COAG Select Council on Housing and Homelessness Communique

At the COAG Select Council on Housing and Homelessness on 28 March 2013, Ministers were pleased to announce that the National Regulatory System for Community Housing will start for participating jurisdictions on 1 July 2013 through a phased implementation.This will include six months of testing and evaluation of the registration processes and procedures to operate the system (Phase 1), and registration under the National Law to occur over an 18 month transition period from 1 January 2014 (Phase 2). 

Ministers also endorsed for public release the National Regulatory System for Community Housing Charter which sets out the vision, objectives, regulatory principles, regulatory philosophy and practice as well as the features of the National Regulatory System. The Charter is one of a suite of documents designed to support implementation of and transition to the new system.

Following the announcement by the Select Council on 28 March 2013 regarding the commencement of the National Regulatory System, the Department of Finance and Deregulation have published the Regulatory Impact Statement, Cost Benefit Analysis, Public Consultation Feedback Report and IGA on the their website (http://ris.finance.gov.au/) as per COAG requirements.

Nineteen consultations were held nationally between August and November 2012 seeking input into the draft guidelines that will support the operation of the National Regulatory System. Overall it was found the draft guidelines (Tiers, Enforcement and Evidence) were fit for purpose.

The consultation process was valuable and issues raised have been examined in refining the final Operational Guidelines.

Below is a link to the National Consultation Summary report and a summary of changes to be made to the Guidelines in response to feedback.

Amended Guidelines were endorsed in-principle by Ministers at the Select Council on Housing and Homelessness on 16 November 2012.

Evidence Guidelines

Tiers Guidelines

Enforcement Guidelines

A plain English review and legal due diligence of each of the Guidelines has been undertaken prior to publication.

Other key documents developed include a:

NRSCH Charter

National Industry Development Framework