About the community

Who are we and what do we do?

The community of practice began as an informal network of Victorian regulators inspired by Harvard Professor Malcolm Sparrow’s ANZSOG workshops.

Since 2018 and buoyed by the strong interest from around Australia, the Victorian community of practice has gone national under ANZSOG’s auspice, with active chapters in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia.

As of 1 January 2020, the NRCoP is connecting with more than 3000 regulators through face to face learning events, an annual forum, a LinkedIn group and regular newsletters.

The NRCoP defines itself as an active network of public sector regulators from all three levels of government and from every regulatory sector, professional background, role, and level of seniority, who are keen to learn from and with each other.

Its objectives are to support participants to become more professional and capable regulators and to promote the public value and importance of regulation as a key task of government and thereby, to deliver better citizen outcomes.

The NRCoP also welcomes regulatory policymakers and others with a scholarly or professional interest in regulation but its primary focus is on inspiring, connecting and building the professionalism of practicing regulators.

What we offer

The community of practice offers practicing regulators:

  • The opportunity to share successes and failures, experiences and challenges in your daily work and work collectively to advance the regulatory craft
  • Access to free, thought-provoking, inspiring learning events in each chapter, with opportunities to hear from and connect with your fellow regulators from all three levels of government and from the full spectrum of regulatory agencies. Browse your top issues of interest for future events, drawn from the 2019 participant survey.
  • An annual forum in Melbourne on a topic of critical importance to all regulators. It is anchored by a leading international speaker but the program overall is designed to support regulators to showcase their innovations and share their experiences and lessons learned in interactive and engaging formats and in a non-commercial national and trans-Tasman context
  • Capacity to seek wise advice from colleagues across different regulatory sectors and agencies
  • A convenient, curated link to international and national portals for regulatory research and scholarship
  • Access to resources and presentations from previous NRCoP events
  • Useful material posted by regulators to engage and support other regulators

Join the NRCoP here. When you register to attend an event, make sure you tick the box ‘Please keep me informed about future events’

ANZSOG’s role

  • The NRCoP is supported financially and logistically by the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). ANZSOG is responsible for:
  • Providing access to its international and trans-Tasman network of leading regulatory scholars, public intellectuals and senior practitioners.
  • Bringing its professional expertise in specifying, curating, promoting, delivering and evaluating learning events to the NRCoP.
  • Conducting an annual survey of NRCoP participants in order to gauge the contemporary and high profile issues of importance to practicing regulators
  • Evaluating and reporting on the impact of the NRCoP
  • Building and maintaining a knowledge base for practicing regulators, including resources from previous events and access to reports of interest and relevance to Australian regulators
  • Building and maintaining a confidential, up to date database of NRCoP participants
  • Utilising ANZSOG’s curatorial, pedagogic, logistical and communications expertise to design and support an annual paying forum and making the proceeds of the forum available to support free NRCoP activities throughout the year
  • Ensuring good governance for the NRCoP via secretariat support for the steering committee and the chapter committees and encouraging expert, enthusiastic and diverse regulators to take part in the leadership of the NRCoP