34/2008
30 October 2008
The Minister for Finance and Deregulation, the Hon. Lindsay Tanner MP, announced today that the Rudd Labor Government has invited the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to conduct a review of Australia’s current processes and settings for regulation making and review.
Building on the Government’s ambitious deregulation agenda, the Regulatory Review offers an opportunity to further improve the quality of Australian regulation. Better regulation helps build the nation’s productive capacity and create a stronger economy.
The OECD has already reviewed the regulatory frameworks of all but three of its member governments. Its international perspective will complement regulatory reform initiatives currently being pursued in Australia at the national level and through forums such as the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).
The Review will examine Australian regulatory management frameworks and processes by reference to best practice in other OECD member countries. A comparative assessment will also be made of the quality and regulatory impacts of Australia’s competition policy and trade and investment settings.
A special chapter on Commonwealth-State relations will examine cross-jurisdictional regulatory reform, including work underway through COAG to reform 27 regulatory hotspots and deliver a seamless national economy.
Lindsay Tanner, in his role as co-chair of the COAG Business Regulation and Competition Working Group, has invited all states and territories to participate in this element of the Review.
Lindsay Tanner said: “This Review will not only provide valuable insights that will support the Government’s ongoing commitment to strengthened processes for regulation making and review and better regulatory outcomes, but will also support deregulation efforts in other countries that will be able to share and learn from our experience.”
The OECD will be commencing the Review before the end of 2008 and will report the findings of its comprehensive and detailed analysis to the Australian Government in December 2009. The Terms of Reference for the OECD Review are attached.
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| Media Contact: | Website: |
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| Nardia Dazkiw - 0418 144 690 | www.financeminister.gov.au |
Part I will include:
Part II will provide summaries of the core and sectoral chapters.
This chapter will assess Australia’s regulatory management system, its institutions, policies and tools for quality regulation at the national level, against best-practice in other OECD member countries.
The analysis will benefit from existing OECD indicators of regulatory management systems quality collected in 2008 and will take into account recent policy developments (eg. risk, regulation inside government).
The chapter will also review risk-based regulatory management practices in Australia from a general perspective, management of the regulatory stock, reviews of and tools to reduce regulatory burdens, improvements to impact assessments, and strategies to manage the regulatory stock over time.
It could also open a discussion on web based consultation mechanisms for the purpose of increasing the quality of new as well as existing regulations.
This study will assess competition law and policy in Australia against OECD best practice, building on and updating the existing OECD knowledge, including the 2004 review of competition and regulation. The analysis will cover the situation and powers of the ACCC.
This study will assess market openness in Australia, in terms of non-discriminatory practices and overall policies to streamline customs procedures.
This study will draw on the experience of the OECD in analysing multilevel regulatory governance relevant for federal-state relationships to assess Australia’s recent developments on cross-jurisdictional regulatory reform. OECD work includes previous and ongoing reviews of Sweden and Italy.
The assessment will include coordination mechanisms, allocation of responsibilities (including the role and effectiveness of Ministerial Councils and COAG Working Groups) and incentive systems between levels of government.
The study could also make recommendations for further reform, including on the issues of multiple licenses, mutual recognition of standards across states, capacity for regulatory quality management by the states, and ways to ensure regulatory quality at the local level. Multi-level regulatory issues are especially relevant to such fields as infrastructure, the environment, and small business development.
This discussion will benefit from a recent review of OECD efforts in the use of quantitative indicators as part of incentive mechanisms. This work will also draw on synergies policies aimed at cutting red tape and integrating new information technologies.
