"A meeting today of the Federal Treasurer and his state counterparts should move to extend national licensing to household electrical items to cut red tape that increases complexities and costs for businesses and homes," said Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association, Australian Industry Group.
"We welcome Treasurer Jim Chalmers' progress on national licensing for electrical trades, and we encourage him and his state colleagues to extend this to establish single market principles to the household electrical consumer products sector.
"Across the federation we currently have different regulations and labels for toasters, kettles, washing machines – indeed all household electronic products.
"This regulation imposes unnecessary costs and complexity on businesses and, ultimately, consumers who are trying to deal with cost-of-living pressures.
"While industry and governments have collaborated on harmonising standards for over a decade, that harmonisation has yet to be achieved and maintaining momentum remains crucial. The current situation remains a compliance nightmare for manufacturers of household products.
"The continuing regulatory divergence undermines mutual recognition and increases compliance costs at a time when we need to improve productivity and reduce costs. Recognition of this today by treasurers with an agreement to take concrete steps to reduce the compliance burden would be an important step in reducing costs for businesses and households," Mr Willox said.
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