WA doesn't lack reviews of its red tape. It ignores them. In 2014 the state's own Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) recommended deregulating shopping hours, scrapping taxi licence caps, abolishing the Potato Marketing Corporation and reforming taxes. In 2023 Treasury's own approvals review said the system was "overly complex, time-consuming, and costly ... without any benefit to the environment". The response each time was more units, more staff and more panels instead of fewer rules. Below are the cuts we'd make, biggest economic impact first. Each one names the law, what it costs where the figure can be verified, why it isn't needed, and our proposal.
Proposals, ranked by impact
1. Environmental approvals: end the double assessment with the Commonwealth (Environmental Protection Act 1986, Part IV)
- What it requires: Major projects need an EPA assessment and ministerial approval, and often a separate federal EPBC Act approval for the same impacts.
- Fact: Treasury's Vogel-McFerran review (Oct–Nov 2023, $112,150) found approvals "overly complex, time-consuming, and costly ... without any benefit to the environment". WA Govt, Dec 2023
- Fact: The response was more resourcing: $18m (Dec 2023) and $14m for EPA and Appeals Convenor staff (Nov 2024). Statutory time limits were only "investigated". WA Govt, Nov 2024
- Industry claim (labelled as such): CCIWA says major projects average 3–4 years for approval against an EPA target of 40–58 weeks. Gilbert + Tobin
- Our proposal: One assessment, one approval ("one project, one assessment"), with WA either accredited to approve on the Commonwealth's behalf or deferring to the EPBC process. Add binding statutory deadlines where approval is deemed if the deadline is missed, and publish approval times every quarter.
2. Native vegetation clearing permits (EP Act Part V; Clearing Regulations)
- What it requires: A permit to clear native vegetation, including on land already zoned for housing.
- Fact: The target is 60 working days for 80% of applications, but the clock stops whenever more information is requested (DWER).
- Fact: A $4m Housing Approvals Unit was created in June 2025 to deal with the delays. UDIA WA
- Our proposal: Exempt land already zoned urban through a region scheme, since the environmental question was settled at rezoning. Set a hard 60-day clock that can't be stopped, and replace case-by-case offset haggling with a published fixed offset fee.
3. Planning approvals: DAPs, the SDAU and the Part 11B pathway (Planning and Development Act 2005)
- What it requires: Developments over $2m can opt into one of three Development Assessment Panels. Projects of $20m+ in Perth/Peel ($5m+ in the regions) can use the Significant Development Pathway, which is assessed by the State Development Assessment Unit (SDAU) and decided by the WAPC within a 120-day statutory timeframe.
- Fact: DAPs were cut from five to three and made opt-in from 1 Mar 2024. WA Planning
- Fact: The COVID-era Part 17 pathway had no statutory assessment timeframe (WALGA review). WALGA
- Our read: That makes three overlapping decision-makers (council, DAP, WAPC/SDAU). Fast-tracks exist because the default pathway is too slow for anyone to use willingly.
- Our proposal: Make the fast-track the default. Projects that comply with the zoning and R-Codes get approval as of right, or self-certification by an accredited private planner, with deemed approval on statutory deadlines for everything else. Merge DAPs into the WAPC once the as-of-right code takes most applications out of the system.
4. Retail Trading Hours Act 1987
- What it requires: The state decides when general retail shops may open.
- Fact: In 2014 the ERA recommended full deregulation (keeping only Christmas Day, Good Friday and Anzac Day morning), saying "Consumer choice, rather than government regulation, should determine which shops open and when". WAtoday, Jul 2014
- Fact: The ERA said WA's hours were "among the most restrictive in the country" and favoured online traders over shops. ABC, Apr 2014
- Our read: Twelve years later the recommendation still hasn't been adopted.
- Our proposal: Repeal it and let shops choose their own hours, as Victoria and Tasmania do.
5. Building approvals and certification (Building Act 2011)
- What it requires: A permit from the council permit authority. A private building surveyor can certify compliance, but the council still issues the permit.
- Our proposal: Let registered private certifiers issue permits for standard Class 1 and Class 10 work, with the council only recording them. Make professional indemnity insurance the accountability mechanism, not a second council check.
6. Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021: case study in regulation by panic
- Fact: The Act commenced 1 Jul 2023, its repeal was announced 8 Aug 2023, and it was repealed 15 Nov 2023. The Premier said it was "unworkable ... and for that, I am sorry". WA Govt, Aug 2023
- Fact: $77m over four years was committed to the system. Management-plan fees ran up to $1.39m. WA Govt, Apr 2023
- Fact: Even after the repeal, Aboriginal Heritage Management cost rose from $22m (2023-24) to almost $39m (2025-26) and from 80 to 100 FTE. WA Parliament Hansard, 3 Jul 2025
- Our proposal: Publish the full sunk cost of the rollout. Apply a mandatory regulatory impact test and small-landholder trial before any new law takes effect, and provide a low-cost due-diligence safe harbour under the restored 1972 Act. Return the heritage unit's budget to pre-2023 levels unless the extra spending can be justified.
