The Minister for Financial Services & Regulation, Joe Hockey, today released the final report of the Taskforce set up to advise on promoting industry self-regulation in Australia.
The Self Regulation Taskforce reported 43 principles for effective self-regulation with two specific proposals for implementing those principles. The Government has agreed to both implementation proposals.
In response to the Taskforce findings the Government will:
- provide industries with practical guidelines based on the principles flagged in the report to help develop self regulation schemes.
- will highlight the Taskforce's findings to policy makers to encourage government agencies to give serious consideration to self-regulatory options as an alternative to regulation.
As part of its response, the Government is developing a specialist web site - as a satellite site to the Government's one-stop-shop for consumer information www.consumersonline.gov.au - that will act as a gateway to self-regulatory schemes in Australia and will also provide ready access to policy guidelines and useful information on self-regulation.
"Good self-regulation means better market outcomes for consumers while at the same time coming at the lowest cost to businesses, " the Minister said.
"In the long run, I think self-regulation is the best approach. It empowers both consumers and businesses, and in most situations is a better alternative to onerous and expensive government regulation.
"It allows for a dynamic and an interactive process where an industry, its customers and the government can work to establish the best regulatory model."
The Government's response to the Taskforce report is attached.
For copies of the report and the Minister's speech, go to www.joehockey.com .Printed copies are available on 02 6263 4000 or email publications@treasury.gov.au
13 December 2000
Media contact: Matthew Abbott, Minister's office, 0413 076213
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO THE REPORT OF THE TASKFORCE ON INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION
13 December 2000
Introduction
The Minister for Financial Services and Regulation, the Hon Joe Hockey MP, set up the Taskforce on Industry Self-Regulation on 12 August 1999. The Taskforce was given a broad reference to inquire into and report on industry self-regulation in consumer markets.
The Committee presented its report, Industry self-regulation in consumer markets, to the Minister on 31 August 2000. The report contained 43 conclusions on aspects of self-regulation and two specific suggestions for Government. The 43 conclusions establish policy principles to guide the development and review of effective self-regulation. The two suggestions relate to how the Government could implement the 43 Taskforce findings.
The 43 conclusions comprehensively deal with all aspects of the Taskforce Terms of Reference and, in so doing, provide definitive guidance to all parties involved with self-regulation - industry, consumers, government - on how to implement effective self-regulation. The 43 conclusions establish good policy principles in relation to matters such as:
- Dealing with gaps and overlaps in the coverage of self-regulatory schemes;
- Identifying the industry environment and market circumstances where self-regulation is likely to be most effective;
- Good practice and cost effective self-regulation methods;
- Approaches to promoting and coordinating industry self-regulation; and
- Options for facilitating the improvement and harmonisation of industry dispute resolution schemes.
The Government recognises that each of the 43 Taskforce findings provides important guidance to industry on the development of effective self-regulation.
The Government has considered the report in the context of its firm commitment to promoting effective self-regulation as an alternative to onerous government regulation. The Government has also taken account of the extensive consultation undertaken by the Taskforce with all stakeholders around Australia.
The following are the Governments responses to the Committees two proposals for Government action.
Taskforce proposals
Proposal 1
The Taskforce encourages the Government, in addition to existing guidelines and benchmarks, to provide industries with further practical guidelines based on the principles flagged in this report to help inform/assist the development and review of self-regulatory schemes.
Response
The Government will proceed to implement this proposal by drafting a Self-Regulation Guideline for industry based on the policy principles flagged in the Taskforce report. The Self-Regulation Guideline will be published on a new self-regulation Web site to facilitate immediate and easy access to supplementary information via hypertext links. This site will be accessible from Consumers Online at www.consumersonline.gov.au, the Governments central gateway to consumer information.
The Self-Regulation Guideline will be consistent in style with the Government's other policy guidelines on self-regulation - such as the Codes Policy Framework - but will not duplicate existing guidelines. The Self-Regulation Guideline will pose questions and raise issues that should be considered in the development of self-regulation, consistent with the Taskforce findings that effective self-regulatory solutions need to be tailored to particular market problems.
Proposal 2
The Taskforce also encourages the Government to consider up-dating its guidelines for policy makers on how to assess the range of options for addressing a particular market failure or social policy objective. The purpose of such a revision would be to incorporate the Taskforce findings on the industry environment and market circumstances that are most likely to lead to effective self-regulation.
Response
The Government supports this proposal as an efficient means of drawing the attention of policymakers to the Taskforce findings on industry environments and market circumstances conducive to effective self-regulation.
It is important that policymakers give serious consideration to self-regulatory options as an alternative to regulation. The Government will consider how it can highlight the findings of the Taskforce report to policy makers, by promoting easy access to information on self-regulation through the proposed self-regulation Web site and by considering whether there should be a reference to the Taskforce work in any future edition of the Government's Guide to Regulation.