As part of the National Reform Agenda, COAG agreed to benchmark and report on the regulatory burden across all levels of government, with the aim of identifying unnecessary compliance costs, enhancing regulatory consistency across jurisdictions and reducing regulatory duplication and overlap....

The Productivity Commission's research report into 'Performance Benchmarking of Australian Business Regulation' was released in March 2007. The Australian Government asked the Commission to develop a framework to benchmark regulatory regimes and their cost burdens across all levels of government...

Extract from the key points: The Australian anti-dumping system, which is based on agreed WTO rules and procedures, benefits a small number of import competing firms, but imposes greater costs on the rest of the economy. However, this net economic cost is likely to be very small. And the ability...

A report released by the Productivity Commission – Performance Benchmarking of Australian Business Regulation: Occupational Health and Safety – has identified significant differences in regulation and in the actions of regulators across the jurisdictions that are hard to justify. While OHS...

Key Points extract: • The Australian Government’s statutory paid parental leave scheme should be taxpayer-funded, and should: – provide paid postnatal leave for a total of 18 weeks that can be shared by eligible parents, with an additional two weeks of paternity leave reserved for the...

The Productivity Commission's report on regulatory burdens on the primary sector - released today - identifies a number of ways to reduce unnecessary burdens on farmers and miners and other primary sector producers arising from Commonwealth regulations. The report - Annual Review of Regulatory...

Most urban households face severe restrictions on their use of water. These impose hidden costs that could amount to billions of dollars each year. Australia's urban water shortages are only partly due to low rainfall. An important contributor has been inadequate institutional arrangements for...

The Commission's modelling indicates that there would be economy-wide benefits from further reductions in the relatively high tariffs on TCF imports. Assistance reductions would involve some further contraction of the TCF sector, but this would be outweighed by expansion of other industries...

The Productivity Commission's inquiry report into 'Tasmanian Freight Subsidy Arrangements' was tabled in Parliament in May 2007. The Commission was asked to report on arrangements for subsidising containerised and bulk shipping between the mainland and Tasmania and to recommend an appropriate...

The Productivity Commission released its latest report on the 'Financial Performance of Government Trading Enterprises 2004-05 to 2005-06' in July 2007. The report provides information on the financial performance of 85 Australian, State and Territory Government trading enterprises (GTEs) and...