COAG Reform Council

Competition and regulation

The National Partnership Agreement to Deliver a Seamless National Economy is designed to contribute to the following outcomes:

  • to create a seamless national economy, and reduce costs incurred by business in complying with unnecessary and inconsistent regulation across jurisdictions
  • to enhance Australia’s longer-term growth, improving workforce participation and overall labour mobility
  • to expand Australia’s productive capacity over the medium-term through competition reform, to enable stronger economic growth.

The National Partnership covers 36 areas of reform, including the 27 deregulation priorities to which the reward payments attach, eight competition reform areas, and ongoing reforms to improve processes for regulation making and review.

In its 2007 report titled Potential Benefits of the National Reform Agenda, the Productivity Commission estimated that the competition and regulatory reform agenda could increase gross domestic product by nearly two per cent.

The Commonwealth Department of Finance and Deregulation has estimated that ten of the 27 deregulation priorities would alone deliver annual benefits of $3.5 billion to the economy - including $1.8 billion to business.

The COAG Reform Council‘s role is to report to COAG annually to provide an independent assessment of whether the key milestones in the National Partnership have been achieved.

The National Partnership is underpinned by an implementation plan, which has been agreed by the Commonwealth, States and Territories to achieve the objectives of the National Partnership. The implementation plan articulates the policy outcomes sought in each reform area and identifies the key milestones in progressing each reform.

The National Partnership provides for the implementation plan to be reviewed and updated to ensure it reflects any new commitments made by COAG or to accommodate emerging issues. There have been five versions of the implementation plan:

On 2 July 2009, COAG agreed that the COAG Reform Council will also report on the progress of three new items: legal profession reform; regulatory reform of the not-for-profit sector; and retail tenancy reform. Implementation plans have been agreed by COAG for these additional reforms:

Reports

National Partnership Agreement to Deliver a Seamless National Economy: Performance report for 2009–10.

National Partnership Agreement to Deliver a Seamless National Economy: Report on performance 2008–09.