Govt departments fail on red tape reports

Federal government departments and agencies are notoriously bad at reviewing the impact of red tape.

Liberal senator Cory Bernardi asked Office of Best Practice Regulation director Jason McNamara on Tuesday about the performance of departments in writing what are known as post-implementation reviews of policies.

"I have no memory of anyone who has passed on the first go," Mr McNamara told a Senate estimates hearing of the review reports, which departments had provided to him since the 2013 election.