Consumer and public participation in industry regulation
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Self- and co-regulation have become important practices in regulating the Australian communications industry. This is likely to increase as a convergence of communications platforms puts pressure on existing regulatory structures. Indeed, in the final report of its digital platforms inquiry, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission proposed new co-regulatory codes of practice for designated digital platforms such as Google and Facebook, as well as a ‘disinformation’ co-regulatory code for digital platforms generally.

Consumers and the public are necessarily involved in the processes employed by industry to formulate codes on self- and co-regulation. At the time of this project, research on this topic had been limited, and there had been no attempt to map the mechanisms used by industry to engage with consumers and citizens, or to assess how that engagement is best deployed for effective self- and co-regulation within the sector.

This project started that analysis.

Our report

Our report was published by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) in December 2019 and is available to download.

The report:

  • Sets out the different regulatory contexts in which 20 industry schemes in the advertising, telecommunications, media and online service sectors operate. It highlights the varying levels of government involvement in their rule-making processes;
  • Identifies the mechanisms of public engagement that are used by the 19 schemes for which we were able to prepare summaries;
  • Presents our proposal for the classification of these mechanisms, taking into account classification schemes that have been developed by researchers in other industries and jurisdictions;
  • Provides some observations on the use of the Australian mechanisms, following our approach to classification; and
  • Sets out our 14 recommendations for reform.
Our research was made possible by funding received from ACCAN, the Faculty of Law, UTS and the School of Law, University of New England. Funding received from ACCAN is made possible by funding provided by the Commonwealth of Australia under section 593 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. This funding is recovered from charges on telecommunications carriers.
Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.