Published Impact Analyses

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.

On 10 October 2012, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) announced a continuation of measures contained in previous temporary orders, aimed at protecting dolphins in the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery. The measures include the closure of an area to fishing by gillnets, increased monitoring requirements in specific areas and allows fishing by hooks in certain areas by some fishers. These measures will remain in place for twelve months allowing AFMA time to develop longer term management measures for the fishery. These measures are in response to a high number of dolphins deaths attributable to gillnet fishing.

On 9 November 2012, the Department of Health and Ageing made regulations adopting a new sunscreen standard. The new standard allows products to be labelled with a sun protection factor (SPF) rating of up to SPF 50+, compared with the previous standard which limited claims to SPF 30+. The new sunscreen standard also requires greater protection from UVA radiation – which causes skin cancer – by setting out more stringent requirements for broad spectrum performance. It will cost industry $45,000-$175,000 to develop a new sunscreen in line with the new standard – a similar cost to the previous standard. It is likely that the price to consumers of a SPF 50+ sunscreen will be 15% to 30% higher than a typical SPF 30+ product. However, the products will deliver significantly better protection from harmful UV radiation than those currently available in Australia.

Australia is proposing to become a party to the International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances (HNS) by Sea (the HNS Convention). On 1 November 2012 the HNS treaty documents, including the Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) and National Interest Analysis, were tabled in the House of Representatives.