Government Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada, Volume 3, number/numéro 3 (Winter/hiver 1996-7)
On "Anti-Regulation Bill Will Lull Public's Watchman to Sleep" 1

Victor Perton, M.P. 2
Parliament of Victoria
Australia

Having studied Canada's Regulatory Efficiency Bill C62, and reading "Anti-Regulation Bill Will Lull Public's Watchman to Sleep" by Brian Pannell in your journal, I thought I'd advise you that at least one Australian jurisdiction is contemplating similar legislation and taking into account the reasons for C62's failure.

The Victorian Parliament in Australia is preparing a Regulatory Efficiency Bill. To this end we have prepared a discussion paper entitled REGULATORY EFFICIENCY LEGISLATION - Discussion Paper - May 1997. It is at http://www.vicnet.net.au/~lawref/ref/title.html.

In Victoria, there has been over a decade of practice with regulatory impact statements including social and economic cost-benefit analysis, negotiated rule-making, public consultation, parliamentary veto and automatic 10-year sunset clauses.

This discussion paper looks at the next level of reform and focuses on the concept of regulatory flexibility. The core mechanism we examine is the alternative compliance mechanism. The alternative compliance mechanism is a Canadian concept (Regulatory Efficiency Bill C62) permitting licensing which avoids the terms of a particular regulation, if the result is better achievement of the objectives of the regulation. This is said to allow governments and industry to work together to meet the challenges of te chnological change. However, the concept is not without its critics and dangers. We ask the readers of the discussion paper to turn their minds to this concept and to give us their views on whether this will benefit our Australian society and, if so, what are the best ways of implementing the same.

I would be grateful if your readers would read the paper (or sections of it) and comment.


Notes

[1] May be cited as/On peut citer comme suit:

Victor Perton "On 'Anti-Regulation Bill Will Lull Public's Watchman to Sleep'" Government Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada 3, no. 3 (1996-7). [http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v3n3/perton/perton.html]
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[2]

Victor Perton, M.P.
Parliament of Victoria
Australia
victorp@vicnet.net.au
http://yarra.vicnet.net.au/~victorp/
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