Repeal Day / With that goal in mind, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced March 26, 2014 as the Parliament’s “first ever Repeal Day: to abolish regulation and legislation that’s outlived its usefulness or is doing more harm than good.” Committing to create “the biggest bonfire of regulations in our country’s history,” Abbott promised legislation on Repeal Day to remove “more than 9,500 unnecessary or counterproductive regulations and 1,000 redundant acts of Parliament,” and “more than 50,000 pages … from the statute books,” saving “individuals and organizations over $700 million” annually.

Some Repeal Day legislation immediately passed both houses of Parliament, including streamlined environmental approvals for major developments, limiting paperwork requirements related to approval mechanisms for agricultural chemicals and veterinary medicines, and the elimination of several redundant or dubious acts, such as “the 1970s conversion from imperial to metric measurement.” Other initiatives, such as reduced paperwork requirements for universities and employment agencies, were enacted without the need for Parliamentary approval.

When announcing the Repeal Day initiative, Abbott listed a number of regulatory targets. Many of those proposed reforms await debate and approval in one or both houses of Parliament, including:

• Abolishing the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission and Independent National Security Legislation Monitor.
• Changing the film classification system so that films will only need to be classified once—not again and again when they are reissued in DVD, Blu-ray, or 3‑D format.
• Repealing the requirement that businesses administer the former government’s paid parental leave scheme.

Initially, some of the more significant proposals failed to pass Australia’s Senate, where the coalition government does not hold the balance of power. Those proposals included repeal of the Carbon Tax (a levy of $25 per ton of carbon-equivalent emissions imposed primarily on coal-fired power stations) and repeal of the Mining Tax (a resource rent tax). However, subsequent parliamentary negotiations have seen the Carbon Tax repealed and the significant reform of regulations regarding the provision of financial advice. The Abbott government estimates those initiatives will provide annual cost savings of around $300 million.

Future repeals / Prime Minister Abbott has committed to holding at least two Repeal Days each year and has formed deregulation units within each regulatory portfolio, noting, “It’s sometimes more important to repeal old laws than to pass new ones.” The next is scheduled for October 29th. Proposed initiatives include:

• Cessation of the obligation for some small businesses to lodge quarterly Business Activity Statements.
• Abolition of energy efficiency reporting requirements.
• Reforms arising from regulatory audits conducted for every government department.

The Productivity Commission is developing metrics by which to evaluate cost reductions and each “department and agency is conducting a comprehensive audit of the costs it puts on individuals and entities so that it can put a dollar figure on the cost of compliance and reporting and start reducing it every year.” Through these efforts, the coalition government commits to $1 billion in “red tape cost savings” each year. In addition, the government is reemphasizing the importance of producing a Regulation Impact Statement for newly proposed regulations, “developed early in the policy making process … to encourage rigour, innovation, and better policy outcomes from the beginning.”

Ten Principles for Australian Government Policymakers
From the Spring 2014 Australian Government Guide to Regulation

1. Regulation should not be the default option for policymakers; the policy option offering the greatest net benefit should always be the recommended option.
2. Regulation should be imposed only when it can be shown to offer an overall net benefit.
3. The cost burden of new regulation must be fully offset by reductions in existing regulatory burden.
4. Every substantive regulatory policy change must be the subject of a Regulation Impact Statement.
5. Policymakers should consult in a genuine and timely way with affected businesses, community organizations, and individuals.
6. Policymakers must consult with each other to avoid creating cumulative or overlapping regulatory burdens.
7. The information upon which policymakers base their decisions must be published at the earliest opportunity.
8. Regulators must implement regulation with common sense, empathy, and respect.
9. All regulation must be periodically reviewed to test its continuing relevance.
10. Policymakers must work closely with their portfolio Deregulation Units throughout the policymaking process.

The Australian Government Guide to Regulation, released in the spring of 2014, identifies 10 regulatory reform principles for policymakers (see sidebar below).

Conclusion / The ongoing success of the regulatory reform agenda will depend on actions of the often hostile Senate. In addition, the coalition government’s appetite for taking an aggressive stance on reform will be tested given the strident vested interest group protests they weathered on the first Repeal Day. The fiercest of those protests were over the proposals to abolish the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission, repeal the Carbon Tax, and reform restraints on the provision of financial advice by those selling finance products. Tellingly, the issue identified as providing the greatest restraint to Australia’s international competitive position—labor market regulation—remains off the political agenda.

Nevertheless, the two-pronged focus on repealing ineffective regulations and taking care to consider consequences when developing new regulation is an important first step in Australian regulatory reform. The world will watch with interest the effect of these actions on Australia’s rankings in global indexes such as the World Economic Forum’s, as well as the nation’s economic growth and global competitiveness.