Licensing
COAG has agreed to the development of a national trade licensing system in the context of a broader national reform framework. An intergovernmental agreement takes into consideration financing and revenue issues and processes for dealing with jurisdiction specific issues within a national framework.
COAG is considering the following:
- a set of national trade licensing reform principles for determining whether regulation of trades is warranted;
- a review to determine the necessity to continue licensing trades that are licensed in only one or two jurisdictions or trades not included in the Steering Committee's Ministerial Declaration process under the Mutual Recognition Act 1992;
- arrangements to sustain and further improve the gains to mutual recognition that have been made through the Ministerial Declaration process for those trades that are not part of any new national trade licensing arrangements; and
- pursuing a national legislative system for selected trades, including cooperative national legislation, national governance arrangements to handle standard setting and policy issues and to ensure consistent administration and compliance practices, all current holders of state and territory licences being deemed across to the new licence system at its commencement, the establishment of a publicly available national register of licensees and the Commonwealth having no legislative role in the establishment of the new system.
The property sector is one of a number of trades targeted by COAG for national trade licensing.