Chapter 6. Rethinking Regulation
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Chapter 6. Rethinking Regulation

Peter Carroll

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Banks Report: origins

The core arguments of the Banks Report

Recommendation 7.1: six principles of good regulatory process and the RIS system
Consulting with business: recommendations 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.19, 7.20, 7.21, 7.22
Increasing analytical capacity: recommendations 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.13
Saying ‘no’, to inadequate regulatory proposals: recommendations 7.8, 7.9, 7.10, 7.12
Measuring regulatory performance: recommendations 7.16, 7.17, 7.18, 7.27, 7.28, 7.29
Review programs, harmonisation and regulatory competition: recommendations 7.24, 7.25

Conclusion

References

Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to assess the Report of the Commonwealth Government’s Taskforce on Reducing the Regulatory Burden on Business (the Banks Report), released in April 2006 and the government’s endorsement of those recommendations (Australian Government 2006a; 2006b). The endorsement, followed by the beginning of the implementation of the recommendations, constitutes, together with the items encompassed in the National Reform Agenda, a centrepiece of the third wave of regulatory reform in Australia. The focus of the chapter is the report’s recommendations with regard to the system for making regulation with regard to business, particularly the regulation impact statement process (RIS), as discussed in chapter two. In summary, the overall assessment is that there is much in the report to be commended but that it is, for the most part, one that calls for greater commitment and support for existing systems for making and implementing business regulation, rather than a fundamental rethinking of the existing system.