Dris proposal for national licensing of the electrical occupations

Transition costs for industry

Under national licensing, transitional costs would be imposed on industry. Specifically, licensees would need to understand the changes and how they are affected. Time costs would be incurred either by reading material or attending an information seminar or through some other means.

It is assumed that it would take each licensee 90 minutes to understand the changes, based on advice from the Office of Best Practice Regulation on what a reasonable assumption for this estimate would be in a Decision RIS. It is assumed that this cost is incurred before the implementation of national licensing in 2012–13. This estimate will be further tested with industry during consultations.

Table H.18: Industry transition cost

Assumption	Unit	Value	Source
Industry transition costs (time to understand national licensing)
Time	Hours per licensee	1.5 hours	assumption, 90 minutes per licensee

Government communications costs

It is assumed that regulators will incur communications costs associated with the new national licensing framework. Consumer Affairs Victoria recently undertook a communications exercise with state-based changes to real estate regulations. This communications exercise cost between $300,000 and $350,000, based on 22,000 licences, and included:

• 
  direct communications (up to two letters)
  
• 
  metropolitan and regional meetings with licensees (six to ten meetings)
  
• 
  website content and social media
  
• 
  temporary call centre staffing
  
• 
  public information campaign
  
• 
  industry and public campaign management.
  

In the absence of other information, it is assumed that similar communications costs will be faced by the larger jurisdictions (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia) and half of this cost will be incurred by the smaller jurisdictions (South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory).

Table H.19: One-off communications costs

Assumptions	Unit	Value	Source
One-off communications costs
NSW	$ per jurisdiction	$325,000	Assumption based on unpublished advice provided by Consumer Affairs Victoria, March 2012.
Vic	$ per jurisdiction	$325,000	Assumption based on unpublished advice provided by Consumer Affairs Victoria, March 2012.
Qld	$ per jurisdiction	$325,000	Assumption based on unpublished advice provided by Consumer Affairs Victoria, March 2012.
WA	$ per jurisdiction	$325,000	Assumption based on unpublished advice provided by Consumer Affairs Victoria, March 2012.
SA	$ per jurisdiction	$162,500	Assumption based on unpublished advice provided by Consumer Affairs Victoria, March 2012.
Tas	$ per jurisdiction	$162,500	Assumption based on unpublished advice provided by Consumer Affairs Victoria, March 2012.
ACT	$ per jurisdiction	$162,500	Assumption based on unpublished advice provided by Consumer Affairs Victoria, March 2012.
NT	$ per jurisdiction	$162,500	Assumption based on unpublished advice provided by Consumer Affairs Victoria, March 2012.

National licensing register costs

It is estimated that each jurisdiction will incur implementation costs associated with the establishment of the national licensing register.

The estimated costs associated with the modification, upgrade or purchase of jurisdictional administrative systems incurred by each jurisdiction in order for them to provide the required data for the national licensing register as well as to accept the national licence number was initially estimated at $5 million to $10 million.

Based on advice received from the COAG National Licensing Taskforce, these estimates were reduced to ensure that they only captured the jurisdiction-based implementation costs associated with establishing the national licensing register.

To ensure that the costs were not overestimated, they were reduced by 50 per cent (that is, $2.5 million to $5 million), with the lower band assumed for small jurisdictions. These costs have been apportioned to each occupation under national licensing. For example, electrical occupations are apportioned 35 per cent of the costs faced in Victoria (35 per cent of $5 million = $1.75 million).

New South Wales has suggested that their estimated costs will be $2 million due to the new system being based on the NSW Government Licensing Service.

Table H.20: Implementation cost of the national licensing register

Assumption	Unit	Value	Source
Implementation cost of the National Licensing Register
NSW	$ per jurisdiction	$2 million	Based on unpublished data provided by COAG National Licensing Taskforce, ‘COAG NLS Taskforce analysis for the estimated costs to implement the national licensing register (NLR) – July 2011’ NSW estimate provided by NSW regulator February 2012
Vic	$ per jurisdiction	$5 million
Qld	$ per jurisdiction	$5 million
WA	$ per jurisdiction	$5 million
SA	$ per jurisdiction	$3.5 million
Tas	$ per jurisdiction	$3.5 million
ACT	$ per jurisdiction	$2.5 million
NT	$ per jurisdiction	$2.5 million
Assumed split of government costs by stages of the national licensing register
Stage 1	%	50%	Assumption based on discussions with COAG National Licensing Taskforce. Stage 1 includes first wave of occupations – Property, Plumbing and Gasfitting, Electrical and Refrigeration and Air-conditioning mechanics.
Stage 2	%	30%	Assumption based on discussions with COAG National Licensing Taskforce. Stage 2 includes second wave of occupations – Building occupations.
Stage 3	%	20%	Assumption based on discussions with COAG National Licensing Taskforce. Stage 3 includes possible changes to conduct requirements.