Queensland businesses are tipped to spend more than $15 billion on red tape this year.
Business Chamber Queensland’s latest Efficient Regulation Report shows the median cost of compliance per business is now $30,000.
Business Chamber Queensland CEO Heidi Cooper said biennial report, which surveyed hundreds of businesses across the state, revealed some large businesses reported up to $1.25 million in regulatory cost.
Ms Cooper said both sole traders and large enterprises reported the steepest increases since 2021.
She said more than 80 percent of businesses said regulatory burden inhibited their growth and productivity prospects.
“This is not just a cost of doing business, it’s a cost of not being able to grow, hire, or innovate.
“One in three businesses employ someone specifically for managing regulatory compliance. That’s someone who’s not contributing to the business, serving customers or clients or generating revenue.”
Ms Cooper said the majority of businesses stated they would benefit from increased profitability and workforce productivity, or they would focus on growing their businesses if they weren’t investing so much time and money in regulatory compliance.
“Throughout the history of this research Queensland businesses have consistently told us they want to focus on growing their operations, not navigating red tape.”
Ms Cooper said the report identified the most financially and time-intensive areas of regulation, including building approvals, employment regulation, and environmental requirements.
She said the report also showed the shifting and increasing pressures on Queensland businesses that are now not only dealing with domestic pressures but international market challenges.
“Traditionally we think about efficient regulation as a domestic business issue, but this year we saw a shift in the global market and businesses are telling us it’s also hard to do business internationally.
“We saw a 21 percent increase in the cost burden to export, with 52 percent of businesses reporting high impacts of exporting regulation costs.”
Ms Cooper said businesses overwhelmingly called for streamlined processes, better communication, simplified data collection and scalable compliance models that reflected business size and risk.
Download: Business Chamber Queensland Efficient Regulation Report 2025
