Now lawFarming & Regions Introduced in the House of Representatives, 12 Mar 2026

Export plants can now handle goods outside registration

This law tidies up the rules for plants that get goods ready to send overseas. It lets them handle goods that do not need an approved site. It also lets the farm department give out export papers that some overseas buyers want.

Official name: Export Control Amendment (Clarifying Obligations Relating to Registered Establishments) Bill 2026

Who it affects

• Owners of registered export plants: They no longer break the law by handling goods at their site that do not need an approved site.
• Exporters of wool, honey, hides, pet food and similar goods: As their goods come under new export rules, the plants that handle them will not need to redo their approvals.
• Exporters selling to countries that want papers for a whole product line: The department can now give out official papers such as a letter of free sale for a whole product line.

More goods face export paperwork

Exports are goods sent overseas to sell. The Export Control Act 2020 sets the rules for this, mostly for food and farm goods.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry runs it. Call it the farm department. It checks that exports meet the standards other countries ask for.

The rules list some goods and set conditions for sending them overseas. Call them listed goods. One common condition is that the goods must be made ready at an approved site. That is a plant or factory the department has checked and approved for some kinds of work.

The department is working on a big update of export rules. It plans to bring more goods under the law as "general products".

These include wool and wool grease, the oil taken from sheep's wool, and goods made by boiling down animal parts. They also include skins and hides, animal food, food and drinks, honey and bee products, and some medicines and blood products.

The government says the old rules would have caused paperwork for no reason once those goods are added. This law fixes that. It also widens the kinds of export papers the department can give out. The department says business backed the changes.

Work outside the registration

Section 143 of the law set a rule for approved plants. It was a crime to do any export work on listed goods at the plant if the plant's approval did not list that work. It did not matter whether the rules really needed that work to happen at an approved plant.

The law now adds a test. The owner only breaks section 143 if two things are true. The rules must say that work has to be done at an approved plant. And the plant's approval must not cover it.

The government plans to check general products through approved farms and properties, not approved plants. Without this change, every approved plant that handles those goods would have had to change its approval. That is for work it was already doing.

Say a meat works, which is a meat factory, is approved to process beef for export. It also dries hides in the same building. When hides become a general product, the hide work does not need an approved plant. So the meat works can keep drying hides without adding them to its approval.

The section heading also changes. It was "Export operations not covered by registration must not be carried out". Now it is "Export operations without required registration".

Certificates for product types

A government certificate is an official paper. It tells an overseas country the goods meet its rules. Until now, the law was written with papers for one shipment in mind.

Some countries that buy from us want papers that cover a whole product line. One example is a letter of free sale. It says all goods made in a product line over a set time are fit to sell.

The law makes clear that the department can give out papers for a kind of goods. They do not have to be tied to one shipment.

These papers last until the end date written on them, or 18 months from the day they are given out. Whichever comes first applies.

The 18-month limit matches the longest time the department can check an exporter's work on goods that are not listed.

Like other export papers, they stop working in some cases. One is if the goods are no longer going to that country. Another is if the paper is cancelled. Others are set out in the detailed rules.

Start date

The changes started the day after the bill became law, which was 21 May 2026. The paper changes apply to papers given out from that day. The section 143 change applies to things plant owners do from that day.

The government brought the bill to the House of Representatives on 12 March 2026. The House passed it on 25 March 2026. The Senate passed it on 14 May 2026. The Senate is the second house of Parliament, which checks bills.

The Governor-General signed it into law on 20 May 2026. The Governor-General is the King's stand-in in Australia. It became Act number 44 of 2026.

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum

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