The Better Regulation Report will be tabled today in the Legislative Assembly, mapping out the ACT Government’s agenda to make it easier to start, run and grow a business in the ACT through best practice regulation and by simplifying interactions between business and government. The Better Regulation Taskforce (BRT) was established to support Canberra’s recovery from COVID-19 and long-term economic growth.
The Better Regulation Report explains how we are improving regulation for business in the ACT. The planned reforms draw from and respond directly to what the BRT has heard from businesses through its engagement.
The Taskforce will make it easier to do business in the ACT, working with the business community to identify and deliver solutions to address barriers they face and building on the ‘How can we help?’ approach the ACT Government has long been committed to. We will deliver targeted support for businesses to navigate regulatory requirements and to try new things, with a view to saying ‘yes’ wherever possible.
The Better Regulation Report details the ACT Government’s forward work program, the Better Regulation Agenda, and is comprised of two key reform streams, which will progress in parallel.
Stream 1: Policy and Legislation – making continual improvements to rules, regulations, and processes includes:
- Reviewing the existing procurement framework from an SME perspective.
- Readying the ACT for the commencement of the automatic mutual recognition (AMR) scheme to improve mobility for occupational license holders.
- Developing options to improve existing regulatory arrangements.
- Working with industry and across government to review the policy, legislative, regulatory and process requirements that ‘frame’ the night-time and entertainment economy industries.
Stream 2: Business Experience and Regulator Practice – making government-to-business interactions better, faster, and simpler includes:
- Better understanding business by surveying sentiment, mapping the user experience and piloting human centred design with business.
- Providing clearer information for business to meet their needs.
- Improving how regulators interact and respond to businesses; for example, enabling a more individual response to issues that arise, as well as putting all the information businesses need in one spot.
- Reducing the number of times businesses need to interact with government and regulators, and reducing duplicated processes.
Both the full Better Regulation Report and a summary version are online to help business owners to understand what regulation reform agenda will mean for them. The BRT will continue to speak with businesses as the Better Regulation Agenda progresses.
