Commencement of the Agriculture and Food Safety Legislative Amendment Act 2024

The Victorian government have announced the commencement of the Agriculture and Food Safety Legislative Amendment Act 2024. The amendments will come into effect on the 17^th April 2025 and will:

• Create new offences in that Act relating to the sale, delivery or provision of raw milk.
  • This will move requirements currently contained within dairy license conditions into the Act.
  • The new clause will include a penalty for non-compliance more commensurate to the public health risk of raw milk, and make it easier for Dairy Food Safety Victoria to enforce compliance with the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. 
• Enable the DFSV board selection committee to make recommendations when there is a vacancy or absence of a committee member.
  • This will enable recommendations regarding appointments to the DFSV board to be made when there is a quorum of selection committee members.
  • This will ensure board appointments can still be made in a timely manner when there is a vacancy or absence of a selection committee member for any reason.
• Remove the requirement for DFSV to hold an annual meeting with industry representatives following the release of the DFSV annual report.
  • This will enable DFSV to focus resources on more effective and inclusive mechanisms to engage with industry.         

There will be no impact on dairy licensees who are compliant with their current dairy license conditions.

Further details on the ASLA Bill are provided on the Victorian Legislation website.