Team Name

PB-Stallions

Team Members

Project Description

🧭 Red Tape Navigator

Simplifying compliance across Commonwealth, State, and Local laws in Australia.

Red Tape Navigator helps businesses and individuals quickly discover which regulations, licences, and obligations apply to them based on location and activity.

By integrating open government datasets, smart scraping, and AI-powered summaries, the tool cuts through complexity so Australians can navigate compliance with clarity and confidence.

🚨 The Problem

◦ Australia’s regulatory environment is fragmented across federal, state, and local governments.

◦ Businesses waste time figuring out who regulates what and whether obligations overlap or conflict.

◦ Just identifying the correct regulator is often confusing and error-prone.

💡 The Solution

Red Tape Navigator acts like a GPS for regulation:

◦ Enter your postcode and business activity.

◦ The system maps your location to the right state and local government area (LGA).

◦ Obligations are retrieved across all levels of government.

◦ Results are grouped by jurisdiction and presented in plain English with:

  ◦ Costs

  ◦ Timeframes

  ◦ Required documents

  ◦ Source links to authoritative legislation

✨ Features

◦ Business Compliance Dashboard

  ◦ Input: postcode, activity, ANZSIC code, business structure, controlled substances.

  ◦ Output: grouped obligations (Local | State | Federal).

◦ Compliance Roadmap

  ◦ Step-by-step view of requirements (Federal → State → Local).

  ◦ Progress tracking with completion percentages.

◦ Controlled Substances Module

  ◦ Extra checks for alcohol, medicines, and hazardous chemicals.

◦ Selenium Scraper

  ◦ Automates queries to ABLIS when APIs aren’t available.

◦ AI-Powered Summaries

  ◦ Uses OpenAI to generate human-friendly explanations, flag overlaps, and cite data sources.

📊 Data Sources Integrated

| Dataset | Use in Project |
|---------|----------------|
| ABLIS Activity Search | Core licence and regulator lookup (via Selenium). |
| ABS ASGS – Local Government Areas | Maps postcode → state + LGA. |
| Federal Legislation Register | Provides authoritative federal law references. |
| State/Territory Legislation Portals | Adds credibility and references in docs. |
| ALRC Commonwealth Statute Book | Shows legislative complexity and compliance context. |
| Safe Work Australia & TGA (optional) | Covers workplace safety and medicine/poison regulation. |

🛠️ Tech Stack

◦ Frontend: React, Vite, Tailwind, shadcn-ui

◦ Backend: Node.js, Express, Selenium WebDriver

◦ AI: OpenAI API for natural language summaries

🚀 Impact

◦ Saves businesses time and money by cutting through red tape.

◦ Provides confidence that all obligations have been considered.

◦ Makes regulation transparent, navigable, and user-friendly.

◦ Supports the GovHack mission of unlocking government data for real-world impact.

👉 Red Tape Navigator turns Australia’s regulatory maze into a clear roadmap.

Data Story

📖 Data Story

Navigating regulation in Australia is like solving a puzzle without a map.

We used the ABLIS Activity Search to surface licences and permits across all government levels, and the ABS ASGS to map postcodes to the right state and local government area (LGA). To provide context and credibility, we integrated the Federal Legislation Register and ALRC Commonwealth Statute Book, highlighting the depth of federal obligations.

By combining these datasets with a clear dashboard and AI-powered summaries, Red Tape Navigator transforms scattered legal data into a structured compliance roadmap — turning red tape into clear tape.