National Competition Policy analysis 2025

• Mandatory standards and occupational licensing are two different ways that governments promote important public policy goals. But these regulations can also impose business costs, restrict trade, and impact competition.
• Aligning mandatory standards in Australia with international and overseas standards could add about $1.1 billion to $3 billion per year to the Australian economy (0.04% to 0.11% of GDP).
• Governments should review mandatory standards to improve alignment with other countries and across Australia, and to update outdated references to voluntary standards.
  • Consistent with Australian Government policy, Australian Standards incorporated in legislation largely align with corresponding international standards when available. Of the estimated 893 current Australian Standards incorporated in legislation, 218 standards (24%) have an international counterpart. Of these, only 21 do not align with the international standards.
  • A significant proportion (675 standards or 76%) are bespoke Australian Standards with no corresponding international standards – 90% of these standards relate to three industries only. Where no international standard exists, it may be possible to reduce trade barriers by also allowing compliance, in the legislation, with appropriate standards of Australia’s trading partners (overseas standards).
  • Only 26% of the 893 current Australian Standards are consistently incorporated by the Commonwealth and all states and territories.Part of this benefit would be to the electrical trades, which we estimate to have an upper bound benefit of $51 million to $62 million per year.
  • An additional 659 Australian Standards incorporated in legislation are superseded, obsolete or withdrawn.
• Governments should fund free access to standards incorporated in legislation. Placing the law behind a paywall puts small businesses and startups at a competitive disadvantage and risks non-compliance.
• Occupational licensing reform could promote labour mobility and improve productivity, as workers move to places where their skills are most needed and valued. Much has been gained through previous reform efforts, which created national licensing for health professions and automatic mutual recognition (AMR) for many other occupations. Introducing national licensing for high-risk occupations may not significantly affect productivity or GDP.
  • Not all states have joined the AMR scheme (Queensland does not participate), and states and territories continue to exclude some professions. The scheduled independent evaluation of AMR should be instigated to help design the best policies to promote labour mobility.
• Many of the benefits of harmonising licensing requirements between states come from standards being set at the level needed to effectively manage risks while not unnecessarily affecting labour mobility (or productivity). If national licensing is accompanied by harmonisation to a more stringent set of standards, there will likely be detrimental effects to productivity.
• Other reforms to promote competition were canvassed in the 2024 National Competition Policy Study and remain potentially important for further consideration. High value reforms included: occupational licensing reforms to lower restrictions (being considered in the PC’s Building a Skilled and Adaptable Workforce inquiry); public procurement reform; data sharing; and road user charging.

• Preliminaries: Cover, Copyright and publication detail, Request for advice, Contents, Acknowledgements and Disclosure of interests
• Key points
• About this study
• Headline results
• Standards
• Occupational licensing
• Additional NCP reforms

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