Decision ris proposal for national licensing of the property occupations

Attachment E – National licensing policy development process

Under the Intergovernmental Agreement for a National Licensing System for Specified Occupations (the Intergovernmental Agreement) signed by states and territories in April 2009, the COAG National Licensing Steering Committee (the Steering Committee) was given responsibility to oversee the implementation of national licensing in the interim period before the establishment of the National Occupational Licensing Authority (NOLA). Membership of the Steering Committee comprises central agency representatives from each jurisdiction. It reports on progress to the Business, Regulation and Competition Working Group (now the Business Advisory Forum Taskforce, following the cessation of BRCWG on 31 December 2012).

The Standing Council on Federal Financial Relations (SCFFR) has overall responsibility for this reform.

In considering policy issues, the Steering Committee and its advisory mechanisms are bound by the objectives and principles in the Intergovernmental Agreement, including a requirement to comply with COAG’s principles of best practice regulation. These principles include a requirement to establish a case for action; to consider and cost a range of responses, including non-regulatory approaches; and to ensure that the response selected provides the greatest net benefit to the community as a whole. Key stakeholders must be consulted and government action must be ‘effective and proportional’ to the issue being addressed.

The Steering Committee’s primary source of advice for occupational regulations has been the Interim Advisory Committee (IAC) established for each of the occupational areas. Each advisory committee has an associated Regulator Working Group (RWG).

Members of the IAC represent a balance of expertise relevant to an occupational area across the fields of regulation, industry operations and practices (from both a union and employer perspective), safety, consumer advocacy, insurance (where relevant) and training. Each RWG is comprised of regulator members from the relevant jurisdiction.

The IAC has developed policy advice over a period of 18 months. The majority of the advice provided was incorporated into the Steering Committee policy advice for the drafting of the Occupational Licensing National Law Amendment Bill and regulations and is considered in this Decision RIS for the property occupations.

Government representatives from all jurisdictions provided policy advice and are contributing to the drafting instructions for the Amendment Bill and the associated regulations, including representatives from Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, which have not yet passed the National Law. The impact analysis and cost–benefit calculations take into account the current regulatory arrangements in all jurisdictions.

Membership of the Property Occupations IAC, Property Occupations RWG and the Steering Committee is provided below.

The IAC and the RWG met throughout 2010 and early 2011 to assist with the development of the following elements of licensing policy for the national licensing system:

• 
  licence categories, licence types and prescribed scopes of work
  
• 
  eligibility requirements (skilled and non-skilled)
  
• 
  other licence characteristics (exemptions, conditions, restrictions and endorsements)
  
• 
  transitional arrangements.
  

The objectives used in developing the licensing policy are taken from section 3 of the Occupational Licensing National Law Act 2010, as set out below:

The objectives of the national licensing system are as follows –

(a) to ensure that licences issued by the Licensing Authority allow licensees to operate in all participating jurisdictions;

(b) to ensure that licensing arrangements are effective and proportionate to ensure consumer protection and worker and public health and safety while ensuring economic efficiency and equity of access;

(c) to facilitate a consistent skill and knowledge base for licensed occupations;

(d) to ensure effective coordination exists between the Licensing Authority and jurisdictional regulators

(e) to promote national consistency in—

(i) licensing structures and policy across comparable occupations; and

(ii) regulation affecting the requirements relating to the conduct of licensees; and

(iii) the approach to disciplinary arrangements for licensees;

(f) to provide flexibility to deal with issues specific to particular jurisdictions or occupations;

(g) to provide the public with access to information about licensees.

The policy development process, in addition to complying with COAG’s Principles of best practice regulation, followed the principles set out in the Intergovernmental Agreement, which forms the basis for establishing national licensing:

• 
  The system operates in a transparent, accountable, efficient, effective and fair manner.
  
• 
  Regulatory intervention in the form of licensing is only contemplated where risks arising from market failure or risks to public health and safety warrant corrective action and, of all feasible options, licensing provides the greatest net public benefit.
  
• 
  Licensing arrangements do not duplicate legislative protections contained under other laws, in particular, competition law, consumer protection law or occupational health and safety law.
  
• 
  Licensing arrangements only include requirements needed to address identified consumer protection risks arising from market failure and/or worker and public health and safety risks without imposing unnecessary costs on consumers and business or substantially lessening competition.
  
• 
  Licensing eligibility requirements are expressed in objective not subjective terms.
  
• 
  The system will not require the extension of licensing to sub-groups of a broad occupational group that are not currently licensed in particular jurisdictions.
  
• 
  Licensing arrangements are subject to an initial review five years after commencement and subsequently at a frequency no less than every ten years.
  

As part of the communication strategy, following each meeting, communiqués outlining the progress of work were made available on the national licensing website at www.nola.gov.au.

Table E.1: Membership of the Property Occupations Interim Advisory Committee

Member	Organisation
Mr David O’Connor	Chair
Mr John Furbank	Consumers’ Federation of Australia
Mr Andy Madigan	Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association
Mr Mark Lever	National Community Titles Institute
Mr Daniel Molloy/ Ms Anna McMaster	Real Estate Institute of Australia
Mr Jock Kreitals	Real Estate Institute of Australia
Ms Sarah Gray	Real Estate Institute of Australia
Mr Milton Cockburn	Shopping Centre Council of Australia
Ms Barbara El-Gamal	Department of Services, Technology and Administration, New South Wales
Ms Christine Nigro	Consumer Affairs Victoria, Department of Justice, Victoria
Mr Gary Newcombe	Department of Commerce, Western Australia
Mr David Magee	Construction and Property Services Industry Skills Council

Table E.2: Membership of the Property Occupations Regulator Working Group

Jurisdiction	Member	Organisation
	Mr David O’Connor	Chair
NSW	Ms Barbara El-Gamal	Department of Services, Technology and Administration
Vic	Ms Christine Nigro	Consumer Affairs Victoria, Department of Justice
QLD	Mr Danny Low	Office of Regulatory Policy, Department of Justice and Attorney-General
WA	Mr Gary Newcombe Alt: Mr Andrew Lee	Department of Commerce
SA	Ms Jenna Phillips-Wilkinson Ms Sue Rudall Mr Ian Johnston	Consumer and Business Affairs Division of the Attorney-General’s Department
Tas	Ms Alicia Hutton	Property Agents Board
ACT	Mr Peter Quinton	ACT Directorate of Justice and Community Safety
NT	Ms Carolyn Parsell	Department of Business
NZ	Ms Melinda Geary	Ministry of Justice (observer)
	Mr Mark Jones	Land Information (observer)

Table E.3: Membership of the Council of Australian Governments National Licensing Steering Committee

	Member	Organisation
Commonwealth	Mr Robert Griew (Chair)	Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
NSW – joint	Dr Meg Montgomery	Department of Premier and Cabinet
	Mr Scott Wheeler	Department of New South Wales Treasury
Vic	Mr Anthony Rossiter	Department of Treasury and Finance
Qld	Ms Katrina Martin	Queensland Treasury and Trade
WA	Mr Nigel Parkes	Department of Treasury
SA	Mr Peter Maynard	Department of the Premier and Cabinet
Tas	Ms Kerrie Crowder	Department of Justice
ACT	Mr Brett Wilesmith	Treasury Directorate
NT – joint	Mr Ian Prince	Department of Business

Table E.4: Membership of the National Occupational Licensing Authority Board

Chair
Ms Elizabeth Crouch
Board members
Mrs Wendy Machin
Mr Graham Anderson
Mr Albert Koenig
Mr John Sutton
Ms Miranda Douglas-Crane
Mr Tony Arnel
Mr David Ford