Government coordination

Responsibility for regulation of industrial chemicals at each stage of their ‘lifecycle’ is shared across the Commonwealth, states and territories. The lifecycle of a chemical includes manufacture, import, export, use, disposal and destruction.

Australian governments have come together and agreed on how they should work together to respond to PFAS contamination. The Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Framework for Responding to PFAS Contamination supports consistent responses to PFAS contamination to protect the environment and, as a precaution, protect human health, while ensuring actions are effective, implementable, financially and logistically sustainable, proportionate to risk and support economic stability. The Intergovernmental Agreement and its appendices provide guidance to support all Australian Governments to respond to PFAS contamination in a coordinated way. The Intergovernmental Agreement was reviewed by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments during 2019.

Appendices under the Intergovernmental Agreement provide guidance on how coordination should be carried out.

• The PFAS Contamination Response Protocol - provides information on roles and responsibilities when responding to PFAS contamination.
• The PFAS National Environmental Management Plan (NEMP) - outlines consistent environmental management requirements that regulators across Australia have agreed on.
• The PFAS Information sharing, Communication and Engagement Guidelines - contains information on how governments should share information about PFAS.