Precautionary Penalty Order

If a person develops, field tests, imports or releases, possesses, or disposes of any new organism in breach of the HSNO Act or fails to comply with any controls relating to a new organism in any approval or regulation, the enforcement agency may seek a pecuniary penalty order. ²³⁷⁹  The maximum pecuniary penalty is: ²³⁸⁰

• In the case of an individual, $500,000.
• In the case of a body corporate, the greater of:
• $10,000,000
• If it can be readily ascertained an if the Court is satisfied that the contravention occurred in the course of producing a commercial gain, three times the values of any commercial gain resulting from the contravention
• If the commercial gain cannot be readily ascertained, 10% of the turnover of the body corporate and all of its interconnected bodies corporate (if any).

Instead of, or in addition to, a pecuniary penalty order, the court may order the person to mitigate or remedy any adverse effects on people or the environment or pay the costs of doing so and/or order the destruction of the new organism. ²³⁸¹

Last updated at 12:22PM on February 25, 2015