The Business Council of Australia has lodged a submission to the National Occupational Licensing Authority (NOLA) consultation on the development of national harmonised licensing for electrical, property, plumbing and gasfitting, and refrigeration and air-conditioning occupations.

The submission welcomes the opportunity to improve workforce mobility across Australia through the implementation of an effective national regulatory scheme at the lowest cost. The Business Council of Australia is seeking that, at a minimum, the national scheme:

• licenses at least possible cost only those skills and competencies that reduce identified risks

• removes all ineffective and duplicative regulatory functions in national and sub-national jurisdictions

• nationally recognises licences regardless of the jurisdiction in which they are obtained, to reduce mobility barriers.

The submission urges NOLA to:

• adopt a more comprehensive risk assessment to build the case more strongly for the removal of particular licences, licence conditions and regulatory functions that provide little or no additional protections to the public

• recommend longer licence durations wherever feasible

• outline how to minimise the risk that the national scheme may be used to increase barriers to workforce mobility by unnecessarily raising competency standards, or the range of competencies required.

Submission to the Department of Finance and Deregulation on the Independent Review of the Australian Government’s Regulatory Impact Analysis Process