7. Occupational licensing: electricians shut out of automatic mutual recognition
- What it requires: Interstate electricians and electrical contractors must apply for and pay for a WA licence. WA excludes them from the Automatic Mutual Recognition (AMR) scheme, which it joined on 1 Jul 2022. Interstate building, building-surveying and painting contractors face extra WA "public protection" financial checks.
- Sources: WA Govt (DPC) ; WA Govt
- Our read: WA has a construction skills shortage, yet a sparky licensed in NSW or Victoria can't start work here on arrival.
- Our proposal: End the electrician exemption and the extra contractor conditions, giving full AMR for every occupation. Review every WA licence with a sunset test: if no other state licenses it, it lapses.
8. Taxi and rideshare: finish the job (Transport (Road Passenger Services) Act 2018)
- Fact: WA paid at least $100,000 per Perth taxi plate in a $120m buyback (plus $9m COVID relief), funded by a 10% levy on fares (capped at $10 a trip). The levy ran from 1 Apr 2019 to 1 Jun 2022 and raised almost $129m. Transport WA ; WA Govt, Jun 2022
- Fact: In 2014 the ERA had recommended removing the licence caps with no compensation. ABC, Apr 2014
- Our read: Passengers paid $129m to compensate owners for a scarcity the government itself created.
- Our proposal: No future scarcity licences in any industry. Cut the remaining driver and vehicle authorisation layers to a police check plus roadworthiness, the same standard for every operator.
9. Liquor Control Act 1988: licence categories and the "public interest" test
- What it requires: Applicants must show their licence is in the "public interest", and there are separate licence classes with trading conditions.
- Our proposal: Remove the public-interest test for standard venues and small bars, collapse the licence classes into one, and keep only conduct rules (service to intoxicated people, minors).
10. Food Act 2008 inspections
- What it requires: Councils must register and inspect food businesses as enforcement agencies and report annually to the Department of Health.
- Fact: In 2019-20 there were 24,669 food businesses, 30,928 onsite assessments and 278.7 FTE authorised officers across WA councils. WA Health
- Fact: The Auditor General found the Department's local government inspection data is entered manually, unverified and "up to 18 months old and may be inaccurate", so it can't tell how well the regulation works. WA Auditor General
- Fact: The 2022-23 Environmental Health Yearbook records 8 council-run foodborne outbreaks coordinated. WA Health
- Our read: Reviews, reputation and the businesses' own liability already police bad kitchens.
- Our proposal: Move low-risk businesses (packaged food, cafés with no high-risk prep) to self-certification. Inspect only on complaint or outbreak, and require businesses to publish results instead of councils running routine visits. This needs the state law changed, which councils can't do.
11. Small business approvals: implement SBDC's own list
- Fact: The Small Business Development Corporation's Small Business Friendly Approvals Program identified 499 reforms, mostly in local government, and an evaluation estimated $73.8m in net benefits over ten years from faster approvals. Small Business Development Corporation
- Our proposal: Make the program's fixes mandatory for every council by regulation, adopting "tell us once" and deemed approval for low-risk permits (alfresco dining, signage, change of use within zoning).
12. Boards and agencies: merge or abolish
- Fact: The Auditor General counted about 320 boards and committees in 2014. The PSC counted 255 in June 2023 and 247 in June 2025. WA Auditor General ; Public Sector Commission, 2024-25
- Fact: Public sector FTE grew 26.8% while population grew 14.5%.
- Our proposal: Put a sunset clause on every board, so it lapses after five years unless Parliament renews it. Publish each board's cost per year, starting with the 2014 ERA targets (the Potato Marketing Corporation has since gone; Keystart remains).
13. Local government "general function" (Local Government Act 1995 s.3.1)
- Fact: The Act gives councils a broad general function with no list of core services. On our method, 17–59% of spending at the 13 big metro councils is discretionary.
- Our proposal: Amend s.3.1 to list core functions, with anything beyond them requiring a ratepayer vote or user-pays funding.
14. Regulatory impact discipline (whole of government)
- Our read: The ACH Act went through without a credible small-landholder impact test, and approvals reform has no published metrics.
- Our proposal: A red-tape budget: every new regulation must remove twice its compliance cost elsewhere. Publish an annual register of all state licences and permits with fees collected, and set up an independent WA Productivity Commission with the power to require a public government response within six months.
15. Revive the ERA's ignored 2014 microeconomic reform report
- Fact: The ERA estimated that just three reforms (taxis, potatoes and taxes) could add up to $594m a year to the economy. ABC, Apr 2014
- Fact: It also recommended scrapping or radically overhauling Royalties for Regions, reviewing Keystart, and broadening the payroll tax and stamp duty base. The West Australian
- Our proposal: A scorecard tracking each 2014 ERA recommendation and what happened to it.
16. Stamp duty and land tax brackets frozen
- Fact: Stamp duty brackets haven't moved since at least 2010-11, and the land tax threshold hasn't changed since 2008-09.
- Our proposal: Index all brackets and thresholds to CPI by law, ending bracket creep as a hidden tax rise.