As you know, the Government is committed to minimising the impost of regulations on business. Ministerial responsibility for overseeing the process of reducing regulatory controls rests with our colleague, the Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs, who is a member of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Regulatory Reform of which I am Chairman.

The Committee recently endorsed a range of recommendations which were put forward by Mr. Peacocke following a review of business licences undertaken by his administration. These related to the following initiatives:

(i) a moratorium of twelve months on any new licence (unless authorised by the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Regulatory Reform);
(ii) action should be taken to repeal all existing licences which are not already subject to the Staged Repeal of Subordinate Legislation Program, unless justified by an "impact assessment" cost/benefit analysis to the satisfaction of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Regulatory Reform; and
(iii) all future licensing proposals which are not otherwise covered by the Subordinate Legislation Act are to be subject to impact assessment analysis and justified to the satisfaction of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Regulatory Reform.
The implementation of these decisions will require all ministers to undertake an administrative review of business licences. Given the time needed by Departments to perform the review process necessitated by (ii) above, I have agreed to a recommendation by Mr. Peacocke that all appropriate repeal action occur by 31 march 1991.

I would be pleased if you would arrange for the Departments and Authorities within your administration to give effect to the above recommendations. of particular importance is the need now to make the necessary arrangements for the repeal of those licences which are not to be retained.

The review of licences should draw heavily on the procedures required for the review of Subordinate Legislation. AS you know, officers of your Department are being trained in the preparation of Regulatory Impact Statements by the NSW Business Deregulation Unit (BDU) and they will be familiar with the review process. The BDU can provide further help and advice in the matter.

I would appreciate your reporting progressively to Mr. Peacocke on the results of each licence review. The BDU will co-ordinate this input with a view to keeping the Sub-Committee advised of developments. For those licences to be retained, your report to our colleague should include the impact assessment findings which justify the need to retain existing arrangements.

I have attached for your information a schedule of licences which are administered by your portfolio. This document was prepared by the BDU and it may need to be corrected or updated to ensure that the review process fully covers relevant licence regimes. To facilitate accurate tracking of the licence review program, it would be appreciated if you could advise the BDU direct of any discrepancies.

In conclusion, I fully appreciate that special circumstances might arise to warrant the urgent introduction of a licensing regime. Obviously, the consideration of such proposals are appropriately ones for Cabinet to determine and, in such cases, it is essential that the BDU be consulted in the first instance to ensure the proper assessment of all viable options in the matter.

Yours sincerely

Premier