The ACCC Performance Consultative Committee was established in 2015 to act as the ACCC’s formal stakeholder consultation body under the Australian Government’s Regulator Performance Framework, which was in place from 2015 to 30 June 2021.
In mid-2021 the Government replaced the Regulator Performance Framework with the Regulator Performance Guide, which details 3 principles of regulator best practice. The guide facilitates assessment of Commonwealth regulators’ performance, particularly how they engage with regulated entities and administer regulations. The 3 principles are:
1. Continuous improvement and building trust: regulators adopt a whole-of-system perspective, continuously improving their performance, capability and culture to build trust and confidence in Australia’s regulatory settings.
2. Risk based and data driven: regulators manage risks proportionately and maintain essential safeguards while minimising regulatory burden, and leveraging data and digital technology to support those they regulate to comply and grow.
3. Collaboration and engagement: regulators are transparent and responsive communicators, implementing regulations in a modern and collaborative way.
The committee’s role
The committee consisted of business, legal and consumer representatives who collectively covered the broad range of stakeholders that the ACCC engages with in undertaking its various functions.
During its first 6 years, the committee met annually to:
- provide feedback on the self-assessment methodology, measures, evidence and surveys that the ACCC used to annually assess our performance against the 6 Regulator Performance Framework KPIs
- ‘externally validate’ the ACCC’s draft annual self-assessment under the Regulator Performance Framework.
External validation provided an avenue for the committee to provide feedback on whether the self-assessment results broadly accorded with their views of the ACCC’s performance against the KPIs over the assessment period.
As the Regulator Performance Framework has been replaced, the primary purpose for which the ACCC Performance Consultative Committee was established no longer exists. However, the ACCC will maintain and expand the committee to cover a wider range of performance issues related to the work of the ACCC.
The committee's expanded role will cover the 3 principles of regulator best practice and our work to achieve our statutory regulatory obligations and core purpose to ‘Make markets work for consumers, now and in the future’. Further detail on the role of the ACCC Performance Consultative Committee and membership will be provided.