Regulator Performance Guide

As part of its Deregulation Agenda, in mid-2021 the Australian Government replaced the Regulator Performance Framework (RPF) with three principles of regulator best practice contained in the Regulator Performance Guide (RPG).

The RPG is part of the Government’s commitment to reduce unnecessary or inefficient regulation imposed on individuals, business and community organisations.

Regulator best practice principles

Under the RPG, regulators are required to report against three principles of regulator best practice through their corporate plans and annual reports. The three 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.

ACCC Performance Consultative Committee

The ACCC Performance Consultative Committee (APCC) was established in 2015 to act as the ACCC’s formal stakeholder consultation body under the RPF. The APCC currently consists of 15 business, legal and consumer representatives who collectively cover the broad range of stakeholders that the ACCC engage with in undertaking its various functions.

The main function of the APCC was to externally validate the ACCC’s annual self-assessment reports as required under the RPF. As the RPF has been replaced, the primary purpose for which the APCC was established no longer exists.

However, the ACCC will maintain and expand the role of the APCC to cover a wider range of performance issues related to the work of the ACCC. This includes our performance under the RPG 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 in 2022.

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. The 2019 Effectiveness Survey report is available here.   

The Business Stakeholder Survey focusses 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. The reports by ENGINE (previously known as ORC International) on the survey of regulated businesses are available here.

Annual self-assessments under the RPF

Under the RPF, the ACCC produced annual self-assessments against the six KPIs set out in the RPF. These self-assessments are published below.