Regulators want to sing same tune

A group of Australian and New Zealand officials is due to report as early as next month on moves towards greater transtasman co-operation on regulatory enforcement and court proceedings.

The working group's terms of reference include considering a more general scheme for transtasman co-operation between regulators such as the Commerce Commission and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The group is also investigating whether there are any barriers to taking enforcement proceedings against a person based in one country who breaches the other country's regulatory regimes, and whether criminal sanctions in regulatory matters should be mutually recognised and enforced.

Mark Williamson, senior associate at law firm Phillips Fox, said the legal and regulatory issues the group was reviewing were among the fundamental planks of the two Governments' moves towards a single economic market. They would be similar to processes worked through by European Union nations.

"It is important to have this ability for a formal structure around regulatory co-operation to enable parties to have certainty in dealing with organisations on both sides of the Tasman," Williamson said. "Certainty and consistency is what you're after."

The group includes officials from the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Economic Development, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The commission and ACCC already have a 1994 Co-operation and Co-ordination Agreement. Key aspects of it are information sharing and staff exchange.

The Securities Commission and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have a 1994 Memorandum of Understanding through which they share and gather information for one another.

Securities Commission enforcement director Norman Miller said the two were close to finalising the mutual recognition of securities offerings.

"The relationship is probably as good as it can be, [but] we are doing as much as we can to enhance it," Miller said.

Williamson suggested legislative changes were needed in competition law to formalise information-sharing processes.