This audit assessed the effectiveness of selected departments’ implementation of the Deregulation Agenda: Cutting Red Tape initiatives.

Conclusion

The incoming Government’s Deregulation Agenda included an annual net reduction target of at least $1 billion in red tape, and on taking office in late 2013, internal portfolio-level reduction targets were set by Ministers, with a combined value of $2.65 billion for 2014 and 2015. By the end of 2015, the Government had publicly announced measures to deliver estimated total net savings of $4.80 billion. Portfolio reporting to PM&C advised that some $3.97 billion in net savings had been implemented in 2014 and 2015—exceeding the internal target of $2.65 billion by $1.32 billion.

PM&C moved quickly to put in place a governance framework to support implementation of the incoming Government’s Deregulation Agenda. The selected departments established internal Deregulation Units with clearly articulated roles, responsibilities and consultative mechanisms, and involved senior APS leaders to provide impetus. The selected departments’ approaches to calculating the savings (and in some cases the costs) of the 29 measures examined by the ANAO was consistent with whole-of-government guidance provided by PM&C and had regard to government expectations that departments adopt a risk-based and proportionate approach to assessing the benefits of removing or adjusting regulatory arrangements.

Ministers agreed in December 2013 that significant regulatory changes—potentially including some red tape reduction measures—would be subject to a post-implementation review process within five years, and that the economic impacts of the overall Deregulation Agenda would be assessed by the Productivity Commission or another equivalent body within three years. As at the end of 2015, no whole-of-government post-implementation reviews or evaluations had been conducted, although some of the audited portfolios advised that they planned to undertake stakeholder surveys. Portfolio-level surveys are not a substitute for the structured third-party assessment of impact agreed by Ministers at the commencement of the program, and PM&C should take the necessary steps to implement the Australian Government’s decision that the Deregulation Agenda’s economic impacts be assessed within three years.