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Regulator best practice principles
Under the Regulator Performance Guide, regulators are required to report against three principles of regulator best practice through their corporate plans and annual reports. The three principles are:
- 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.
- 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.
- Collaboration and engagement: regulators are transparent and responsive communicators, implementing regulations in a modern and collaborative way.
ACCC Performance Consultative Committee
The ACCC Performance Consultative Committee was established in 2015 to act as the ACCC’s formal stakeholder consultation body under the Regulator Performance Framework.
The committee currently consists of 15 business, legal and consumer representatives who collectively cover the broad range of stakeholders that the ACCC engages with in undertaking its various functions.
The main function of the committee was to externally validate the ACCC’s annual self-assessment reports as required under the Regulator Performance Framework. As the 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 role of the ACCC Performance Consultative Committee to cover a wider range of performance issues related to the work of the ACCC. This includes our performance under the Regulator Performance Guide as well as achieving our statutory obligations and core purpose to ‘Make markets work for consumers, now and in the future’ as reported through our corporate plan and annual report. Further detail on the expanded role of the APCC will be provided.
Stakeholder surveys
To support the ACCC’s assessment of our performance, the ACCC conducts an Effectiveness Survey and a Business Stakeholder Survey.
The Effectiveness Survey focusses primarily on whether the ACCC is achieving its strategic objectives as set out in the Corporate Plan. View the 2019 Effectiveness Survey report.
The Business Stakeholder Survey focuses on the ACCC’s actions in relation to businesses subject to regulatory processes, rather than stakeholders who benefit from the ACCC’s actions such as consumers.
See the reports by ENGINE (previously known as ORC International) on the survey of regulated businesses.
Annual self-assessments
The Australian Government’s Regulator Performance Framework was in place from 2015 to 2020. It established a common set of 6 key performance indicators.
Commonwealth regulators used the indicators to assess their performance in administering regulation. The ACCC produced a self-assessment against the 6 indicators each year.
In 2021, the Australian Government replaced the framework with 3 principles of regulator best practice.