The growth of regulation in Australia

The Institute of Public Affairs has published a backgrounder  Policy without Parliament: the growth of regulation in Australia.

This year, there will have been more legislation and regulation imposed in Australia than any other year in history. Furthermore, federal regulatory agencies have grown dramatically in the last decade. The budget and staff of the three major regulatory bodies - ACCC, ASIC and APRA - have nearly doubled over the last ten years.

Here are some key points:

From 2000-2006 Commonwealth Parliament passed 40,266 pages of Acts.

Subordinate legislation—regulation—is growing at a similar pace as legislation.

The Howard Liberal Government oversaw the largest regulatory expansion since Federation.

There are 24,000 different types of licences administered by the three levels of government.

Regulatory compliance now comprises between ten and 25 per cent of board and senior management workload.

The full cost of regulation is much greater than the visible cost of compliance.

There are approximately 60 Commonwealth regulators and national standard-setting bodies. There are a further 40 Federal ministerial councils which set and administer regulations. Although hard to estimate, Federal regulatory agencies employ over 34,000 people, with a combined yearly budget of well over $4.5 billion.

(via Trevor Cook).