Oecd Reviews Of Regulatory Reform Oecd R

This review of regulatory reform in Australia comes at the right time to capture the attention of the OECD community. Australia has successfully weathered the worst effects of the current economic crisis. The resilience of the Australian economy, in the face of the deepest and most widespread recession in over fifty years in OECD countries, can in part be attributed to Australia's current and past regulatory reforms. Australia has built strong governance foundations for the development of good regulatory management and competition policies, which are likely to be conducive to economic growth. It aims to reinvigorate a wide agenda of national reforms and to embed past reform achievements in new working arrangements between the Commonwealth and the States. This reform agenda is likely to yield substantial economic benefits for years to come, but demands joint participation and commitment from both the Commonwealth and all States. Maintaining the momentum for reform is a critical challenge, which requires a strategic vision as well as strenuous efforts to promote change and to establish a culture of continuous regulatory improvement. Australia is one of many OECD countries to request a broad review by the OECD of its regulatory practices and reforms. This review presents a general picture , set within a macroeconomic context, of regulatory achievements and challenges, including regulatory quality at the Commonwealth level as well as across levels of government, competition policy and market openness. It also provides a special focus on Commonwealth-state relationships.

Abbreviations Executive Summary PART I. THE MACROECONOMIC CONTEXT Chapter 1. Performance and Appraisal -Introduction -The macroeconomic and structural context -The achievements of regulatory reform and competition-oriented reforms to data -The challenges for regulatory reform -Conclusion PART II. REGULATORY REFORM Chapter 2. Regulatory Governance -The administrative and legal environment for regulatory reform in Australia -Recent and current regulatory reform initiatives -Mechanisms to promote regulatory reform within the public administration -Administrative capacities for making new regulations of high quality, transparency -Building regulatory agencies -Improving the stock of existing regulations and reducing burdens -Conclusions and recommendations for action -Policy options for consideration Chapter 3. Multi-level Regulatory Governance - Commonwealth-State Relationships -Introduction -The Australian Federation and COAG co-ordination -The COAG national reform agenda -Strengthening regulatory quality of COAG decisions -Co-ordinating arrangements within the States -Strengthening regulatory quality at the State level -General assessment of the challenges and opportunities for multi-level regulatory governance -Policy options for consideration PART III. COMPETITION AND MARKET OPENNESS Chapter 4. Competition Policy -Foundations -Substantive issues: Context of the competition law -Institutional issues: Enforcement structure and practices -Limits of competition policy: Exclusions and sectoral regimes -Competition advocacy and policy studies -Conclusions -Policy options for consideration Chapter 5. Market Openness -General Context -The policy framework for market openness: The six "efficient regulation" principles -Conclusion -Policy options for consideration