On 19 November 2012, regulation was tabled in the Senate, which sets out requirements for insurers regarding the content, presentation and provision of a one-page Key Facts Sheet for home building and home contents insurance policies – the Insurance Contracts Amendment Regulation 2012 (No. 2). In the Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) the preferred option is likely to provide benefits for consumers in terms of improved access to key information and providing the most opportunities to compare similar insurance policies prior to entering into an insurance contract. As insurers are already required to provide a Key Facts Sheet for home building and home contents insurance policies under the Insurance Contracts Amendment Act 2012, costs are unlikely to be affected by imposing new requirements on the content and presentation of the Key Facts Sheet.
Published Impact Analyses
Official website for Published Impact Analyses for decisions announced by the Australian Government, Ministerial Forums and National Standard Setting Bodies.
The Government has announced a package of reform measures to improve regulatory performance. As part of the reform package the Government has agreed to; - adopt a two-stage process for developing regulation impact statements (RISs); - strengthen the role of annual regulatory plans (ARPs); and - encourage better and more informed stakeholder consultation. The Office of Best Practice Regulation will be preparing revised guidance material to reflect the new arrangements. The current arrangements for Regulatory Impact Analysis are set out in the Government’s Best Practice Regulation Handbook and commenced operation on 1 July 2010. The Government committed to reviewing the framework within two years.
On 20 November 2012, the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation announced new market integrity rules. Broadly, the rules are in response to technological innovations such as automated and high-frequency trading; as well as the increasing significance of dark liquidity (that is, liquidity which is not publically disclosed). More specifically, the rules provide for:
On 20 November 2012, the Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and Minister for Finance and Deregulation Penny Wong released exposure draft legislation to consolidate the five current anti-discrimination acts into a single act. The consolidation project was established as a Better Regulation Ministerial Partnership between the Attorney-General and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation. The main changes will be:
On 22 November 2012, the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities announced that the final Murray-Darling Basin Plan was signed into law. This decision means that each year some 2,750 gigalitres of surface water, which would otherwise be used for consumptive purposes (such as irrigation and industrial use), will be returned to the environment to help restore the health of the Basin. The Basin Plan sets a long-term average sustainable diversion limit on the total volume of surface water diverted for consumptive use of some 10,873 gigalitres each year. The main benefits of the Basin Plan have been categorised into ‘use’ and ‘non-use’ benefits. Use benefits are estimated to approach $100 million per annum. These include benefits to tourism, floodplain agriculture and commercial fishing.
Post-implementation Review – the Treasury
On 16 November 2012, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency announced the phase out of the solar credits mechanism on 1 January 2013, six months earlier than scheduled. The phase out is designed to lower the impact of the high uptake of solar photovoltaic on electricity costs for homes and businesses. This announcement follows two previous decisions to reduce the solar credits multiplier under the Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme. Both decisions were non-compliant with the best practice regulation requirements.
On 16 November 2012, the Standing Council on Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment (SCOTESE) agreed to the mandatory collection and reporting of total Vocational Education and Training (VET) Activity data from 1 January 2014. The implementation details for the new requirements will be finalised at a later date. Currently, data are collected from around 2,200 providers either from government providers reporting data on all students or from providers reporting on government-subsidised activity only. Therefore, the proposed mandatory collection of data will impact approximately 2,600 providers who will need to submit data for the first time. Also a further 950 providers may need to increase their reporting. The costs of introducing mandatory reporting requirements will not be evenly distributed across stakeholders.
On 5 August 2008 the Treasury announced its response to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Grocery Inquiry. A recommendation of the Inquiry was to establish a nationally consistent unit pricing Code. Because a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) was not prepared for the initial decision to regulate, Treasury was required to complete a Post-implementation Review (PIR). Under the Code, unit pricing is mandatory for store-based grocery retailers, all online grocery retailers and all other grocery retailers that enter the Code. It requires these businesses to display the price of grocery items for a certain unit of measurement (such as grams) in addition to the total price of the item. Based on available evidence, the Review found that: consumer’s often rely on unit prices; are more inclined to choose lower priced products where unit prices are available; and value unit prices even where products are sold in common sizes, weights or quantities.
The Australian Government’s Stronger Super reforms recognise that for many Australians, their superannuation savings will form a significant part of their retirement income. As part of these reforms, the Australian Government has given the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) the power to make prudential standards for the superannuation industry. Prudential standards are a flexible tool that enables APRA to adjust requirements for risk management by participants in supervised industries. On 15 November 2012 APRA released 11 final prudential standards for the superannuation industry. These standards cover four matters that were referred to APRA by the Australian Government, relating to matters such as risk management; operational risk requirements; and conflicts of interest.