Business challenges Bligh regulations
17th Sep 2009
Productivity is top-of-mind in George Street where the wheels of State Government churned out 19 new acts and 3117 pages of new and amended legislation during 2008-09.
But its earnest endeavours are losing the Queensland economy some $17.9 billion as businesses struggle to comply with 70,000 pages of State legislation, according to Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland (CCIQ) president Beatrice Booth.
This unwelcome burden for Queensland businesses, as it strives to improve employment prospects, has seen the lobby group launch a report entitled a Blueprint for Fighting Queensland's Over-Regulation.
The take-home message is that excessive regulation increasingly continues to stiffle the Queensland economy.
"The difficulty with red tape is that while each individual regulation can normally be justified by Government as being in the public interest, when we sum all these individual regulations together it creates a staggering regime that essentially blunts business from growth and employing," Ms Booth said.
"Two thirds of businesses surveyed by CCIQ believe that the Government regulation has prevented them from growing their business."
The CCIQ's just-released report reveals that Queensland has 10 percent more pages of regulation and statutory rules than the next highest state in Australia (Western Australia - 63,567 pages) and significantly more than both NSW (40,417 pages) and Victoria (56,839 pages).
As a result, it believes 25 percent of Queensland businesses are spending more than 20 hours/week just on compliance.
Ms Booth has challenged the government to "move beyond rhetoric" and deliver on its commitment to regulatory reform, as opposed to growing the regulation burden.
"While the Queensland Government has made a number of commitments to regulatory reform, the reality is that the growth of regulation has continued in recent years," Ms Booth said.
The CCIQ president says its report recommends the State Government appoint a minister for red tape reduction.
Chief of his/her objectives would be to systematically reduce the 70,000 pages of regulation by setting achievable and challenging targets for reduction.
It's all about improving government/customer service by setting "business relevant" targets for outcomes and service quality, according to Ms Booth.
Article Source : This article was in Queensland Country Life, Page 5 Thursday Sept 17th.
