In a speech to the Sydney Institute, the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner has reported on progress on deregulation and repeated the Government’s commitment to change.

"We are serious about change.

I understand that business
wants certainty and stability.  I’m not seeking endless change for
change’s sake. But that is no reason to allow excessive and
unnecessary regulatory burdens to remain in place indefinitely."

He identified the biggest challenge as establishing an entrenched culture of continuous regulatory improvement and reform. He has appointed economist, Nicholas Gruen, to work with him on this.

Progress to date

"We are working with states and territories through the Council of
Australian Governments (COAG) to address areas of regulatory
duplication or inconsistency between different levels of government.

Our
Business Regulation and Competition Working Group has been meeting to
progress an accelerated program of reform which will be presented to
COAG in late March.

These measures will be targeted at reducing the  cost of regulation to business.

For
example, the Standard Business Reporting initiative will allow
businesses to submit BAS statements, state tax returns, ASIC documents
and ABS survey responses through a simpler, faster and easier process
using their own record keeping software.

Streamlined
environmental assessment processes will stop the time wasting process
of two groups of environmental assessors looking at the same
information and holding up approval processes.

Nationally
consistent occupational health and safety laws will allow multi-state
employers to roll out the same training and safety programs across all
work sites.

The recommendations of the Banks Review will be
revisited. The Banks Review made over 170 recommendations but many of
these have not been implemented.  We want to turn these recommendations
into real outcomes for business. 

The Productivity Commission will also conduct  regular reviews of the regulatory burden in individual sectors of the economy.

The
Government’s response to the Commission’s 2007 report into the
regulatory burden in the primary sector will be delivered as soon as
possible.

Agriculture Minister Tony Burke has already announced the deregulation of the single desk arrangements for wheat exports. …

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese has
concluded a bilateral open skies agreement with the United States,
which will benefit Australian consumers and businesses….

Minister
for Superannuation and Corporate Law Nick Sherry and I recently
announced the formation of the Financial Services Reform Working Group
to solve this problem (the Financial
Services Reform Act disclosure regime) .

Consultation papers on the new national employment standards, the
design and regulation of the first home saver accounts, implementation
of a carbon emissions reporting scheme, and proposed amendments to the
export cargo legislative framework have already been released.

The
Assistant Treasurer has established a Tax Design Review Panel to
examine how to reduce delays and improve the quality of tax law changes.

The Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) has moved into the
Department of Finance and Deregulation, reflecting its central role in
improving the quality of regulation.

The OBPR will continue
to administer the best practice regulation principles and be a
regulation watch-dog on government departments, agencies and Ministers.

Regulatory proposals will not come to
Cabinet unless the OPBR agrees that adequate regulatory impact analysis
has been performed. "