Want to import or export? Here are 24 metres of regulations to fulfil

“Our existing free trade agreements and those under negotiation cover almost 90 per cent of trade, but it is a free trade agreement effectively with ourselves that is possibly the hardest one to negotiate,” she said.

As Tech Council CEO Kate Pounder told the Trade Simplification summit, administrative reform has largely been ignored in Australia as “politically unsexy and just too complex”.

She wisely observed that administrative reforms such as trade and export processes, migration systems and foreign investment views had traditionally been carried out in the “bowels of departments” and largely ignored by the political class.

“These administrative processes, they’re really the gateways between our country and the world,” Pounder says.

“They’re the things that are going to determine the efficiency with which we can trade, with which we can receive investment, with which we can receive talent. And if we don’t start looking at reforming those opportunities, then we will just see our standard of living decline.”

Significantly, three senior ministers addressed the conference: Trade Minister Don Farrell, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Agriculture Minister Murray Watt.

As former Labor Trade minister Craig Emerson noted, all three ministers get on well, and getting that type of political endorsement and sustained support for the reforms is essential if the mistakes from previous failed attempts are to be learnt.

“It doesn’t solve everything, but you can’t get far if the relevant ministers either don’t get on or just one of them doesn’t prioritise it.”

High-powered industry group

At heart of the 24 metres of bureaucratic pain and anguish traders endure has been the inability for the big four agencies that oversee the border to play well together.

That is Border Force, which collects customs and stops unlawful goods; the Taxation Office, which manages GST requirements; Agriculture, which is in charge of biosecurity; and the Trade Department, which oversees the whole system.

The team from the trade simplification task force are reporting directly to Farrell and are determined that the reforms are industry-led and not just another shuffle of the bureaucratic deckchairs.

A high-powered industry group, led by former Toll logistics chief Paul Little, has been hands-on, talking to and visiting major players such as Sydney Airport and Singapore’s world-leading port operator.

Little had an instant answer when asked what could be the best early response to a reform everyone agrees will take years to prosecute.

“There are three or four of them [government agencies] that are key players here and the low-hanging fruit is working with them, to get them working in a unified way,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

The conference heard the boom in e-commerce has seen a massive increase in the volume of cross-border trade, especially for low-value imports and exports, such as Amazon-like purchases by consumers who can now get international goods in days via affordable aviation freight, rather than waiting months for ships to arrive, unload and clear customs.

More than 30 public agencies are involved in trade and what everyone wants is a single trade window, a one-stop shop all the documentary requirements can be managed through.

“This single window for trade is a really, really important thing,” says the chief executive of WiseTech Global, Richard White.

“Australia hasn’t kept up with the rest of the world,” White says, observing many countries have done the hard work to make the cacophony of different systems and regulatory requirements invisible to traders.

White’s global software firm has got (mega) rich providing the back office systems that logistics operators and supply chain players use to move their goods across the world.

Global leader

As Pounder noted, boring enterprise workflow systems like these and those run by Atlassian (think Jira and Trello) are Australia’s leading tech plays.

The irony is that at the same time the country is a global leader in integrated back office supply chain and project management systems, we have a spaghetti-like mess of 145 ICT systems and 20 business-facing portals that importers and exporters need to navigate.

The reform process was started by the previous government and with new budgetary support is advancing on a double play of regulatory reform and digitising the whole workflow.

Taskforce boss and former Digital Transformation Agency chief Randall Brugeaud told attendees it was important to take an end-to-end approach.

“Digitising existing rules and processes has often only solved part of the problem,” he said.

“Likewise, not considering the end-to-end trade environment has meant the bottlenecks have simply been shifted up or down the supply chain rather than dealing with the issues at a whole of trade level.”

Brugeaud’s large team is now getting on with the job, releasing a discussion paper for feedback on its strategic focus and with an initial target of getting rid of half a dozen or so key documentary paper obligations.

The task force found 36 per cent of regulations mandate the use of paper and/or other outdated technologies and do not allow for flexibility in how they are implemented by users.

Equally ready for the chopping block are the 45 (!) fit and proper person tests administered independently by Agriculture, Border Force and the Taxation Office. The tests are the same, but with different levels of proof – just to ensure traders go truly mad.

The reforms also highlight the large costs businesses and consumers pay for clunky government.

The digitisation and creation of Australia’s highly successful electronic conveyancing system now run by PEXA is a standout example of the huge economic benefits that flow from unsexy administrative reform.

It is early days, but the linking up of NSW’s planning system into one end-to-end digital platform also promises similar gains.

Government is full of these “cluster f---s”, as one attendee observed. Try getting probate, checking into a public hospital, or even getting married and there is a world of pain, delay, costs and old-world bureaucracy awaiting.