management and monitoring of chemicals – something that could be used by regional councils and government agencies alike. The design of any such framework would need to consider how Māori are engaged in the process, and be based on three factors – presence, scale and harm.
