“The Australian economy is shackled by red tape, and our politicians must respond to it if they want growth in our economy,” says Darcy Allen, Research Fellow at the free-market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs.

Today the IPA has released today a paper outlining ten red tape initiatives for the next Australian government.

“This is particularly timely following Gina Rinehart’s comments over the weekend that our politicians don’t have the guts to reduce the ballooning cost of government. If politicians were serious about innovation and encouraging entrepreneurship then they should understand the first step is cutting red tape,” says Mr Allen.

“Business leaders around Australia have all acknowledged that red tape is hampering Australia’s competitiveness,”

Recent Institute of Public Affairs research estimated that red tape costs Australia $176 billion every year in foregone economic output.

Understanding that the only way to unleash this potential prosperity is by cutting red tape, the IPA urges the next Australian government to:

  1. Dedicate one full week of parliamentary sitting days to repealing red tape.
  2. Benchmark red tape reduction on the number of ‘regulatory obligations’ rather than arbitrary cost measures.
  3. Commit to a ‘1-in-5-out’ regulatory obligations requirement.
  4. Estimate of the costs of public administration of red tape and the costs imposed on governments themselves.
  5. Develop a more open regulatory costing process.
  6. Commit to a Productivity Commission independent assessment into red tape progress across all Australian jurisdictions.
  7. Introduce red tape ‘open days’ to facilitate engagement between business and government.
  8. Utilise COAG to seek mutual recognition of requirements between jurisdictions.
  9. Commit to implementing the remaining recommendations of the Belcher review relating to whole-of-government red tape.
  10. Assign a clearly responsible and accountable Ministerial position for overseeing the above red tape reduction initiatives, with the potential for performance-based remuneration.

The report, Ten red tape initiatives for the next Australian government, is available here.