Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his energetic parliamentary secretary, Josh Frydenberg, have delivered the government's first bonfire of regulations, together with guidances designed to arrest the flow of new regulations.
Modern-era deregulation began in the 1980s with United States president Ronald Reagan. He required a systematic appraisal of new regulations and a deregulatory oriented review of existing ones.
In 1985 Bob Hawke copied the US initiative in an apostasy for an Australian Labor Party, whose guiding principles entailed greater government control of the economy. Although the ALP continues to keep faith with industry plans, over the past 30 years deregulation has prevailed in price controls, tariffs and export controls. Labour market controls have remained and we have gone backwards in regulations covering environmental restraints, consumer protection and corporate controls. In net terms the number of new pages of regulation each year has doubled since 1984.
The Abbott government's new impetus discards thousands of pages of unused regulations and introduces regulatory retractions, including in 10 specified areas. These 10 areas are relatively non-controversial. Will anyone object to simplified regulation of computer games, to longer durations for agricultural and veterinary approvals or to a changed means of administering paid parental leave? It does seem there is opposition from the charities industry to closing down their presumably pliant regulator.
And the ALP is supporting the union controlled superannuation funds' opposition to re-allow the industry's salespersons to be remunerated through commissions.
HIGH MARKS FOR EFFORT
Perhaps of greater benefit will be the ending of regulatory duplication in new project approvals between Commonwealth and state governments and between different Commonwealth departments. In all, $700 million of annual savings is claimed. Many are housekeeping. Some, like savings from repealing the carbon tax, are dependent on other reforms, and some are genuine deregulations that may not have proceeded without the initiative. But we are unlikely to return to the 1960s nirvana when Western Mining discovered a valuable ore body at Kambalda and began work on what was one of the world's most productive mines in six months.
In addition to the regulatory bonfire, the government has released a 60-page Guide to Regulation and the Productivity Commission has issued a 40-page Regulator Audit Framework.
The Guide to Regulation reiterates, albeit in strengthened language, stipulations that new regulations should be really, really necessary, provide net benefits, have been subjected to wide consultation, be implemented "with common sense, empathy and respect", and so on. Similar bromides characterise the PC's Regulatory Audit Framework. Thus, it advocates improvements to regulators' performances by audit plans, rewarding good and sanctioning poor performances.
The deregulation initiative deserves high marks for effort. But on performance it is best described in words apocryphally used on whether the French Revolution was a success: "Too early to say".
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