Atherton Advisory Pty Ltd
Submission
When considering the merits of regulation or benchmarking its performance several key factors are often overlooked including:
1.	The basic economic conception of whether regulation is an efficient cure of market failure is far too simplistic and narrow.
2.	Account needs to be taken of the wide spectrum of regulatory alternatives including prohibition, zoning, licensing, accreditation, self regulation etc  and the wide range of options within each of these.  The benchmark should not just be a comparison with no regulation but a comparison with other regulatory options.  The regulation of holiday letting referred to below is a good case study example.
3.	The cost of compliance is always underestimated.   It should include the cost of informing industry of the regulation and the private and public cost of training and achieving a satisfactory level of understanding and compliance. 
4.	It should also include the cost to industry of non-compliance (including civil and criminal liability) where, as so often happens,  3. has failed.
5.	Account should also be taken of the needless costs imposed on industry of state government failure to achieve national uniformity of regulation where there are no substantial differences between circumstances.  Laws on innkeepers liability referred to below are a good example.
6.	Account also needs to be taken of the incredibly voluminous, prescriptive, complex and detailed approach to legislation taken in so many instances in Australia compared with other countries.  Examples include laws on Native Title, GST, Corporations and most recently Industrial Relations.
7.	Account also needs to be taken of the costs which continual regulatory changes impose on business.

The substance of this submission is relevant for all industries.

However, our particular interest is in regulatory compliance for the tourism, travel and hospitality industry.  See eg 
•	Atherton, T.C. (1991) The Regulation of Tourism Destination Planning, Development and Management. University of Surrey MSc thesis (Distinction) 178 pages 1991. 
•	Atherton TC&TA, (1998) Tourism, Travel & Hospitality Law, Law Book Co, Sydney (534 pages)
•	Atherton T.C. & T.A. (2003) Review of International Law on Innkeepers Liability including review of UNIDROIT, European Community and G7 initiatives and recommendations for reform in Australia for the Inter-governmental Committee on National Innkeepers legislation convened by the Australian Standing Committee on Tourism (ASCOT)
•	Atherton TC, (2006) The Legality of Holiday Letting, publication pending in the International Travel Law Journal.
•	Atherton TC, (2006) Current Issues in Tourism Travel & Hospitality Law (A review of the current issues including the challenges of regulatory compliance), Reform Vol 83, Australian Law Reform Commission.

A complete list of publications, projects and activities is available at www.athertonadvisory.com