New Legislation Commencement Dates for Levies and Charges

6 Feb 2025 | Industry Updates

A new agricultural levies legislative framework commenced on 1 January 2025. The full list of industries and commencement dates for their levies and charges is available here.

The new framework is made up of five key new Acts that enable the imposition, collection and disbursement of levies, and disbursement of matching payments to research and development corporations (RDCs). Please see links to the new Acts below:

Where to find your levy – you can find your industry’s levies and charges in the regulations and rules in the links below:

 Key features of the new legislation – Key features of the levy system remain the same. This means there is no change to existing levy rates, the bodies that receive levies, or the purposes for which levies can be established and used.

The new legislation is more streamlined, flexible and consistent. This will make it easier for everyone participating in the levy system to understand their obligations.

Changes to Commonwealth matching funding arrangements mean consistent requirements across RDCs and more funding certainty. New statutory funding agreements have been signed with the RDCs. They will largely re-establish existing arrangements and have been updated to reflect the new legislation.

Biosecurity levies have been renamed. AHA and PHA levies are now called biosecurity activity components. EADRA and EPPR levies are now called biosecurity response components. These components will continue to be disbursed to AHA and PHA.

The new legislation commenced on 1 January 2025 but some elements apply from a later date. The attached factsheet identifies when the imposition, collection and disbursement of each levy will transition to the new legislation. Regardless of the commencement dates for individual levies, some changes in how levies are collected will apply to all levies from 1 January 2025 (e.g. new return and payment due dates).

Consultation on future levy changes – the process for changing levies or setting up a new levy will not change.

More information is available from the DAFF website.