National Licensing for Property Occupations Consultation Regulation Impact Statement

High-level comparison of national licensing and automatic mutual recognition

Table ES.7 compares the high-level impacts of national licensing and automatic mutual recognition.

Table ES.7: Comparison of high-level impacts of national licensing and automatic mutual recognition

Reform objective	Comparison of options
	National licensing	Automatic mutual recognition
Facilitate a consistent skills base (Intergovernmental Agreement 4.3)	Yes	No
Ensure effective coordination exists (Intergovernmental Agreement 4.3)	Yes	No
Promote national consistency in licensing structures, policy and disciplinary arrangements (Intergovernmental Agreement 4.3).	Yes	No
Increased labour mobility	Yes	Yes
Ability to reduce regulatory burden	Yes National licensing proposes reductions in the regulatory burden.	Partial Subject to jurisdictional agreement and/or competitive federalism.
Cost of regulatory model	Medium Higher regulatory costs in the short term (from national authority and national register), with possible flow-on impacts for licence fees where jurisdictional regulators are self-funded. All jurisdictions accrue a benefit in the long term.	Unquantifiable – expected to be low to medium Up-front costs to establish limited national register, but no additional ongoing costs. Any future work on further harmonisation would incur costs.
Durability of reform	High Jurisdictions would need comprehensive legislative change to exit from national licensing system. Uniform scopes of work and qualifications would be provided for in national legislation.	Low There would be no mechanism to ensure durability of AMR arrangements. Jurisdictions would need legislative change to remove agreed automatic mutual recognition arrangements. Jurisdictions could change specific licensing requirements

If the national licensing model is your preferred model: Question: Which features of the national licensing model do you consider most important? Increased labour mobility Harmonisation of licence categories, scope of work and qualifications Establishment of a national licensing authority Jurisdictional mobility of businesses that hold a contractor licence Only paying for a licence category once Relative ease to administer (for regulators) Ease of understanding (for employers) Ease of understanding (for licensees) Other (please specify) Question: What are the features of automatic mutual recognition that caused you not to support it? The absence of a national licensing authority Non-harmonisation of licence categories, scope of work and qualifications Relative complexity to administer (for regulators) Other (please specify)

If automatic mutual recognition is your preferred model: Question: Which features of automatic mutual recognition do you consider to be the most important? Increased labour mobility Maintaining existing licence categories, scopes of work and qualifications Lower establishment costs for Government Lower anticipated fees than under national licensing Only targeting licensees who want to work in multiple jurisdictions Only paying for a licence category once Ease of understanding (for employers) Ease of understanding (for licensees) Other (please specify) Question: What are the features of the national licensing model that caused you not to support it? Higher anticipated establishment and ongoing costs for Government Higher anticipated transition costs for licensees Increased licence fees for some jurisdictions Increased regulatory requirements for some licence classes Changes to licence categories, scopes of work and qualifications Other (please specify)

If the status quo is your preferred model: Question: What are the features of the national licensing model that caused you not to support it? Higher anticipated establishment and ongoing costs for Government Higher anticipated transition costs for licensees Increased licence fees for some jurisdictions Increased regulatory requirements for some licence classes Changes to licence categories, scopes of work and qualifications Other (please specify) Question: What are the features of automatic mutual recognition that caused you not to support it? The absence of a national licensing authority Non-harmonisation of licence categories, scope of work and qualifications Relative complexity to administer (for regulators) Other (please specify)