The Seamless Economy Regulatory Project - Some Reforms

This series of articles illustrate that the manner by which Australian legislation is made is changing.

The articles show that whilst some consultation is undertaken at the margins, in many circumstances once something forms part of an intergovernmental agreement (an IGA) or is contained in a COAG resolution, it is next to cast in stone.

This leads to an undesirable democracy deficit.

A parliamentary process allowing the review of decisions emanating from the COAG process should be formalised.

In June 2008 the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs published a paper discussing constitutional reform.

The sole recommendation contained in the paper is that intergovernmental agreements should be automatically referred to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny and report to the Parliament.

This idea should be adopted.

It should also apply to draft bills that flow from an IGA.

IGAs and draft bills should also be referred to relevant committees of state and territory parliaments such as the Western Australian Uniform Legislation and Statutes Review Committee.

There should also be some capacity to permit parliamentary review where some COAG recognised body such as a Ministerial Council can make rules and regulations having the full force of law, such as the capacity to make standards for the national scheme for health professionals referred to in an earlier article in this series.

Thus, if a parliament of a participating jurisdiction disallows a subordinate instrument made by a ministerial council within the period of time that state or territory law permits the disallowance of subordinate instruments, the instument should be taken not to be in force anywhere in Australia.

In this way, the interests of all stakeholders can be heard, better legislation developed and the protections of a federal system of government retained whilst allowing the development of harmonised regulations that are seen as necessary to allow the Seamless Economy to efficiently function.

Decision makers in companies and industry associations will have to establish strategies to ensure their interests are protected as the new regulations underpinning the Seamless Economy develop.