Executive Summary | Background Reports | How to Obtain this Publication

ISBN Number:  978-92-64-06716-5  Publication Date:  15 February 2010  Pages: 158

This review of regulatory reform in Australia comes at the right time to capture the attention of the OECD community. Australia has successfully weathered the worst effects of the current economic crisis. The resilience of the Australian economy, in the face of the deepest and most widespread recession in over fifty years in OECD countries, can in part be attributed to Australia’s current and past regulatory reforms.   Australia has built strong governance foundations for the development of good regulatory management and competition policies, which are likely to be conducive to economic growth. It aims to reinvigorate a wide agenda of national reforms and to embed past reform achievements in new working arrangements between the Commonwealth and the States.

This reform agenda is likely to yield substantial economic benefits for years to come, but demands joint participation and commitment from both the Commonwealth and all States.  

Maintaining the momentum for reform is a critical challenge, which requires a strategic vision as well as strenuous efforts to promote change and to establish a culture of continuous regulatory improvement.

Australia is one of many OECD countries to request a broad review by the OECD of its regulatory practices and reforms. This review presents a general picture, set within a macroeconomic context, of regulatory achievements and challenges, including regulatory quality at the Commonwealth level as well as across levels of government, competition policy and market openness. It also provides a special focus on Commonwealth-state relationships.

 

Table of Contents

• Executive summary (pdf, English)
• Executive summary (pdf, French)

 

Part I - The Macroeconomic Context

   Chapter 1.           Performance and Appraisal

Part II. Regulatory Reform

   Chapter 2.           Regulatory Governance

   Chapter 3.           Multi-level Regulatory Governance – Commonwealth-State
                               Relationships

Part III. Competition and Market Openness

   Chapter 4.           Competition Policy

   Chapter 5.           Market Openness

Policy Brief and Background Reports

• Policy Brief (pdf)
• Government capacity to assure high-quality regulation (pdf)
• Multi-level regulatory capacity (pdf)
• Competion policy (pdf)
• Market openness (pdf)
  
  

How to Obtain this Publication

 

Readers can access the full version of Australia: Towards a Seamless National Economy choosing from the following options:

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• For government officials with accounts: access  the "Books" tab on OLIS, otherwise subscribe.
• For accredited journalists: Access by password for accredited journalists.

 

Bookmark this page: www.oecd.org/gov/regref/australia