[co-author: Harriet Alexander]
In Brief
The Productivity Commission (Commission) recently released its final report on resources sector regulation. The report examines the regulation of minerals and petroleum in Australia, and identifies issues and leading practices approaches to addressing these issues.
The Commission has made a number of recommendations aimed at improving the current regulatory arrangements in the sector and reducing unnecessary costs for businesses.
The Commission was also tasked with considering potential impediments to the timing, nature and extent of business investment in the Australian resources sector.
The recommendations from the report have the potential to significantly affect the mining and petroleum sectors if implemented. Relevantly, the Commission has noted that improving the foundations of the regulatory system are particularly relevant in the current climate, as jurisdictions seek to develop reform agendas to boost economic activity as part of
Thursday, January 14, 2021
In Brief
The Productivity Commission (Commission) recently released its final report on resources sector regulation. The report examines the regulation of minerals and petroleum in Australia, and identifies issues and leading practices approaches to addressing these issues.
The Commission has made a number of recommendations aimed at improving the current regulatory arrangements in the sector and reducing unnecessary costs for businesses.
The Commission was also tasked with considering potential impediments to the timing, nature and extent of business investment in the Australian resources sector.
The recommendations from the report have the potential to significantly affect the mining and petroleum sectors if implemented. Relevantly, the Commission has noted that improving the foundations of the regulatory system are particularly relevant in the current climate, as jurisdictions seek to develop reform agendas to boost economic activity a
come forward and say, look. acosta could have kept investigating the case against epstein if he had wanted to. he could have brought charges to trial. he had a 53-page indictment ready. so i think the backlash continued to be so great that if it became tough for acosta to continue in that role. so, again, the president and acosta just announcing this moments ago as the president was about to depart for milwaukee. this is certainly a significant development. and it s worth noting, steph, there had been some criticism inside the administration of acosta prior to all of this. what kind of criticism? reporter: there were some who felt as though he wasn t adequately carrying out the president s deregulation agenda. so add this controversy to it, and then the big question, of course, this is a role that oversees human trafficking in the u.s. how could he continue to serve in that role given the criticism that he was facing for that 2008
i think there s some surprise that it happened so quickly, our sense is the president had been asking around, talking to his top officials about just how intense this firestorm was. the fact that this relates to a 2008 plea deal, which of course has to do with jeffrey epstein, who pleaded not guilty to those sex trafficking charges. but the allegation is so significant, so serious and of course involved minors. as you pointed out at the top of the shore, there had been concerns about acosta inside the administration that he wasn t carrying out the president s deregulation agenda effectively enough. and so the sense is this controversial was just too great and that he could not survive it. and covering the white house there, let s talk about the ramifications. this is yet another cabinet secretary stepping down under fire. a record number of acting secretaries. people who have not been
and attorney as well. kristen, this is all squarely on acosta s plate right now. he s having a news conference at 2:30. obviously we want to hear what he is going to say. you have some background on what s going on at the white house. there was reporting that there was some concern about him not from the president but others on the white house staff. he is embattled right now and there was already concern about acosta, concerned he wasn t carrying out the president s deregulation agenda effectively enough and this has added to those concerns. i think there s pressure building up to explain this plea deal that he made with epstein so many years ago in which epstein only got 13 months in jail for similar allegations part-time jail. yes. he worked out of an office. and it was lowered from a federal case to a state case. exactly.