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Mechanisms for improving the quality of regulations: Australia in an international context

Staff working paper

This paper by Steven Argy and Matthew Johnson, was released on 31 July 2003. The paper examines selected regulatory policies and practices from the Australian states and territories and ten OECD countries.

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  • Contents

Preliminaries
Cover, Copyright, Contents, Preface, Abbreviations and explanations

Overview
Regulatory quality
Regulatory quality policies in the OECD
Commonwealth Government regulatory quality policies
Regulation impact analysis in other jurisdictions
Other approaches to improving regulatory quality
Next steps

1   Introduction

2   Why is regulatory quality important?
2.1   Characteristics of good quality regulation
2.2   Concerns about regulation

3   Regulatory quality policies in the OECD
3.1   Introduction
3.2   OECD Regulatory quality principles
3.3   Variety of approaches adopted
3.4   Other international developments
3.5   Evaluation of policies

4   Commonwealth regulatory quality policies
4.1   Commonwealth policies and OECD good practices
4.2   Need for ongoing review and reform

5   Regulation Impact Analysis in other jurisdictions
5.1   Best practice RIA
5.2   Commonwealth RIA and OECD best practice
5.3   Maximise political commitment to RIA
5.4   Allocate responsibilities for RIA program elements carefully
5.5   Use a consistent, but flexible analytical method
5.6   Target RIA efforts
5.7   Train the regulators/data collection strategies
5.8   Integrate RIA with policy-making process
5.9   Involve the public extensively
5.10   Communicate the results
5.11   Summary findings

6   Other regulatory quality strategies
6.1   Introduction
6.2   Managing and coordinating regulatory reform
6.3   Ensuring regulatory transparency
6.4   Consultation
6.5   Assessment of regulatory alternatives
6.6   Administrative simplification and reduction of compliance burden
6.7   Review of existing regulations
6.8   Compliance and enforcement
6.9   Evaluation of results of regulatory programs

7   Concluding comments

References