The delegate of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Aged Care that is responsible for decisions on chemicals scheduling in the Poisons Standard (the Delegate) has made an interim decision on bromoxynil. The interim decision is to defer the implementation date for an impending amendment to up-schedule bromoxynil to 1 February 2025.
Currently bromoxynil is included in the Poisons Standard as a Schedule 6 substance. In November 2022, the Delegate received a proposal to create a new entry in Schedule 7 of the Poisons Standard for preparations containing greater than 1% of bromoxynil. After due consideration pursuant to the Act and the Regulations, the Delegate made a final decision on 4 September 2023 (the 2023 Final Decision) to amend the Poison Standard with regards to bromoxynil to:
- create a new Schedule 7 entry for preparations containing 1.5% or less of bromoxynil, and
- amend the existing Schedule 6 entry to capture all other bromoxynil preparations.
The Delegate decided that the amendments would come into effect on 1 June 2024.
On 8 February 2024, the Delegate received an application seeking a change to the implementation date of the 2023 Final Decision, citing substantial barriers and risks to supply in implementing the required changes during at a time of peak bromoxynil usage in Australia.
The applicant supported the amendments to the entry for bromoxynil as specified in the 2023 Final Decision. However, the applicant proposed the implementation date for the amendments be deferred to 1 January 2025. Therefore, the Delegate has decided not to refer the application to an expert advisory committee.
The Delegate has made an interim decision to amend the Poisons Standard with regard to bromoxynil as specified in the 2023 Final Decision, but with an implementation date of 1 February 2025.
