Reducing our red tape burden

Still, there are some chinks of light from perhaps unexpected quarters. Politicians, as ever on the prowl for electoral pleasure without pain, have embraced measures which, even if they won’t reduce regulation, will make governments more helpful.

The budget announced that we’d copy other countries and have the Tax Office pre-populate our tax returns with all the information they already collect on us obviating the need for millions of Australians to file a return at all.

And the Opposition wants to follow other countries like Sweden in setting up a “clearing house” for employers to cut through the red tape of sending fortnightly super contributions to scores of different super funds chosen by their employees. They’ll pay the clearing house which will do the rest.

Shouldn’t the reform boosters have highlighted these ideas as “low hanging fruit” years ago? Perhaps we’re too used to thinking of reform as simple deregulation rather than optimising the way our institutions work together.

No-one can quibble with “minimum effective regulation”, but while we wait for our political culture to acquire the bottle to minimise unnecessary regulation, let’s look out for ways to make governments more “effective”.