Our Chance to Reform Licensing

WA Treasurer Ben Wyatt has commissioned the Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) with the considerable task of developing plans to reform and conduct red tape reduction on State government business licenses in WA.

The ERA has been tasked with:

• identifying all State government business licences in Western Australia;
• developing analytical frameworks for Departments to help:
  • assess when licensing is the most efficient way of addressing identified problems and risks compared with other options;
  • assess whether the design elements of a licence are consistent with its purpose;
  • assess any other significant ways to improve the administration of licences;
• consider best practice design elements across licence types and in other jurisdictions;
• identify priority areas of reform for business licences in Western Australia and the impacts of the current licensing arrangements in those areas on all relevant stakeholders;
• assess high priority business licences against the analytical framework to determine whether individual licences are necessary, well-designed and well-administered;
• recommend reforms to specific business licences and licensing arrangements more generally that will produce net benefits for Western Australia; and
• identify opportunities to improve the overall administration of business licences in Western Australia.

Reform around licensing holds a number of risks and benefits. The CPSU/CSA would like your feedback to ensure we stand up for licenses that must be protected – as well as learning which licenses need work, which licenses could be removed or how the operations of licensing could work better.

On Monday 12 March the CPSU/CSA attended a roundtable meeting at UnionsWA with union leaders and ERA inquiry leadership. There was consensus at the table that although the state had a huge number of licensing schemes, the level of regulation and inspections that had been occurring had been on the decline. There was an interest in more rigorous policing of dodgy operators, as well as ensuring that licenses were adequately monitored. Insight on this issue from CPSU/CSA members would be welcome.

Do you work in a role closely linked with licensing? If so, the CPSU/CSA needs your input.

Can you take five minutes out to complete our brief survey?

Learn more about the inquiry and review the Terms of Reference here.