2018-08-07 S&O Agenda - Att 1 to Item 7 - Public Interest Test Report

                         Public Interest Test Plan — Noosa Shire Council
Administration and Other Local Laws (Amendment) Local Law (No. 1) 2018 and Administration and Other
Subordinate Local Laws (Amendment) Subordinate Local Law (No. 1) 2018                        Page 6

       Negative licensing was considered to be a viable alternative at this stage. Negative
        licensing is a system whereby participants can enter the market if they meet the standards or
        “rules” set for the particular business activity. There is no requirement to first obtain a permit
        or similar approval. There is, therefore, no barrier to entry to the market. Under a negative
        licensing regime, the local law would need to be changed to remove the requirement to hold a
        licence and prescribe a range of generic standards or “rules”. Of necessity, the standards will
        need to be output standards as opposed to specifying how to meet the output. The local law
        could retain offences and penalties for non-compliance.

        Under the pure model of negative licensing, no fees are paid and no permits are issued.
        However, the penalties for non-compliance are high and should be applied immediately.
        Some uncertainty exists as to whether large penalties can be obtained due to the inability to
        set minimum penalties in local laws (only maximum penalties can be set in local laws) and the
        tendency of judges to apply small fines, particularly for first offences.

       Community empowerment - Local government would act as facilitator rather than regulator
        of signs. No regulation would exist for exhibition of signs with the exception of signs on public
        land or in areas covered by state legislation. Information guidelines would be produced for
        businesses when producing signs, but these would not be enforced.

In assessing the viability of the realistic alternatives, Council considers community empowerment to
be non-viable. The community empowerment alternative fails to provide voluntary compliance by
business to a minimum level of environmental and public safety standards. Over time, the level of
information and interest in maintaining these standards is expected to erode. Council considers the
benefits enjoyed by ensuring some level of environmental and quality standard far outweigh the
benefits given to business under a system of voluntary compliance.

KEY STAKEHOLDERS AFFECTED BY THE CURRENT SITUATION AND BY A MOVE TO
ALTERNATIVE ARRANGEMENTS

The following stakeholders have been identified:


         Stakeholders/broad impacts                             Impact rating and rationale


Local Government

Council is impacted because of the change in its      Moderate - Only requires implementation of new
activities which would result under the new           changes to local law. But will have an impact on
regulatory arrangement.                               staff duties.


Business - Existing and Potential

Existing and potential business are impacted          Medium - The number of businesses dependent
because of changes in regulation about the            on this type of advertising is high. The affect on
exhibition of signage which is displayed for          each business is low.
business purposes.


Consumers

Consumers are impacted by display of signage          Low - Consumers are impacted by changes that
and the content of the signage displayed.             the display of signage has on price.