The Australian Government to Regulation www.cuttingredtape.gov.au ABOUT THIS GUIDE The Australian Government Guide to Regulation is intended to be read by every member of the Australian Public Service involved in policy making—from the most junior member of the policy team to the departmental secretary. It provides the context for regulation and encourages policy makers to think about regulatory impact early in the policy process. The principles in this Guide will be supplemented by regular Guidance Notes from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, available at the . ISBN 978-1-922098-34-4 (Hardcopy) ISBN 978-1-922098-35-1 (PDF) ISBN 978-1-922098-36-8 (RTF) © Commonwealth of Australia, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2014. Unless otherwise noted, copyright and any other intellectual property rights (if any) in this publication are owned by the Commonwealth of Australia. With the exception of the Coat of Arms, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence, a standard form license agreement that allows you to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this publication provided that you attribute the work. The full licence terms are available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode. This Guide has been written to help policy makers see regulation in a new light. The Government’s rigorous approach to policy making seeks to ensure that regulation is never adopted as the default solution, but rather introduced as a means of last resort. Regulation can have benefits, but businesses, community organisations and families pay the price of poor regulation.
PUBLIC This is the default approach When transparency and public accountability of decision making is the most important priority. When the integrity of the decision process will not be compromised by early public scrutiny. Public meetings and briefings. for submission. Industry or sectoral meetings and briefings. Direct communications to affected entities. Media and advertising. Large scale social media activities. If consultation identifies a policy option not previously considered, revisit analysis. When an affected group of stakeholders is in a small or well defined geographic area or business sector. When consultation should be contained so that effort is not wasted involving unaffected parties. Face-to-face meetings, telephone calls or doorknocking of affected people. Other direct communications to affected entities. Small scale social media activities. Direct public engagement of peak bodies or other representative groups. If consultation identifies a policy option not previously considered, revisit analysis. When the sensitivity of the issues requires that you gauge public sentiment or inform affected entities discreetly without needlessly triggering widespread concern, anger or confusion among affected households or businesses. Narrow or in-camera consultation of select groups of opinion leaders or peak bodies. Quantitative research into the general views and likely responses of affected entities or areas in which two-way dialogue is not sought. Alternative forms of consultation must be followed by broader post-announcement consultation on transition or implementation issues. If consultation identifies a policy option not previously considered, revisit analysis. When the decision is highly market sensitive and some gain unfair advantage from being consulted. When public debate is strongly polarised and consultation is likely to generate conflict or compromise good decision making. When an issue has already attracted significant and prolonged public debate and consultation serves no useful policy purpose. When open public consultation could compromise the confidentiality of cabinet deliberations. OBPR approval must be obtained before this consultation option can be exercised. Consultation can take any of the above forms, but takes place after the decision maker has made the decision. Consultation seeks detailed dialogue with entities on transition and implementation issues rather than on the policy decision itself. If consultation results in material changes to the policy proposal, the proposal should be returned to the decision maker for further consideration.