Read supporting evidence
- Unnecessary and burdensome regulation is a deterrent to doing business and impedes economic growth.
- Businesses spend about $94 billion a year to administer and comply with federal and state government regulations.
- Regulatory overreach has occurred at all levels of government. The political system, often at the community’s behest, actual or perceived, too readily introduces new laws and regulations as a response.
- For example, overlap between the Commonwealth and the states is slowing development approvals and holding up investment in important major projects.
- Regulations need to strike the right balance between providing legitimate safeguards and enabling enterprises to be agile, efficient, innovative and willing to take risks.
- Badly designed regulation is a silent cost to consumers, with companies often forced to pass the costs on to customers.
- Businesses spend about $94 billion a year to administer and comply with federal and state government regulations.
- Establishing a national heavy vehicle user charge system has been estimated to deliver benefits of between $8 billion and $22 billion.
- A research paper by the Reserve Bank of Australia estimates that zoning restrictions can increase the average house price by $489,000 in Sydney, $324,000 in Melbourne, $159,000 in Brisbane and $206,000 in Perth.
- A nationally consistent approach to regulation will reduce costs for businesses operating across multiple jurisdictions and complying with multiple laws. There are 13 different pieces of anti-discrimination law across the country.
- Strong environmental protection laws are vital to ensuring that Australia’s unique ecosystem is not damaged through economic development. However, Australia’s environmental approval framework is plagued by lengthy approval timeframes, duplication of processes and a lack of regulatory certainty.
- The Productivity Commission estimates the combined economic costs of retail trading hour restrictions in Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia amounts to about $600 million per year.
- The Productivity Commission estimates that reforming pharmacy location and ownership rules would provide a net economic gain of $75 million.
- These reforms can help to bring forward Australia’s pipeline of almost $400 billion in prospective major public and private investments.
- Approval delays and uncertainty are extremely costly – the net economic cost of a one-year delay in approving a major project of average size (capex ~$500m) is $26 million to $59 million, and for a larger project such as an offshore liquefied natural gas project, the cost can be between $0.5 and $2 billion.
- The complexity of government approvals processes is best illustrated by the experience of one Business Council member company seeking approval for a major resources project.
- The environmental assessment for the project, conducted under federal and state legislation, took more than two years.
- It involved more than 4,000 meetings, briefings and presentations across interest groups, and resulted in a 12,000-page report.
- The assessment was advertised widely across Australia for comment and resulted in about 40 submissions.
- When approved, more than 1,500 conditions – 1,200 from the state and 300 from the Commonwealth – were imposed.
- These conditions have a further 8,000 sub-conditions attached to them.
- In total, the company invested more than $25 million in the environmental impact assessment.
- Our Major Project Approval document link
- Regulator behaviour is estimated to account for up to 50 per cent of unnecessary regulatory compliance costs.
