Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 45:31 to 48:33
Officials from the Office of Impact Analysis explain the 30-60 day best practice consultation period and how departments justify departures from this timeframe.
Topics: Integrity, Government spending
Speakers: Senator The Hon Jane Hume, Joanna Abhayaratna, Unknown Speaker
>> Joanna Abeata, the executive director of the behavioral economic teams of the Australian government and the office of impact analysis.
>> Thank you. Uh the uh government's guide to policy impact analysis and the OIA's best practice consultation guidance identifies 30 to 60 days as a suggested consultation period for significant reforms. Can you just explain to the committee what the basis for that time Is it just a recommendation or is it an expectation that I mean is it 30 to 60 days is reasonably long and reasonably broad.
>> Yes, thank you for the question Senator. So the impact analysis um uh requirements where they apply do ask agencies to address the seven questions um which are outlined in the impact analysis framework. um that includes outlining the consultation undertaken and how that's um uh how that's been considered within the policy analysis. We also so that's a requirement of the guide um of the framework sorry uh the OIA also provides some best practice guidance on our website web page which you referred to um which notes that the length of consultation rounds will depend on the nature and the of the impacts of the proposal the objective of each round the number of rounds and the form of consultation and who is being consulted. So it the consultation period undertaken would be a matter for departments um and ministers and would depend on the significance and the complexities of the proposal.
>> Significance and complexities of the proposal. Okay. So is it an expect is it just a recommendation or is it something that you would expect uh agencies agencies should be able to justify if they depart from the recommended 30 to 60 days?
>> No, it's just a best practice guidance, Senator.
>> Right. Okay. Are there circumstances in which agencies can legitimately depart from that suggested time frame for what would otherwise be significant reforms?
>> Again, Senator, it depend on the specific policy process and it would be a matter for departments and for um relevant ministers.
>> Okay. So when you're assessing the quality of consultation, does the office of impact analysis consider the number of days that uh available alone or does it also look at things like whether stakeholders have sufficient time to understand the proposals or um consult their own stakeholders or their members? Does it do they have time to commission analysis or prepare substantive submissions? Are they the sort of things that you look