Royal Commissions – A Guide. Part 4 – Government Responses to Royal Commissions

12 Oct Royal Commissions – A Guide. Part 4 – Government Responses to Royal Commissions

In my first three articles, we talked about:

• preparing your business to benefit from a Royal Commission in your industry;
• appearing at a Royal Commission; and
• what happens after the hearing.

Today, we will talk about government responses to a Royal Commission and how this impacts your business.

It seems like it’s all over.

The excitement of preparing for a possible hearing, appearing before the Royal Commission and preparing responses to various documents is past.

Now it’s time for the main event.

The purpose of a Royal Commission is to improve things going forward.

The Royal Commission will write an interim report, then a final report, which it will send to government and release publicly at some point in time. The report will recommend that government makes some changes to laws and the way it regulates its laws.

Then, government will announce what it will do in response to the Royal Commission’s report. This includes changes to the law and how government regulates those laws.

This is where the Royal Commission’s longer term impact on Australia will be felt.

Australia has a complex regulatory framework – we have Federal, State and Local Governments. In case that isn’t complicated enough, there are special bodies established by law, like many local water providers.

Having worked in government developing legislation for many years, I appreciate that law-makers are committed to creating high quality law.

However, there are times when legislation does not operate as intended. The technical term we use is “unintended consequences”.

Unintended consequences arise due to the complex relationships between international, federal, state & local laws with standards, business practice & ever-changing IT systems. When pressing issues require urgent resolution, there is less time for consultation and unintended consequences may result.

It is important that you identify yourself to the people in government who are designing the legislative and regulatory responses to a Royal Commission. This will help you work with government to limit unintended consequences.

But not everyone knows their way around this bureaucracy or can talk ‘government-ese’ – sometimes you need a translator to help. Unravelling Red Tape can help you work with government to help stop unintended consequences, giving you the freedom to pursue your business, just like I did here.

Elaine Abery worked in the Australian Federal Government for over a decade. Her roles included designing legislation and the Secretariat to the Board of Taxation. She spent a decade on the other side of the negotiating table, working with peak industry groups, KPMG and various charities. She has been published in international journals and books. Her work has received prestigious international awards.