Annual review of regulatory burdens on business

From the perspective of farmers, mining companies and other primary sector businesses, governments impose a heavy burden of regulation. This study looks to remove or reduce Australian Government regulations which are unnecessarily burdensome, complex or redundant or are duplicative across portfolios or with state and territory regulation.

The effectiveness of regulatory reform efforts would be enhanced if there were greater coordination among all jurisdictions.

Many Australian Government agencies have processes in place to identify and progressively remove unnecessary regulatory burdens, while still meeting policy objectives.

Through this study, the Commission has identified actions which the Australian Government can take without delay, including:

• removing duplication in applying for drought assistance
• amending Part IIIA of the Trade Practices Act to provide greater clarity and transparency
• ensuring employers can more easily check the work eligibility of overseas visitors
• improving communication about the significant impact trigger under the EPBC Act
• undertaking negotiations for specific bilateral agreements for approvals under the EPBC Act.

In a number of cases, where reforms have been agreed to by governments at the policy level, primary sector businesses have yet to see tangible results. It is taking too long to:

• adopt and implement the National Mine Safety Framework
• remove barriers to the recognition of skills acquired across borders and/or under the Vocational Education and Training framework
• remove interjurisdictional inconsistencies in the regulation of road transport.

A number of potentially unnecessary regulatory burdens can only be removed after a full policy and framework review, including:

• market arrangements for wheat exports
• the regulation of onshore and offshore petroleum
• coastal shipping, as part of the national transport market reform agenda
• whether the mining of uranium should remain a matter of national environmental significance
• the reporting thresholds and funding of the National Pollutant Inventory.

The removal of unnecessarily burdensome regulations relating to agricultural chemicals and veterinary medicines is being addressed in the Commission's study into chemicals and plastics regulation.

There are some regulatory design issues of particular relevance to the primary sector, including a need for:

• evidence-based risk assessments and rational risk management
• assessments of the loss of property rights imposed by regulatory changes which are aimed at achieving community-wide objectives.

The Productivity Commission's report on regulatory burdens on the primary sector - released today - identifies a number of ways to reduce unnecessary burdens on farmers and miners and other primary sector producers arising from Commonwealth regulations.

The report - Annual Review of Regulatory Burdens on Business: Primary Sector - is the first of a five year cycle of reports aimed at reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens from the stock of regulation. It follows a wide-ranging 2006 report by the Regulation Taskforce (Rethinking Regulation) and is part of an ongoing commitment by the Australian, State and Territory governments to enhancing regulatory consistency and reducing burdens on all businesses.

While this current review focuses on the burdens arising from Commonwealth regulation, in subsequent years, the effectiveness of these reviews in achieving regulatory reform would be enhanced by greater coordination among all jurisdictions.

Commissioner Mike Woods said: 'There are encouraging signs that government agencies are doing more to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens. Yet, areas for improvement have been identified. Some, such as removing duplication in applying for drought assistance, can be implemented without delay. Others, such as wheat marketing arrangements and petroleum regulation, would require a full policy review as the regulatory burdens are complex and greater clarity is needed over underlying objectives.'

In some regulatory areas, even where the need for reform has been broadly agreed, businesses are not seeing results. Of particular concern for the sector is the slow progress in:

• implementing the National Mine Safety Framework
• recognising skills acquired through the Vocational Education and Training framework and skills acquired from across state and territory borders
• removing interjurisdictional inconsistencies in the regulation of road transport.

• Preliminaries
  Cover, Copyright, Foreword, Terms of reference, Contents and Abbreviations
• Overview - including key points
• Responses
• Chapter 1 About the review
  1.1 What the Commission has been asked to do
  1.2 Previous and current reviews and inquiries concerning regulatory reform
  1.3 COAG's National Reform Agenda
  1.4 The approach and rationale of this review
  1.5 Conduct of the study
  1.6 Structure of the report
• Chapter 2 Primary sector characteristics
  2.1 Industry characteristics
  2.2 Industry performance
• Chapter 3 Agriculture
  3.1 Introduction
  3.2 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act
  3.3 Biosecurity and quarantine
  3.4 National Pollutant Inventory
  3.5 Climate change policies
  3.6 Regulation of livestock exports
  3.7 Reef Water Quality Protection Plan
  3.8 Security sensitive chemicals
  3.9 Transport issues in agriculture
  3.10 Wheat marketing
  3.11 Animal welfare
  3.12 Drought support
  3.13 Occupational health and safety
  3.14 Food regulation
  3.15 National Livestock Identification Scheme
  3.16 Temporary labour
  3.17 Biodiesel
  3.18 Agricultural and veterinary chemicals
  3.19 Horticulture Code of Conduct
  3.20 Farm surveys
  3.21 Genetically modified crops
  3.22 Water issues
  3.23 Incorporation of farms
  3.24 Other concerns
• Chapter 4 Mining, oil and gas
  4.1 Introduction
  4.2 Uranium-specific regulation
  4.3 Petroleum-specific regulation
  4.4 Access to land
  4.5 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act
  4.6 National Pollutant Inventory
  4.7 Assessment of site contamination
  4.8 Climate change policies
  4.9 Labour skills and mobility
  4.10 Transport infrastructure
  4.11 Safety and health
• Chapter 5 Forestry, fishing and aquaculture
  5.1 Forestry
  5.2 Fishing
  5.3 Aquaculture
• Appendix A Consultation
• Appendix B Selected reviews
• Appendix C Common concerns and some lessons
• Appendix D Regulation review by jurisdiction
• References