Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Government–business relations
regulations for the telecommunications industry. The Australian Communications
and Media Authority (ACMA) (a statutory authority) enforces the rules for entry
into the telecommunications market and issues the relevant licenses (ex-ante
regulation), the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) (a
statutory authority) has a role to assess the impact of mergers and acquisitions
(ex-ante) and a particular role for addressing anti-competitive behaviour (ex-post
regulation), while the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) (an
external ombudsman funded by the industry) deals with consumer complaints that
arenotresolvedbythefirm(ex-post regulation). In this case, the ACMA regulates
using a command and control approach, the ACCC uses command and control in
making decisions about its roles, and the industry, through the TIO, self-regulates
(and funds the regulator) and agrees to abide by the decisions of the ombudsman.
Incentives-based regulation might include additional taxes to reduce the
consumption of certain goods, such as those currently applied to tobacco products,
or market-based instruments, such as a carbon emissions trading scheme. In a
typical carbon emissions trading scheme, the government caps the allowable level
of pollution and sells permits to businesses to pollute to that level. Businesses can
then trade these permits with other businesses. In theory, as the price of permits
increases, businesses will innovate to reduce their carbon emissions, thus gaining a
competitive advantage over businesses that still need to pay for the pollution they
generate. Other market-based mechanisms include the auction of radio frequency
spectrum to mobile telephone, radio and television providers, or the provision of
subsidies to encourage particular habits or activities under the Direct Action Plan,
discussed above. 34
Self-regulation occurs in many areas of private-sector activity, such as media
and advertising, and many crucial professions, including the law, medicine,
accounting and taxation services. Self-regulation places the onus of maintaining
standards on the industry body, such as Ad Standards and the regulation of
television advertising, and often includes tribunals and complaint mechanisms
where alleged abuses can be aired and investigated. Participants in self-regulated
areasofactivityinessenceagreetotheirbehaviourandactionsbeingmonitoredby
their industry peers and to accept any punishment or redress awarded by whatever
tribunal is empowered to consider disputes or complaints.
Each approach to regulation has its merits, and different mixes of approaches
and types are used in different industries. An emerging idea in the regulation of
businesses is regulatory co-design, 35 where governments and industry collaborate.
Although there is some risk of regulatory capture, the approach can be useful
in industries where technology is moving rapidly, or where the industry accepts
that regulation is necessary but a suitable regulatory framework has not been
established. One example of this approach is currently being trialled in the road
34 Hepburn 2006, 5.
35 Productivity Commission 2017, 43.
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