Business Regulation in Australia: Promises, Realities, Futures

Abstract

CONTEXT (at 2009). John Howard was Australian Prime Minister from 1996 to 2007. This paper was developed for the John Howard’s Decade conference at the Australian National University, March 2006. It is one of a series of outputs and contributions from my 16 years of research and monitoring of 'laws regulating business', including from standpoints of Australian enterprises in changing global and local social and global contexts. New Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as Opposition leader, loudly criticised expansion of business rules, calling these ‘sand in the engine of economic growth’. There are signs however, of difficulty grappling with regulation realties. Australian and OECD governments find the promises much easier than action. ABSTRACT (at 2006). As the Opposition Leader in the early 1990s, John Howard argued that to meet challenges of the 21st century 'government has to foster a competitive culture in Australia ... to create and encourage an environment in which enterprise and initiative flourish'. During the 1996 election the Coalition reiterated its 'obligation … to implement policies that will unshackle business from the many regulatory burdens imposed on it'. Australian enterprises, governments and communities traversed three identifiable phases of business regulation review over 15 years to 2006 – Red Tape Reduction, National Competition Policy, Process Streamlining. While Competition Policy reviews achieved structural change, on balance, the regulation climate for business advanced little. As external pressures sharpen, reminiscent of the early 1990s, attention returns to 'regulatory ossification', as part-acknowledged by the Howard Government in convening another Red-tape Taskforce in its tenth year of power (adding to a long string of reviews). Arguably, Australia faces income challenges not yet imagined, with stark competition on resource and regulation fronts. There could be a window to respond with 'new-era' regulation innovation that harnesses Australian societal and economic characteristics. This would require paradigm-shift thinking and critical probing of policy and regulatory practices. A set of principles questioning and reframing core elements of Australian business regulation for a 'new-era' is outlined. Change drivers are also discussed.