Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always a great pleasure to follow the member for Solomon, somebody who was a very successful business woman in her own right. She knows that Australian businesses thrive when government gets out of the way. To paraphrase that great quote, it is often a case of government being the problem rather than government having the solution. We on this side of the House are very lucky to have people who have been very successful business people in the private sector. We bring that wisdom to this place to discuss bills such as we are debating here tonight.

This government promised a deregulation agenda that would slash at least $1 billion in red and green tape every year. We are more than delivering. This year we have doubled on that commitment, with hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance costs removed on the first of our dedicated repeal days in March. Our autumn repeal day removed more than 10,000 pieces and 50,000 pages of redundant, unnecessary and burdensome legislation and regulation. Now, together with the second of our repeal days, the government has hit that $2 billion target. On 22 October the government introduced legislation and tabled an instrument to repeal a further 1,000 pieces and more than 7,200 pages of legislation and regulation. The autumn and spring repeal days bring the total net deregulatory saving so far to more than $2.1 billion. The aim of this unflinching, whole-of-government commitment to repeal of costly and utterly frustrating legislation and regulation is to get government out of the way and to streamline our lives so that businesses especially can free their arms, breathe and grow again. That will mean a stronger economy and more jobs for Australians.

The bill we are debating, the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Repeal Day) Bill 2014, is another important step towards this uncluttering of bureaucratic excess. We are a government that want to see enterprise succeed. We are a government that want to see employers advance with confidence and certainty and, frankly, just get on with doing the business they do so well. This bill contains a number of measures that will improve and simplify the laws around taxation, superannuation and shareholdings in certain financial sector companies.

In summary, they repeal pay slip reporting provisions in superannuation law that would have added another layer of regulatory burden on employers above and beyond the current requirement enshrined in the Fair Work legislation. They simplify taxation laws by removing or consolidating redundant and replicated provisions and shifting long-established regulations into the primary law. They cut back the regulatory burden on associates of individuals seeking to obtain a shareholding of more than 15 per cent in certain financial sector companies and they rewrite the definition of Australia into a single location in the tax law so it can be applied across all tax laws for ease and clarity.

The previous Labor government's red tape legacy is well documented. I have spoken about it many times in this place, but once again, for the public record—the former Labor government saw 40 new or increased taxes and more than 21,000 new regulations. We are untangling the mess that has enveloped our businesses, our schools and our hospitals; a mess that has stifled productivity and outcomes and has led to costs being passed on to every single Australian. And so it is that Labor's intention to introduce more crippling regulations—regulations specifying that employers would have to report on pay slips the amount of superannuation contributions and the dates on which the employer expects to pay them—will now be thrown onto the very large red tape bonfire. The government will repeal provisions from the superannuation law that would have allowed the previous government to give effect to this change—a change that would have placed more costly, time-consuming and, altogether, an unnecessary onus on employers.

This repeal will in no way alter the information employees currently receive on their pay slip with regard to superannuation contributions. Under the Fair Work Act, employers are already required to at least report details of employees' superannuation entitlements that have occurred during the pay period on an employee's pay slip. If employers were suddenly required to report actual contributions and payment dates, the major updates to their software would be costly and, for a period at least, disruptive. And for what tangible benefits from the perspective of employees? Little to none, I would think. It is a fact that most employers pay their superannuation. It is also a fact that the Australian Taxation Office investigates every complaint received about unpaid superannuation. Its risk analysis and intelligence work means the ATO knows who to target in terms of high-risk industries and employers.

Mind-numbing duplication was a hallmark of the previous Labor administration. Weaving one's way through a maze of technicality and detail to get a straight answer and a simple solution proved time and time again to be a headache for businesses in my electorate under the government of those members opposite. Is it any wonder that at this time two years ago small business start-ups under Labor had dropped by 95 per cent and the number of businesses going bankrupt had risen by 48 per cent? At that point there were 11,000 fewer small businesses employing people than there had been in 2007. This government, in just 12 months, is turning the ship around. In Longman, confidence is returning to the local economy, with businesses from Caboolture to Narangba hiring new workers. And the phenomenon is in no small part fanned by the government's demolition of red tape.

Another key measure in this bill simplifies the taxation laws by consolidating duplicated taxation administration provisions contained in various taxation acts into a single location in a single act. This measure also repeals spent or redundant taxation laws and relocates long-standing regulations to within the primary law. Existing tax law is complex; it verges on the impenetrable and it makes at times costly compliance demands. However, these changes will result in a material reduction in the size of the taxation laws, with one or two sections replacing in excess of over 50 existing provisions. Currently, if a taxpayer seeks to clarify his or her rights in relation to information the Commissioner of Taxation has the power to obtain, they must navigate across 10 different acts. These amendments will put an end to that, with all relevant material being contained within schedule 1 of the Taxation Administration Act. Wherever possible, cleaning up our tax laws so that their integrity is uncompromised, while becoming more accessible and involving less user time and cost, should be a priority of the government. It is, as I can assure you, a priority of this government.

Indeed, the changes in this bill are perhaps, above all, just plain sensible. As such, they stand in start contrast to the six years of insufferable Labor over-regulation and maladministration. As I mentioned, the unwinding of red tape is already resulting in real, bottom-line results for the businesses of my local region. A case in point is Packer Leather, an iconic local leather manufacturing firm that is the supplier of leather for Kookaburra cricket balls and Sherrin footballs. Packer Leather had been forced to pay up to $20,000 to get an imported chemical approved by Australian regulators for use in the tanning process, despite these chemicals already having met very difficult international standards. After I took up the case with the member for Kooyong and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, the government will now require the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme, or NICNAS, to increase its acceptance of risk assessments made by reputable international authorities such as the European Union regulator. In short, this is just another victory for common sense. The removing of expensive and time-consuming reapprovals in Australia will help put managing director Lindsay Packer on a level footing with his international rivals. Packer Leather is a truly global act, even producing the leather for gloves worn by some of the world's top racing drivers. I want to thank the Parliamentary Secretary for visiting Longman, where he spoke to local businesses, duly noted their red tape concerns and then took action. He understands better than anyone in this place how bad regulation and over-regulation hurts productivity, deters investment and innovation and ultimately costs jobs. With the help of his hard work, the government is righting the wrongs of the former Labor government. In shedding billions of dollars worth of obstructionist red tape, we are unshackling our businesses, industry and communities and pointing them on a path to prosperity. That is what these bills seek to do, and I commend them to the House.

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