Introduction: Regulation is a political activity. It sets the framework for the market economy by defining the boundaries between private action and government action. It is, since the failure of overtly socialist models of political economy, the primary method by which the government relates to individuals and communities.
Regulations, and the regulatory agencies which administer them, cast an increasingly large shadow over the freedom to interact, both economically and socially, in Australia.
The first part of this IPA Backgrounder looks at the rapid growth in regulation-making, and the recent institutional changes in Australia’s regulatory agencies. It charts the consolidation and expansion of the three major economic regulators — the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)—and examines the theoretical justifications for constructing such ‘mega-regulators’.
The second part attempts to explain how these mega-regulators are themselves able to encourage their own growth. It looks at the internal pressures towards regulatory and institutional expansion, as well as the political pressures which the agencies themselves are able to exert upon directly elected politicians.