The Seamless Economy Regulatory Project - the Commonwealth Buy In

A National Partnership Agreement to Deliver a Seamless National Economy has been signed to encourage the development of the seamless economy.

It is part of an Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Arrangements, which aims to:

reduc(e) the costs of regulation and enhancing productivity and workforce mobility in areas of shared Commonwealth, State and Territory responsibility

through:

deliver(ing) more consistent regulation across jurisdictions and address unnecessary or poorly designed regulation, to reduce excessive compliance costs on business, restrictions on competition and distortions in the allocation of resources in the economy.

The areas where harmonisation was regarded as being desirable are listed in paragraph 21 of the Agreement.

The paragraph also says:

The States and Territories will have responsibility to work together, and for many specific reforms to work jointly with the Commonwealth, to implement a coordinated national approach….

Paragraph 22 continues:

The states and territories will also have shared responsibility with the Commonwealth for regulatory reform.

Finally, the ultimate Commonwealth weapon: there are ‘reward components’ payable under the National Partnership Agreement by the Commonwealth to states and territories in two tranches from 2011-12, with paragraph 32 of the agreement providing:

The Commonwealth will provide reward payments to the States and Territories following CRC (COAG Reform Council) advice as to the achievement of key milestones, as set out in the Implementation Plan for the 27 deregulation priorities.

So there is a significant Commonwealth buy-in of areas of traditional state responsibility.

The article discusses how regulations develop in the seamless economy.