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This is a joint submission from Consumer Action Law Centre, Financial Counselling Australia, Consumer Policy Research Centre and CHOICE. We welcome the opportunity to inform this national conversation about how we build a more productive economy that benefits all Australians.

Effective regulation is a cornerstone of a well-functioning and dynamic economy. It not only protects people from significant and life-altering harm, but also moderates distortive information and power imbalances and is essential for the development and maintenance of trust and confidence in any market.

We want regulation that works and welcome a conversation about removing duplication and unnecessary complexity. Just as a lack of regulation can result in significant harm, regulatory confusion, gaps and overlaps can also be the source of misconduct and poor practices and act as a barrier, rather than an aid, for anyone trying to prevent or correct harmful outcomes.

However, looking at similar discussions about regulation internationally, we have seen these conversations unhelpfully skew to the interests of business at the expense of consumer protection. The measure of success for any regulation should be whether it delivers on its intended outcome. A narrow focus on business costs of regulation excludes consumers and other intended beneficiaries of regulation.

In response to the Productivity Commission’s Interim Report, we recommend as a priority:

• No reduction in meaningful protections or obligations. Instead, reduce regulatory stock and confusion by focussing on simplification of systems, development of outcomes-focused regulation, and reducing harmful and unnecessary regulatory gaps and overlaps.
• Assessments of regulatory success must be grounded in whether the regulation is delivering on its intended outcomes, not just whether a change has reduced costs or administrative burden for business.
• Avoid setting quantified targets for regulatory burden reduction based on the volume of obligations or cost to industry. Instead, work with regulators to identify meaningful measurements of holistic regulatory outcomes.
• Any Government statements or performance indicators used to guide and assess regulatory reform must explicitly recognise that additional risk should be borne by those with the resources and information to understand and manage it—namely, businesses and government—not individual consumers.

Read the full submission (PDF).