On 30 April COAG signed the Intergovernmental Agreement for a National Licensing System for Specified Occupations.
The national system will regulate a mish-mash of occupational areas.
The nominated occupation areas are: air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics;, building and building related occupations; electrical; land transport (passenger vehicle and dangerous good drivers); maritime; plumbing and gasfitting; and property agents.
As expected, COAG followed the advice of the decision regulatory impact statement and adopted a ‘national delegated agency’ model of licensing.
A national licensing board will head a national licensing body charged to develop national licensing policy.
This will enable the body to develop rules in areas including licence eligibility and maintenance requirements, licence classes, compliance and enforcement standards, disciplinary arrangements and licence fees.
The body will be aided by specific occupational licence advisory committees, who will provide ‘the principal source of advice’ on licensing policy.
Existing jurisdictional regulators will be expected to continue performing current registration/enforcement functions.
Victoria is the host jurisdiction for the proposed legislation. Other states will pick up the Victorian law by reference.
It is proposed to expose a draft of the proposed legislation in October with a view of introducing legislation into the Victorian Parliament in the second quarter of 2010.
It is an interesting licensing model.
Decision makers framing the laws governing what a particular trade can or can't do should have some background in the area so what is done is both workable and appropriate.
The National Licensing Board (which presumably will make rules such as licence standards) will constitute an independent chairman and up to eight other people, including two ‘regulators’ appointed on a rotating basis.
It is difficult to see how such a board (or the bureaucracy that supports it) would have the capacity to have a genuine understanding of, and thus make optimal regulations for, sparkies and realos and some classes of truckies….and air conditioner mechanics (amongst others).
One imagines the specialist subcommittees will be the real decision makers.
That is probably why the IGA requires a representative of the committee to ‘attend the board meeting to discuss (the measure to be enacted)’.
The proposed national legislation will need close examination to see whether this structure is genuinely workable.
To that extent, now that a host jurisdiction has been identified (Victoria), it is hoped that the parliament of that state will establish some form of committee structure to test the quality of the policy – and not just assess something against how well the wishes of an unelected COAG council has been given effect.
This includes appropriate measures to allow parliamentary scrutiny of rules that will govern who can enter the various trades and professions, and how they will be subsequently regulated.
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