Cutting Unnecessary Motor Vehicle Red Tape

The Australian Government is getting on with abolishing unnecessary red and green tape by bringing Australian Design Rules (ADRs) into line with international vehicle standards.
The reforms announced are a step towards ensuring that every time a UN Regulation is updated the relevant ADR can be updated automatically, ensuring the latest technology is available in the Australian market as quickly as possible.
The automatic adoption of UN Regulations also removes unnecessary layers of bureaucratic process to further reduce red tape for the long term.
The first two regulations in the reform programme are UN Regulations 19 regarding front fog lamps and 46 regarding rear vision devices.
UN Regulation 19 allows for testing methods that better represent real world conditions for front fog lamps, while UN Regulation 46 allows the introduction of new types of rear vision devices and provides for more robust testing methods.
Applying these two regulations alone is expected to deliver nearly $1 million in industry compliance savings every year, as manufacturers will have the option of supplying fully approved UN products as part of their certification of vehicles.
This will ensure manufacturers no longer need to produce older products specifically for Australia, meaning consumers will have access to safer vehicles sooner at the lowest possible cost.
We are currently working through further UN regulations that can be applied, in close cooperation with industry as well as state and territory agencies, and will be making more announcements throughout next year.
These changes are in addition to our recent decision to abolish the requirement for manufacturers to install rear mudguard extensions on new motorcycles, which will deliver $14.4 million in industry compliance and manufacturing savings every year.
The Australian Government is committed to lowering business costs to make Australia more competitive which is why this year alone we have already abolished thousands of unnecessary and ineffective regulations costing the economy $2.1 billion a year.