The Australian Government’s regulator performance framework was first established in 2014. In April 2021, to improve the extent to which regulators had a Statement of Expectations (SOE) in place and up to date, a revised approach to setting expectations for regulator performance was adopted. The key element was a renewed focus on the SOE and responding Statement of Intent (SOI), to be updated with every: change in minister, regulatory leadership or Commonwealth policy; or every two years.

SOE are issued by responsible ministers to a regulator to provide ‘greater clarity about government policies and objectives relevant to the regulator in line with its statutory objectives and the priorities the minister expects it to observe in conducting its operations’. 

Statements of Intent (SOI) respond to the expectations set out in Ministerial Statements of Expectations, outlining ‘how the regulator intends to meet those expectations including how it will demonstrate progress.’ The importance of publication of SOE was highlighted in 2004: ‘allowing the Parliament and the community to be aware of government’s expectations and the responses by statutory authorities.'

This audit report concludes:

• effective support is not being provided to ensure regulator SOE and SOI are in place
• the Department of Finance’s regulator stocktake is not complete or accurate in relation to the regulatory functions that exist (and therefore who should have an SOE and SOI), or the SOE and SOI that are in place
• most of the regulator SOE and SOI that are in place have content that is consistent with guidance from the Department of Finance.

The report makes four recommendations to the Department of Finance to improve the implementation of the regulator performance framework.