The Australian Government is announcing immediate actions to address a number of the recommendations of the Report of the Taskforce on Reducing the Regulatory Burdens on Business - Rethinking Regulation.
Over-regulation is a major concern to all businesses and especially small businesses. Effective regulation is also an important tool for delivering Australia's social and economic goals. We are committed to getting the balance right.
The comprehensive report, guided by the views of stakeholders representing industry, small business, consumers and government, makes 178 recommendations on actions to reduce red tape.
While the report focuses on areas that are predominantly the responsibility of the Australian Government, it recognises that all three levels of government contribute to the regulatory burdens on business, and seeks to identify areas where there is overlap. The state and territory governments, along with local government, need to follow the lead of the Australian Government and tackle the issue of reducing the regulatory burden on business. A failure to do so will have a negative impact on the Australian economy through its impact on large and small business.
Today we are announcing an interim response which addresses, in full or in part, 86 of those recommendations. A final comprehensive response addressing all recommendations will be provided by the end of July 2006.
This interim response is a downpayment on our commitment to reduce regulatory burdens on business. It responds to a range of recommendations of the Taskforce aimed at reducing business red tape, including:
an increase in the minor fringe benefits exemption threshold from $100 to $300, effective from 1 April 2007;
an increase in the fringe benefits reporting exclusion threshold from $1000 to $2000, effective from 1 April 2007;
a halving of the incorporation fee from $800 to $400, at an estimated cost of $216.4 million over the Budget forward estimates period; and
allowing companies to make annual reports available on the internet and to send hard copies on request.
The Australian Government is also introducing "smart form" technology to pre-populate forms with previously provided information and will also enhance www.business.gov.au at a cost of $30.8 million over three years to implement the use of electronic signatures so that electronic forms can be verified.
We will also work with the financial sector regulators, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, to clarify the Government's expectations in the performance of their functions and identify where they can adopt common approaches to help reduce business compliance costs, as well as being more responsive to their stakeholders.
Furthermore, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, the Hon Chris Pearce MP, will today release a consultation paper on corporate and financial regulation to seek comment on a range of proposed technical changes to reduce the regulatory burden.
The Productivity Commission will be requested to undertake an inquiry into the consumer policy framework with a view to promoting greater national consistency in this area and reducing unnecessary regulatory burden.
In many areas regulation reform and red tape reduction is best achieved through cooperation between governments. The Australian Government will seek the cooperation of states, territories and local government to deliver widespread and significant regulatory reform.
Building on the landmark COAG meeting on 10 February 2006 where all governments committed to a renewed focus on regulation reform, we will seek COAG's agreement to:
give high priority to developing national consistency in occupational health and safety standards and request a mid year progress report;
directly oversee the implementation of a National Mine Safety Framework;
work together to streamline eight different business registration processes, and
work on harmonising administration of a range of state and territory taxes and charges.
The Australian Government will also ask COAG to build on the work underway in the areas of occupational health and safety, national trade measurement, chemicals and plastics and building regulation to incorporate the specific issues raised by the Taskforce. Importantly, the Workplace Relations Ministerial Council and Australian Safety and Compensation Council have been asked to move forward on more nationally consistent workers' compensation arrangements.
In addition to the new measures we are pursuing, there are already some twenty actions or reviews under way, or that will shortly commence that address a number of the Report's recommendations. For example, the Board of Taxation is conducting a scoping study to identify the more important areas where small business compliance costs might be reduced. The Ministerial Council on Energy is considering the need for non-vertically integrated pipeline owners to maintain separate accounting records under ring-fencing regulation, and the Productivity Commission is to undertake a study of how to benchmark regulatory performance across jurisdictions.
The report also makes important recommendations on how best to address the underlying causes of over regulation. COAG agreed to commitments to improve regulation making and regulation review processes, including improved regulation impact analysis, the targeted annual review of existing regulatory 'hot-spots' to be undertaken for the Australian Government by the Productivity Commission and improved consultation with stakeholders on regulatory proposals. The Government will consider further changes to improve the process of making and reviewing regulation for the final response.
To demonstrate how serious we are about addressing the flow of regulation, we will provide an additional $1.1 million for further development of the Business Cost Calculator, a mandatory tool for public servants and industry to work out the costs to business of compliance. The Australian Government has also taken the initiative of looking at its internal procedures to reduce red tape within government.
The Australian Government welcomes the report and we commend the work of the Taskforce members, Gary Banks, Richard Humphrey, Angela McRae and Rod Halstead, as well as the supporting Secretariat.
The Australian Government's interim response is available for download in two formats by selecting the links below. The response is also available on www.treasurer.gov.au.
RTF: http://www.pm.gov.au/docs/rethinkingregulation.rtf (495KB)
PDF: http://www.pm.gov.au/docs/rethinkingregulation.pdf (323KB)
The Report of the Taskforce can be found at www.regulationtaskforce.gov.au.