Review of NSW Government Red Tape

The NSW Government recognises that the impact of business regulation may fall disproportionately on small firms which might not have the resources of large business to comply with business regulatory requirements.  The Government is also aware that business regulation has the unintended potential to erect barriers to entry that in turn impact the competitive environment to the detriment of the broader community.

To address these issues, the Minister for Small Business has established a Small Business Regulation Review Taskforce (the Taskforce).  The role of the Taskforce is to assess regulations that impact small firms and recommend actions that will make compliance with regulations by small business operators simpler.  This is expected to yield savings to business and assist them to improve their compliance with regulation.

Recognising the diversity of the small business sector, the Taskforce is conducting a rolling program of reviews on a sector-by-sector basis.  In conducting these reviews the Taskforce is examining:

1. regulatory controls that impose administrative burdens on small business and create unintended consequences, particularly for small firms in the start-up or business expansion stage;
2. opportunities for agencies and businesses to apply technology to reduce the administrative burden on small firms;
3. any overlapping, duplicative or inconsistent requirements created by various legislative requirements;
4. domestic and international best practice approaches that could be applied in New South Wales;  and
5. mechanisms that Government should consider adopting to manage administrative burdens from regulations imposed on small firms.

The Taskforce is not analysing rates of fees and charges payable by business, but it may examine matters relating to compliance costs with such obligations by small firms.

The responsibilities of the Taskforce include:

• developing a small business regulation review methodology;
• identifying and recommending small business priority sectors to be reviewed;
• recommending a timeline for review of these small business priority sectors;
• consulting widely to ensure that the views of industry participants are heard, and may call for submissions from industry representatives and participants;
• endeavouring to estimate the cost of compliance on small firms of various regulations;  and
• co-operating with other jurisdictions in its consideration of business regulatory issues and will take into account work being done by them.

Review by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal

The IPART review consisted of three main phases:

• To undertake a public inquiry to identify areas of NSW Government regulation which are imposing a significant, unnecessary burden on business and the community.
• To determine priority areas where there are good prospects for regulatory reforms which could provide significant immediate gains to business and the community.
• To develop recommendations for NSW Government action to improve the efficiency of regulation and reduce unnecessary burdens, including consideration of non-regulatory or incentive-based options for achieving public policy outcomes.

An interim report of the review was issued publicly in July 2006 for comment.  The final report was released on 9 November 2006 and can be found on the IPART website at www.ipart.nsw.gov.au.  The NSW Government response to the first 16 recommendations of the report was also released on 9 November 2006 with the response to the remaining 57 recommendations (17-74) released in August 2007.  Both of the Government’s responses can be found on the Better Regulation Office page of the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s website at www.cabinet.nsw.gov.au/better_regulation_office.

Review of Internal Government Red Tape

The Minister Assisting the Treasurer on Business and Economic Regulatory Reform is undertaking a review of the administrative burden imposed on NSW Government agencies by other NSW Government agencies, including the development of options for reducing that burden.

The review is addressing both financial and non-financial reporting requirements that add an impost to the operations of NSW public sector agencies and will also report on other red tape issues identified.  The Government will be considering the review findings in a staged manner in order to facilitate early implementation of the findings.