Australian Financial Review

Raising productivity is crucial and that requires reducing the regulatory burden, writes Penny Wong.
Ask any business about the challenges it faces and inevitably red-tape features high on the list. Whether its the amount of time spent on paperwork or the cost involved in compliance, red-tape frustrates all business owners.
Thats why this government worked with the states and territories to develop the Seamless National Economy National Partnership Agreement in 2008, which is focused on reducing the burden on businesses trading across jurisdictions and enabling them to do what they do best operate their business. So far, 16 of 27 deregulation reform priorities in the deal have been implemented.
Standard business reporting means businesses can now access and meet many of their reporting requirements through one portal, saving time and money. A commonwealth scheme to regulate the licensing and supervision of trustee corporations has started, replacing eight individual and complex state and territory regimes.
A single personal properties security law and register means greater certainty for business, more competition among secured finance providers and businesses can secure finance against assets. We have replaced 20 different and overlapping laws with a national consumer law and national product safety regime. This is estimated to save $880 million a year.
Some of these reforms are addressing concerns business has raised for years. Both the Bell review in 1996 and the Banks review in 2006 made recommendations to reduce the burdens on business, including nationally consistent occupational health and safety arrangements and payroll tax harmonisation. These are being completed under the Seamless National Economy initiative. The government has pursued initiatives to reduce the number of regulations overall, particularly redundant regulations that may no longer apply because theyve been superseded.
All of this has resulted in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development reporting in 2010 that "Australia is one of the front-running countries in the OECD in terms of its regulatory reform practices", and finding that our mature regulatory settings made a significant contribution to the resilience of the economy in the face of the global financial crisis.
But there is still more that can be done for business if governments are willing to work together. And critical to this is listening to business. Thats why we established the Business Advisory Forum, which will hold its inaugural meeting today to consider the next major regulatory reform priorities. Business leaders will have direct access to the Prime Minister and state and territory leaders the day before the Council of Australian Governments meeting to raise concerns and discuss areas of regulatory reform they would like to see prioritised.
Small to medium firms make up 97 per cent of Australian businesses and are the engine room of our economy. Ensuring they are able to be more efficient is one of the ways we can enable them to become more competitive and make the most of opportunities in the Asian century.
Removing unnecessary regulation is not something that will be achieved by mouthing slogans or throwing around savings numbers without any detail. The burden on business requires a concerted national effort. The Productivity Commission examined 17 of the 27 deregulation reforms being implemented under the Seamless National Economy agreement and estimated they would result in business costs being cut by about $4 billion a year and productivity would increase gross domestic product by more than $6 billion in the long term.
Raising productivity is critical, not only to meet todays challenges but also to build tomorrows prosperity. And reducing regulatory burden is a key element of the governments productivity agenda.
The Business Advisory Forum provides a direct opportunity for business to have its say on issues that matter to it, and help craft the next regulatory reform priorities.