Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has announced the Australian Government has made "significant progress" in reducing regulatory burdens imposed on business and especially small business.
“The Government has made significant progress over the past nine months in reducing regulatory burdens imposed on business by Commonwealth Government regulation, and in improving regulation‑making and review processes, in response to the Taskforce on Reducing Regulatory Burdens on Business (the Banks Taskforce),” The Treasurer said in a statement dated 12 April 2007.
Mr Costello said that the Government accepted, in full or in part, 158 of the Banks Taskforce’s 178 recommendations presented its final report to Government on 31 January 2006.
The Banks Taskforce made recommendations across a broad range of regulation, including:
- health‑related regulation;
- labour market regulation;
- consumer‑related regulation;
- environmental and building regulation;
- financial and corporate regulation; tax regulation; superannuation regulation; and
- trade‑related regulation.
Tax concessions for small business
Amongst the achievements in response to the Taskforce has been the development of legislation to align the eligibility criteria for small business tax concessions for GST, the simplified tax system, capital gains tax, fringe benefits tax and pay‑as‑you‑go.
“The Board of Taxation also will soon report on the results of its scoping study on small business tax compliance costs,” he added. “Further, the Board of Taxation has commenced a study into the scope to apply consistent self assessment principles across all federally administered taxes.”
Consultation to tackle red tape burdens
The Treasurer also highlighted that his Parliamentary Secretary, Chris Pearce, has made progress in reducing the burdens associated with corporate and financial services regulation.
This included undertaking extensive consultation through:
- the Corporate and Financial Services Regulation Review Consultation Paper – with implementation of the proposals in that paper already begun
- draft Regulations to reduce duplication and simplify Product Disclosure Statements, Financial Services Guides and Statements of Advice were exposed for comment during March and April 2007
- upcoming release of drafts of the Simpler Regulatory System Bill and the Simplifying Regulation and Review Bill.
“Mr Pearce is also consulting on reforms to insider trading provisions of the Corporations Act 2001 through the Insider Trading Position and Consultation Paper, and will bring forward separate reforms to auditor independence following completion of consultations on Australian Auditor Independence — A Comparative Review,” The Treasurer said.
Strengthening Government’s regulation-making framework
According to the Treasurer, the Banks Taskforce also made recommendations to strengthen the Government’s regulation‑making and review framework to ensure:
- that the compliance and competition impacts of regulatory measures are considered by government at an early stage in their development; and
- to ensure that the cumulative effects of regulations are monitored effectively over time.
Measures to enhance the regulation‑making framework include expanding the role of the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) to ensure objective, comprehensive analysis of business compliance costs and competition impacts of all regulatory proposals. Mr Costello said the OBPR has also been provided with additional funding to assist and advise agencies on the regulatory analysis requirements.
To reinforce comprehensive regulatory impact analysis, The Treasurer said the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s gate‑keeping role has been strengthened to ensure that all proposals brought before Cabinet are accompanied by appropriate regulatory impact analysis.
Websites to assist businesses to comply
The Treasurer highlighted the establishment of a business consultation website, www.consultation.business.gov.au, as a “one stop shop” for businesses, associations and other interested parties to register an interest in being consulted about changes to proposed or existing regulations.
"The Government has also updated the ‘new to business’ checklist on the www.business.gov.au portal to ensure easier compliance with regulations by new businesses,” he added.
Ongoing commitment to tackle red tape
Mr Costello said that as part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to tackle red tape, he commissioned the Productivity Commission to commence an annual review process to identify regulation that is unnecessarily burdensome, complex or redundant, or duplicates regulation in other jurisdictions.
“This rolling programme of reviews will examine all sectors of the economy over a 5‑year cycle, commencing with the primary sector this year,” he said.
According to the Treasurer, the Commission’s first review will be completed by the end of October 2007 and will form the basis of a rolling red tape reduction agenda, which will be considered by the Government each year.
The Government is also working actively through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to ensure that regulatory burdens, especially where jurisdictional overlaps add to compliance burdens, are addressed at all levels of government.
"The Government will continue to implement its commitments made in response to the Banks Taskforce, in addition to pursuing other opportunities for regulatory reform. It is important that regulatory burdens are tackled at all levels of government and into the future," he said.