On 11 September 2014, the Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Victoria, invited submissions on the proposal to introduce nationally consistent rules for the care and management of livestock during their transition through saleyards and depots in Australia. Saleyards are places where livestock are bought and sold, usually by auction. Depots are facilities or yards where livestock may be rested between journeys or holding facilities in a particular region where livestock are delivered from farms for assembly before a journey. The proposed national standards and guidelines aims to replace the existing Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals at Saleyards and eventually supersede the various state and territory codes of practice.
Published Impact Analyses
Official website for Published Impact Analyses for decisions announced by the Australian Government, Ministerial Forums and National Standard Setting Bodies.
On 26 September 2014, the Australian Building Codes Board released a COAG Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) for consultation canvassing five proposed amendments to the National Construction Code provisions that aim to enhance emergency egress for people with disability. The COAG RIS for consultation was prepared by the Australian Building Codes Board and has been approved by the OBPR. The consultation period closes on 31 October 2014.
On 22 September 2014, the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) released a consultation paper examining options to ensure that regulation of plumbing and draining products, including their installation, make adequate provision for the health and safety of building occupants. The ABCB previously undertook a review of the WaterMark Certification Scheme, which raised issues about the coverage of the scheme and the extent to which it is risk-focused, as well as the costs it imposes on some manufacturers.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) remade two sunsetting legislative instruments without significant amendments on 25 August 2014: the Radiocommunications (Accreditation – Prescribed Certificates) Principles 2003 and the Radiocommunications (Frequency Assignment Certificates) Determination 2003. The instruments support the operation of the Accredited Persons Scheme, which permits accredited persons to perform certain activities related to the authorisation of radiocommunications services. The proposal has been assessed by the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) as likely to have a limited impact on the economy with no impacts on competition.
On 19 September 2014, the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Small Business jointly announced the release of a mandatory code of conduct designed to give bulk wheat exporters fair and transparent access to port terminal services, regardless of who owns the infrastructure. The Code of Conduct replaces the ‘access test’ arrangements under the Wheat Export Marketing Act 2008, which were seen to impose an unnecessarily high burden on a small number of port operators. The new Code applies to all port terminal service providers, including some operators who were not subject to the previous arrangements. However, where competition exists, the Code allows for businesses to be exempted from certain mandatory requirements, excluding basic publishing obligations.
On 28 August 2014, the Minister for Education introduced the Higher Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill 2014 into the Australian Parliament. The Bill implements a range of higher education reform measures announced in the 2014-15 Budget. The Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) identifies the regulatory problem that the reforms are targeted to address, namely, that existing price controls for undergraduate and some postgraduate education at public universities distort the efficient functioning of the higher education market. In addition, current arrangements limit which institutions can deliver subsidised higher education, constraining competition within the market.
On 17 June 2014, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced that it will regulate the price that a mobile phone network operator can charge other networks for connecting calls and text messages to its network. The declaration will be in place until 30 June 2019. The ACCC had previously regulated the price of connecting calls between networks, but not text messages. The ACCC decision was informed by the Domestic Mobile Terminating Access Service Declaration Inquiry (Inquiry). The Inquiry considered which services operated by mobile phone networks should have their price regulated. The assessment of the Inquiry was that there was no effective substitute for mobile phone calls and text messages.
On 22 August, the Chairman of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced new rules for telecommunication service providers regarding the backup power supply for National Broadband Network (NBN) voice services. Following the national rollout of the NBN, approximately twenty-six per cent of Australians will be connected to the NBN via fibre to the premises technology. During a power outage, households connected to the NBN via fibre to the premises technology will not have access to fixed-line telephone services without a backup battery supply. The inclusion of a backup battery in NBN service packages is at the discretion of individual telecommunication service providers.
On 6 August 2014, the Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) on the grocery code of conduct was released for consultation. The RIS prepared by the Treasury considers whether the activities of the major supermarket chains are harming Australian suppliers. There is considerable debate that difference in bargaining power between supermarkets and suppliers may be used to extract contractual arrangements that go beyond what would be realised in a competitive market. The preferred option at this stage is for supermarkets to engage in an ‘opt-in prescribed’ code of conduct that makes certain elements of their contractual undertakings with suppliers transparent, and regulates certain things that can be contracted.
On 25 July 2014, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) made a variation to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code relating to a Primary Production and Processing Standard for Meat and Meat Products. Meat producers are currently not directly regulated for traceability, input and waste management under the food regulatory system. Rather, they are indirectly regulated via requirements on meat processors to source products from producers who meet such requirements. This means that State and Territory food regulators are unable to investigate on-farm food safety issues without activating emergency powers under their respective Food Acts; in the event of a food safety incident, the additional time that this takes can allow an incident to worsen.