Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee
Eleventh Report to Parliament on Subordinate Legislation

Annual Report
concerning
Statutory Rules Series 1998

Ordered to be Printed
By Authority.  Government Printer for the State of Victoria
May 1999
No. 43 Session 1999

Chairman's Foreword

I am pleased to report that in 1998 the Subcommittee of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee scrutinised 171 statutory rules. This is comparable with the 175 regulations reviewed in 1997. It highlights the overall approach of government in Victoria to reduce the regulatory burden. In the period 1993-96 there was an overall reduction in new regulations of more than 50%. These reduced numbers of regulations can be contrasted with the much higher numbers of regulations made under earlier governments. The benefits of fewer regulations are considered to be a reduction in the administrative burden for business and citizens and reduced compliance costs.

During 1998 a Subcommittee of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee travelled overseas to:–
· examine the operations of other Parliamentary Committees which scrutinise subordinate legislation;
· examine different methods of scrutiny of national schemes of legislation; and
· examine the treatment of human rights in legislation.

To this end, the Subcommittee visited two Parliaments in Canada, the National Assembly, Senate and Conseil d'Etat in France, the European Union in Belgium and the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, England.

A review of this investigatory trip is to be found in Chapter 3 of this Report.

Canada's work in the regulations field is advanced. As Canada is a nation very similar to our own, our visits and appointments there were particularly helpful. We were somewhat amused to read the following comments on the parliamentary work of regulation review in "Background Notes on Parliamentary Scrutiny of Regulations" prepared for members of the Canadian Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations:

That the scrutiny regulations is demanding, politically unglamorous and possibly unrewarding is an observation that has been made by some who have participated in the process or studied it from the outside. On the other hand, work on a scrutiny committee may be the best opportunity that many members of Parliament have, in these days of government controlled legislative agenda, of influencing the law that is applied to Canadian citizens. In 1990 alone the parliament of Canada passed 54 statutes; in the same year, some 860 regulations were published in the Canada Gazette. If nothing else, these figures show that much of the law that affects citizens is not found in the Statutes of Canada but in the hundreds of regulations made pursuant to powers granted by those Acts of Parliament.¹

Canada has been at the forefront on thinking on regulation reform. The following wise conclusion is found in a most interesting overview of regulatory change in Canada:

...regulatory change is most successful when guided by the recognition that regulation and its reform are a means, not an end. They are a means to addressing collective problems, in areas where citizens look to government for guidance, leadership and often solutions. Prudent efforts to adjust the federal approach to regulation will therefore inevitably intersect with - and draw on- broader debates about public management and the appropriate role for government in achieving desired public goals. The basic question is: Where does regulatory change fit in or, put another way, how can change in the approach to regulation help achieve those goals? The past two decades have shown that regulation is a unique subsystem of institutions, ideas and actors; they have also shown that its reform must be founded, in fundamental ways, in achieving the essential goals of good governance in our parliamentary system of government.²

Since the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee is shortly to receive a reference to inquire into aspects of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994, it is beneficial to be made aware yet again of the importance of appropriate delegated legislation.

It is customary to extend the Subcommittee's thanks and appreciation to its staff. With the additional effort entailed in the preparations for our overseas trip as well as keeping Members up-to-date with regulation scrutiny in Victoria, I wish to emphasise how very grateful we have been for the excellence and commitment shown by Subcommittee officers in 1998/99. We are very well served by Tanya Coleman, Legal Adviser and Simon Dinsbergs, Assistant Executive Officer.

I trust that readers of the Annual Report for 1998 will enjoy the changed presentation of material and the review of the Committee's travels overseas.

Murray H. Thompson, MP
Chairman, Subordinate Legislation Subcommittee

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