National Licensing for Property Occupations Consultation Regulation Impact Statement

CONSULTATION

REGULATION IMPACT STATEMENT

Proposal for national licensing

for

property occupations

The Council of Australian Governments’ National Licensing Steering Committee has prepared this Consultation Regulation Impact Statement, with assistance from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Its purpose is to seek comment from stakeholders and the wider public on a proposal for national licensing for property occupations. Submissions are invited by 21 September 2012.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2012

ISBN: 

978 1 922125 05 7 (print)

978 1 922125 06 4 (PDF)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence.

The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website (accessible using the link provided) as is the full legal code for the CC BY 3 AU licence.

This is the first stage of a two-stage Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) process which includes a Consultation RIS followed by a final Decision RIS. The purpose of this Consultation RIS is to seek stakeholder views on the costs and benefits of options associated with national occupational licensing reform to assist the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in its decision making on reform paths and to support the preparation of a Decision RIS in the second half of 2012. Specific questions have been highlighted in the text of the Consultation RIS. This Consultation RIS is a mechanism to gather stakeholder views on reform paths as well as to provide an indication of the preliminary assessment of costs and benefits. It does not necessarily reflect the views of any particular jurisdiction. Consultants were commissioned by the COAG National Licensing Taskforce to prepare the Consultation RIS, and it incorporates views that have been brought to the attention of the consultants. Extensive information has also been provided by jurisdictions on the costs and benefits of policy approaches and the detail of the licensing arrangements in each jurisdiction.

Contents

Contents iii

About this Consultation Regulation Impact Statement v

Executive summary vii

1General policy context 1

1.1The Occupational Licensing National Law Act 2010 2

1.2Policy development process 2

2Current regulatory approach 4

3Options for reform 8

Options for consideration 8

Status quo 8

Automatic mutual recognition 8

Background – 2009 Decision Regulation Impact Statement 8

Revisiting the driver’s licence model – automatic mutual recognition 10

How automatic mutual recognition could work 10

Costs of implementing automatic mutual recognition 11

Limitations of automatic mutual recognition 12

How automatic mutual recognition would work for property occupations 13

National licensing 16

3.4.1Proposed categories of licence 16

Consideration of other possible areas of regulated works 26

Proposed national licensing model across Australia 29

Nominees 30

Exemptions 31

Non-skill eligibility requirements 32

Skills-based eligibility requirements 35

Skills maintenance (continuing professional development) 40

Comparison of automatic mutual recognition with national licensing 41

3.5.1Labour mobility 41

Licence categories and regulated work 41

Conduct and compliance 41

Relevant legislation 41

Registers 41

Jurisdiction shopping 42

Conclusion 42

4Impact analysis 44

Discussion of the impacts and results 44

3.3.4Transition and implementation costs of a national licensing system 44

Direct costs and benefits of national licensing 49

Impact on consumer outcomes 67

Comparing the impacts of national licensing on licensees 68

Wider economic impacts on the Australian economy 69

Sensitivity testing of key assumptions 73

Cost and benefits of the automatic mutual recognition option 76

Summary of the costs and benefits by jurisdiction 78

Approach to the impact analysis – method and calculations 87

3.3.5Calculations used in the cost–benefit analysis 87

Method underlying the computable general equilibrium modelling 98

Inputs and assumptions underlying the analysis 102

3.3.6Assumptions in the cost–benefit analysis 102

5Implementation 138

Implementation of national licensing 138

Transitional arrangements 138

5.2.1Deeming of current licence holders 138

Administrative transactions that were initiated before national licensing begins 139

Disciplinary and court processes and actions that were initiated before national licensing begins 139

Transitioning suspended licensees 139

Transitioning disqualified licensees and cancelled licences 139

Eligibility for those who initiated training before national licensing system begins 140

Eligibility for those who completed training before national licensing system begins 140

Restoration of a licence that has lapsed 140

Currently in training for a restricted licence 141

Notification 141

5.3.1Issuing of new national licence documentation 141

Communication strategy for national licensing 142

Review 143

Attachment A – Submission process 144

Attachment B – Key changes to existing arrangements 145

Attachment C – Overview of the property industry sector 156

Attachment D – National licensing policy development process 158

Attachment E – Overview of existing licensing requirements and licence categories 162

Current licence categories 165

Attachment F - Risks associated with property occupations 168

Attachment G – Proposed property qualification requirements 174

References 177