Regulation Impact Statement – Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
On 6 October 2020 the Australian Government announced the proposal to harmonise and streamline plant export regulation, as part of Budget 2020/21.
The RIS assesses the burden that existing regulations place on Australian plant product exporters. Mainly, that existing regulations are complex and variable and place unnecessary costs onto business. The RIS considers a variety of related but separate opportunities, including:
- Opportunities to enhance processes to support plant and plant product exports.
- Opportunities to outsource audit and assurance functions.
- Opportunities to use technology to provide assurance.
- Opportunities to implement harmonised and streamlined regulatory arrangements.
The RIS concludes that the opportunities to (i) enhance processes to support plant and plant product exporters and (iv) deliver harmonised regulatory approaches and streamlined regulatory arrangements represent the options with the highest net benefit. According to the RIS, these changes will provide a greater degree of operational flexibility to industry.
The Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) assessed the RIS as good practice against the Government’s impact analysis requirements.