Australia — Review of Weapons of Mass Destruction (Prevention of Proliferation) Act 1995

Defence has released details of a review into the Weapons of Mass Destruc­tion (Pre­ven­tion of Pro­lif­er­a­tion) Act.

The Min­is­ter for Defence, Stephen Smith, has appoint­ed Mr Bill Blick AM, PSM, to con­duct the review. Mr Blick is a for­mer Inspec­tor Gen­er­al of Intel­li­gence and Secu­ri­ty with long and rel­e­vant expe­ri­ence in pub­lic administration. 

The Terms of Ref­er­ence for the review are wide-rang­ing, address­ing both the process­es used to apply the Act as well as the tech­ni­cal pro­vi­sions of the exist­ing legislation. 

The Weapons of Mass Destruc­tion Act was passed in 1995. It gives the Min­is­ter for Defence the pow­er to deny the export of goods and ser­vices that are not oth­er­wise con­trolled should the Min­is­ter form a belief or sus­pi­cion that the goods would or might be used for a weapons of mass destruc­tion program. 

The Act pro­vides a ‘catch-all’ or end-user con­trol for non-con­trolled goods. 

Defence ini­ti­at­ed the review to cap­ture the lessons from imple­men­ta­tion of the Act since 1995 and to ensure that the leg­is­la­tion and sur­round­ing process­es reflect cur­rent reg­u­la­to­ry best prac­tice. This review will com­ple­ment a review of deci­sion-mak­ing process­es under the Act, con­duct­ed in 2010 by Mr Mar­tin Brady AO. 

Mr Blick will report to the Min­is­ter in the first half of 2012. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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