Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Swan for moving this motion, because it allows members on this side of the House the opportunity to remind members on that side of the House of just how badly they failed to reduce red tape. Australians were promised—as was alluded to by the member for Braddon—by the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that Labor would have a 'one regulation in and one regulation out' approach to legislation. Instead, we were burdened by an avalanche of new regulation—21,000 additional regulations in just 5½ years. That is 10 regulations for every day Labor were last in government. Unfortunately, Labor's commitment to ramping up the regulatory burden was felt by every Australian. Shamefully, the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index ranked Australia 128th out of 148 countries for burden of government regulation. Australia also placed second last in a 2012 ranking of productivity growth by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Fortunately, this government has fulfilled its commitment to cut $1 billion in red and green tape every year. In fact, to date, the government have delivered $2.45 billion worth of deregulatory savings, and this is more than double our $1 billion annual target that we promised to deliver. Under Labor, Commonwealth regulation was costing Australians approximately $65 billion annually, an astounding 4.2 per cent of GDP. Members opposite are committed to regulation; regulation is in their DNA. When we held our first-ever regulation repeal day on 26 March 2014, Labor dismissed it as a joke and they still continue to dismiss it as a joke. They continue to dismiss the task of reducing the regulatory burden on Australia businesses and families.

For the first time in Australian history, a federal government has undertaken a thorough and accurate stock-take of all federal regulatory costs. We are continuing to measure and reduce the cost of government red tape to Australian businesses, organisations, families and individuals. The Assistant Treasurer, Hon. Josh Frydenberg MP, and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Hon. Christian Porter MP, should be commended by all members for their success in reducing the regulatory burden.

No-one would dispute that business regulation is essential in ensuring that the rights of employers, employees and the general public are protected. However, regulation that is inefficient or unnecessary unfortunately imposes undue costs on businesses and individuals. Labor either does not understand or does not care about the regulatory burden on Australian businesses. In regions such as the Central Coast, small business is collectively our largest employer; therefore, it is essential that the environment in which they conduct their business is free from unnecessary, time-wasting regulations; and, as I previously said in parliament, the cost of compliance is a major barrier to growth. The average Australian business deals with eight regulators in a given year, spends close to four per cent of its total annual expenditure on complying with regulatory requirements and spends approximately 19 hours a week on compliance related activities. This is precious time that could be better utilised growing the business and delivering more jobs.

It is astounding that Labor do not even have a plan to combat unnecessary red and green tape. They criticise, they object, they block, they say no—all the while without an alternative plan to support Australian businesses and households. In fact, their centrepiece policy for the next election is to the reintroduce the world's biggest carbon tax. We repealed the carbon tax because it was contributing to $194.4 million of unnecessary red-tape costs to our business community. Our goal will always be to make life easier for Australians and make it easier for businesses to invest and create more jobs.

Significant progress is being made to help free up the time spent by small businesses dealing with red tape. An estimated 447,000 small businesses will benefit from administrative changes to entry thresholds for pay-as-you-go instalments. Of these, 45,000 small businesses that have no GST reporting requirements will no longer have to lodge a businesses activity statement where, to date, lodgements have been made only to report pay-as-you-go instalments. The remaining 402,000 small businesses with modest or negative incomes that are required to lodge a BAS will no longer have to interact with the pay-as-you-go instalment system. Thanks to our efforts and measures such as the ones discussed today, Australia now has its most precise, comprehensive and transparent program to reverse the growing costs of red tape to the Australia economy.

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