Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am looking forward to this opportunity tonight to speak on the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Repeal Day) Bill 2014. As other speakers on our side have said, at the last election we talked about the repeal of red and green tape. We spoke about how much that would generate within the economy, cutting $1 billion in red and green tape each year. We have absolutely done that. In fact we have exceeded that expectation. It is now over $2 billion.

But, of course, it is not just about ticking a box. It is not just trying to reach out to some figure. It is actually about making a real difference. It is about trying to make people's lives easier and trying to make it easier for businesses so that they can get on with what they do best. Small business all the way around this country has suffered from over-regulation as they try to get by on a shoestring budget. Small businesses in this country have stretched themselves in pursuing a dream, in trying to turn their ideas into reality and fulfil their dreams. They have been trying to do their best, but red and green tape regulation and having to jump through hoops does nothing but undermine the confident of small businesses and their ability to get on with what they do best.

Not every small business succeeds in this country, but they back themselves. That is so important. I do not have a business background. I spent time in the Federal Police and then in the Army and in a couple of other things along the way. There is a big difference between that and small business. But small businesses are the people who have a vision for the future. Sometimes they put their house on the line. Sometimes the shirt on their back is at risk. We in this place should be thinking about doing everything we possibly can to take the burden off them and let them do what they do best.

This bill has been much maligned by the Labor opposition. They talk about punctuation—that this bill today is nothing more than punctuation. But the agenda the government is pursuing through this bill and through previous bills is in every way what we said we would do and in every way is about trying to help small business around this country. It is not just business itself. We acknowledge that small business is a huge employer of Australian people. If we can help them to employ more people and give the community more confidence to spend to help generate activity within the economy, that is a good thing.

I look at this bill and I say it is exactly what we were elected to do. It is to help Australian people, to help improve the job prospects of Australian people and to help improve the lives of people who own small businesses. There is an outcome that filters down into every suburb around this country. There is no doubt about that.

In earlier speeches, particularly those given by the opposition before they ran out of people who were interested in reducing red tape—and that was a long time ago in this debate—they talked about how when they reduced red tape it was just a normal day at the office. But they were the side who increased regulations by 21,000 in the time that they were in government. They had a minister for deregulation, as well, but if anything it was more like the 'minister for over-regulation'. Now is the moment for the side that is in government to make some real progress in this area. With $2 billion in reductions in red and green tape that has flowed from what we have done, and through the efforts of the member for Kooyong and the other front benchers involved, we are now seeing some real changes.

Through this work, nearly 1,000 pieces of red and green tape will be taken away, and 7,200 pages of legislation and regulations have been removed. That adds to the work of the first repeal day, back in March, where over 10,000 pieces and 50,000 pages of legislation and regulations were taken away. That took away over $700 million of compliance costs. This is something real. It is not just a bit of punctuation around the edges. This is an agenda which actually turns into real improvements and savings for Australian businesses and thereby encourages more people to employ. There is a lot being done and once this bill is passed, as I am sure it will be, the people of Australia and the businesses who are involved in this area will see the benefits of it.

I know that to many people on the street red and green tape does not mean a whole lot. If you are not involved with business and filling out forms, or if you are an employee, you might not see the full impact of everything that we were talking about in the first repeal day or in the repeal day that is involved in this legislation. But the end result still remains, that businesses do not have the same costs that they would have had and they do not have the same burdens. Small-business owners do half the jobs themselves in their business—the owner or their partner might end up doing the books and the taxation arrangements, and superannuation and wages—and obviously when they do those things we should make sure that the bare minimum of requirements are placed upon them. There is no doubt that we should be working towards that and ultimately that will help small businesses in Australia.

Of course, bad regulation and too much regulation is obviously the enemy of productivity and, if it is too much of a hurdle to be jumped, then investment and innovation will also suffer—and jobs as well. So, we must do everything that we can. In 2014, as other speakers have said, Australia was ranked 124 of 148 countries for the 'burden of government regulation' by the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index. The slight improvement of four spots last year obviously and loudly in a megaphone manner really does suggest that something must be done differently. Bills such as this and the first bills from the first repeal day do give us a way to change that. We need to be open for business because if we are open for business and if we are making things as easy as possible for business in Australia, then the economic activity of the country is improved upon and obviously more people are employed—that is one of the big goals for the government of this country. So, there is a lot being done and, as other speakers have talked about, there are some real improvements. With regard to superannuation, we are taking away the onerous requirements of reporting what is being paid. Obviously there must be the requirement for those moneys to be paid by businesses for employee superannuation, but at the same time there are easier ways and better ways to demonstrate that than what has been the case of having to possibly even add extra expensive software to fulfil the requirements that had been talked about in the past. Taking that away, we can still have the safety and security but without having the onerous red-tape burdens upon business.

In conclusion, I absolutely endorse both the agenda of the government in red and green tape repeal and this bill in particular. Earlier today the Treasurer talked about a trillion dollars worth of investment that had been signed off as a result of the efforts of the government and business in this country—that is nothing but a good news story. Through measures such as this, where we are taking the burden off business in this country so that they can then offer more opportunities to those people working in Australia or that are seeking jobs in Australia, that is exactly the right thing to do. That is just another way in which the Abbott government is returning hope, reward and opportunity to Australians.

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