Is regulatory failure a good teacher?

Past, present and potential future regulatory failures are ever-present in the minds of regulators. When they occur, they may swiftly become the subject of Royal Commissions, government reviews, academic research and front page headlines, not to mention scathing Parliamentary committees.

Whatever their origins, regulatory failures create costs and harms, delay or even destroy the achievement of the underlying public policy objective of the regulatory scheme, and undermine the community’s trust in government in general and regulators in particular.

From our perspective as regulatory practitioners, they frequently result in the search for a scapegoat, the restructure or dismantling of the regulator, and/or the hasty passage of potentially counter-productive new regulatory measures. So they really matter! But can they be turned into a learning platform for the future and the basis for much-needed reform?

Please join an expert in the recent failings of the national building and construction code and NSW’s fearless Building Commissioner, as we examine the implications of this case study for regulators everywhere.

• Facilitator: Simon Corden
• Speaker 1: Bronwyn Weir
• Speaker 2: David Chandler OAM

For further reading:

1. Is regulatory failure a good teacher?: responses to unanswered questions on sli.do
2. Building Confidence (Shergold/Weir report)
3. Case study: The house with no piers