Regulatory plans

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is required to publish a regulatory plan on its website early in each financial year. The regulatory plan deals with changes within the ACMA's area of responsibility and contains information about:

• changes to business regulation which have occurred since the beginning of the previous financial year; and
• activities planned in the current financial year which could lead to changes to business regulation.

What Regulation does a regulatory plan cover?

"Business regulation" includes primary legislation, subordinate legislation, quasi-regulation or treaties which have medium business compliance costs or a significant impact on business and individuals or the economy.

Quasi-regulation refers to rules or arrangements where governments influence businesses to comply, but which do not form part of explicit government regulation.

A regulatory plan does not include the following:

• regulations that are likely to have no or a low impact on business and individuals or the economy;
• regulations that involve consideration of specific Government purchases;
• regulations of a state or self-governing territory that apply in a non-self governing territory;
• anticipated activity about which it would be inappropriate to publish information.

In addition, there will be some regulatory activities which agencies are unable to foresee at the start of the financial year. Accordingly, the following may not include all planned regulatory activity as they could not be foreseen when the regulatory plan was prepared at the start of the financial year.

The 2012-13 regulatory plans have been provided as a complete listing and has also been broken down into individual categories.