Media Releases
Taking Out the Trash: Treating Red Tape as Pollution
Red tape and excessive regulation should be treated as pollution, argues a new report released by The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) today.
In Towards a Red Tape Trading Scheme: Treating Excessive Bureaucracy as Just Another Kind of Pollution, Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich, CIS Research Fellow, argues that Government should measure the regulatory costs on the Australian economy and consider a ‘cap and trade’ scheme to manage red tape.
‘Red tape clogs up the system, harming economic growth, much like pollution can harm our natural environment,’ says Dr Hartwich.
So, if regulatory burdens are a form of pollution, one ambitious way to seek to minimise their effect on productivity and economic growth would be to consider a ‘Red Tape Trading Scheme’ based on the some of the basic principals as an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
‘A step in the right direction would be to accurately measure the current costs of regulatory burdens on the economy.'
Once Australia had an official measure of the total regulatory burdens, a target of say of a 5% reduction could be aimed for in one year.
Government departments would be treated as separate ‘polluters’ and issued with certificates for 95% of their regulatory burdens. This would force reductions in red tape, and departments would be able to ‘trade’ their certificates with other departments if they made cuts greater than 5%.
‘A “cap and trade” system would encourage departments to cut as much red tape as possible and help decrease regulatory burdens in our economy.’
Whilst a ‘Red Tape Trading Scheme’ is a slightly tongue-in-cheek idea, it is an idea that would promote accurate measurement of regulatory costs in the Australian economy. These costs could be monitored and verified by an independent body each year.
‘Let’s trash the talk about cutting red tape and get serious by treating regulatory burdens as just another form of pollution.’
Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies. He is available for comment. The report is available at http://www.cis.org.au/issue_analysis/IA121/IA121.pdf
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