Premier Peter Beattie campaigns in elections as Queensland's Sir Galahad, saving voters from his own government's depredations. Incongruous as this may be, it differs little from the detachment of our elected leaders from their own decisions and outcomes when addressing business regulation.
Politicians recognise that red tape ties people up in needless and usually counterproductive activities. And they see red tape as costly. Yet they see themselves as only vaguely connected to these outcomes.
Moreover, their deregulation proposals are often coupled with new proposals and rules for business.
Thus, doffing its hat to deregulation, the ALP federal platform says that Labor will introduce "business regulation only to the extent necessary to protect the public interest and the interests of employees, shareholders and investors". But even that insipid assault on regulation is qualified; in the next breath the platform announces a plethora of new policies for environmental enhancement, job creation and pursuing the new Holy Grail of "corporate social responsibility".
The federal government's arsenal of deregulatory measures, under prodding by the Business Council of Australia, is reportedly being revived. This is in contrast to many of its policies which exhibit a curious wish to micro-manage.
On climate change, there are some 50 different regulatory measures designed to reduce the level of emissions of carbon dioxide. Yet the most junior graduate recruit could easily demonstrate that, if reducing carbon dioxide emission was a worthwhile policy goal, all of these programs should be jettisoned and replaced by a single carbon charge.
Similarly, the federal government seems intent on increasing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's regulatory role extending it to every price proposal Telstra makes and threatening to set it loose on the Queensland ports.
This is notwithstanding the ACCC's failings in economic expertise when it comes to other areas that fall within the commonwealth's bailiwick, such as airports and gas pipeline regulation.
Recently, influential ALP policy innovators have been most active in revisiting the issue of regulation. Shadow treasurer Wayne Swan has publicly recognised "the creeping tide of regulation and the inadequacy of procedures to ensure the benefit of any new regulation outweighs the cost to business". He also foreshadows proposals to reform the regulatory impact statements process.
The Bracks government assumed a high profile in promoting regulation reform even before the Business Council. With the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission, Victoria has tough vetting machinery to police new regulatory proposals. That agency, in its first major review, questioned the merits of a poster-child piece of government regulation, the five-star energy efficiency requirements for new housing.
Premier Steve Bracks and Treasurer John Brumby have also called for a "third wave of national reform". This is bigger on concepts than on detailed reform measures. And its deregulatory thrust is inconsistent with the Victorian government's frequent inability to resist pressure groups' calls for new restrictions, whether in the form of banning genetically modified food technology or delaying approvals for an upgraded coal-fired power station.
With his record, Bracks's challenge to Prime Minister John Howard to support a 25 per cent cut in regulation smacks of chutzpah. Even so, he deserves high marks for placing the matter on the table.
Regulation is not some abstraction that politicians have discovered and can eradicate. It gives expression to the laws that politicians themselves make. It is idle for those in government to rail against regulations that prevent farmers from chopping down a tree, or a new radio station from operating.
Twenty years ago, the first commonwealth regulation review list included export controls. The prices that companies negotiated for coal and other mineral exports needed ministerial approval. In those days, politicians and public servants thought they had superior commercial skills to businesses.
We have made progress in liberalising businesses to make their own pricing decisions. But environmental, consumer and workplace regulations continue to mount, and new deregulatory initiatives are needed to restore a more limited form of government with all the advantages this brings in terms of personal and economic freedom.
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