Legislative change Australia's number one business concern

"Regulatory and legislative change" has been listed as the top concern, followed by "local economic conditions", "people risk" and "increasing competition". 

Aon chief executive Lambros Lambrou said the increasing focus on legislative and regulatory change demonstrates the additional compliance burden facing businesses in the current climate.

“Regulatory and legislative change has been moving up consistently through the top 10 risks over the past few years,” Mr Lambrou said.

“Legislative change adds cost pressure to a company’s bottom line in many ways, both directly where it results in more restrictive working conditions and potential additional fines and penalties and indirectly, for example in compliance costs.”

The survey comprised responses from 380 businesses in 15 sectors, including 23 of the ASX Top 100.