Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2015) Bill 2015. It is great to have the Minister for Small Business in the House. He is, I know, a great supporter of creating the best business environment we can have, and that includes removing red tape. The Minister for Small Business has had some great successes this year, including the 2015 budget and that $5.5 billion package to help small business, incentivise small business, get the economy going and reduce taxes and taxed incentives.

Notwithstanding that success, the Minister for Small Business did have a defeat on the weekend with his beloved Richmond. I commiserate the Minister for Small Business and Richmond for losing three finals in three successive seasons to one of my teams—my favourite team actually: Port Adelaide. It is about perseverance, and that is what much in life is about. Just on football, without diverging too much, I want to pay tribute to the Adelaide Crows and wish them all the best for their final against Hawthorn tomorrow night in Melbourne. In particular, I hope that the Adelaide Football Club—including: Rob Chapman, the president; directors Rod Jameson and Nigel Smart; their captain, Taylor Walker; and Bob Ford—go well. I wish them all the best for the match against Hawthorn tomorrow night.

While I am on football, the member for Wakefield is in the House and I just want to wish his team, Central Districts, all the best in the SANFL finals on the weekend, because they are playing against one of my local clubs too, West Adelaide Football Club, in one of the finals. That should be a great encounter. West Adelaide lost to another one of the good local football clubs in my area, the Woodville West Torrens Football Club, on the weekend too and they are in the grand final in a couple of weeks time. All the best to the football teams in their matches over the weekend.

Getting back to the purpose of this bill, cutting red tape is at the heart of the coalition government's mission to build a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia. For too long, more regulation has been the default option for policymakers. During the previous government, some 21,000 new regulations found their way into national life. Poorly designed and inefficient regulation has been imposing unnecessary costs on every Australian. The coalition government is cutting red tape and changing the way regulators act and behave. The government has taken steps to remove around $2.5 billion in red tape, more than double the annual net $1 billion target it committed to delivering—an outstanding achievement.

I am pleased to play a role in the deregulation committee. Initially it was chaired by Josh Frydenberg, who is now the Assistant Treasurer. It is now chaired by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Christian Porter, who is doing a fantastic job in this space. As I have mentioned, deregulation units have been established, from existing resources, in every portfolio to drive red tape reduction across the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is working collaboratively with the states and territories to reduce red tape across all levels of government.

We committed to repealing $1 billion worth of red tape per year. As part of this commitment, the government dedicate two parliamentary sitting days as repeal days every year. Following the government's third repeal day, the government will have repealed more than 10,300 legislative instruments and introduced legislation to repeal over 2,700 acts of parliament. The first repeal day in March last year announced measures that, when fully implemented, will result in gross savings in excess of $700 million in reduced compliance costs. The second repeal day in October 2014 announced measures that, when fully implemented, will result in savings measures in excess of $2.1 billion in reduced compliance costs. On the third day, 18 March 2015, the government announced measures that, when fully implemented, will result in net savings in excess of $2.45 billion in reduced compliance costs. This is significant progress and significant savings, all due to good government policy and execution of that policy.

I want to touch on a couple of specific areas of red tape reduction and reduction in compliance. The first one is making it easier to navigate around the ATO website. Since late 2014, the ATO has been improving client experience by changing the structure and design of its website so that individuals and businesses can find relevant information more quickly. In a meeting with the ATO commissioner yesterday, I was very pleased to hear about some of their initiatives—the development of portals and making their operations more efficient and more consumer friendly for the Australian public.

Each year around six million people use the ATO website. To make the website more user friendly, the ATO is changing the structure of the website to make it more intuitive and task based. The search function is being improved and information is tailored to specific audiences, including individuals, businesses and intermediaries. The Treasury portfolio has estimated that this will lead to an annual saving of close to $50 million in compliance costs.

We have also introduced more flexible screening arrangements at Melbourne and Adelaide airports. As Adelaide Airport is in the middle of Hindmarsh, operational improvements there are always significant for my electorate. On 19 November 2014, the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development served amendments to aviation screening notices to introduce more flexibility at multilane passenger screening points at the Melbourne and Adelaide airports. Following a trial in 2013, operators will now have the option to conduct explosive trace detection, or ETD, screening operations at the front of a screening point and to test persons in batches of up to three persons per ETD test. Industry will benefit from reduced staffing requirements and reduced capital and maintenance costs, and passengers will save time during the screening process, something I am sure everyone will appreciate when they go through the airports. The improved screening will be achieved while maintaining high security standards, something we are committed to. The Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development has estimated that this will lead to annual savings of $8.8 million and $2.4 million in compliance costs for the Melbourne and Adelaide airports respectively.

Another important initiative is reducing duplicate assessments for Australian manufactured medical devices. The medical devices and health services sector is a sector of great strength in Australia as well as being, given ageing populations in many of the countries we trade with, one of great future opportunity. On 15 October 2014, the Assistant Minister for Health announced changes to the regulation of therapeutic goods that will allow Australian manufacturers of medical devices to obtain market approval for most of their products using conformity assessment certification from European notified bodies. The change will allow Australian manufacturers to choose to have a conformity assessment conducted either by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the TGA, or by an alternative conformity assessment body, such as a European notified body. This will put Australian manufacturers of all but the highest risk products on an equal footing with those from overseas, avoiding the need for duplicate conformity assessments for those manufacturers wishing to export their products to Europe. In many cases this could allow locally made medical devices to get to market more quickly. This is so important in helping our competitiveness in the global economy. The new rules will not apply to the very highest risk devices, which will still need TGA conformity assessment. The compliance cost savings are estimated to be $6.1 million.

The final matter I want to cover is foreign purchases of agricultural land. Foreign investment is something we have just discussed in this House.    On 11 February 2015, the government announced that the screening threshold for foreign purchases of agricultural land will be reduced from $252 million to $15 million from 1 March 2015 and that the government will introduce a foreign ownership register of agricultural land from 1 July 2015. These changes increase scrutiny and transparency around foreign investment in agriculture. The new $15 million threshold will apply to the cumulative value of agricultural land owned by the foreign investor, including the proposed purchase. Consistent with free trade agreement commitments, this will apply to all non-government investors except those from the United States, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore and Thailand. All proposed direct investments by foreign government investors, including in agriculture, will continue to be reviewed regardless of value. The government is currently consulting on a range of options to strengthen Australia's foreign investment framework. Final figures are still to be determined for a range of implementation options and will be accounted for on the spring repeal day.

In closing, the coalition government understands that in order to build a prosperous economy we must relieve the burden of government red tape on businesses, community organisations, families and individuals. We must allow people and businesses to do what they do best rather than spending wasted hours dealing with paperwork, waiting in queues or searching for information. Importantly, we want to hear from businesses, community organisations, families and individuals on how we can cut even more red tape to help build a productive and prosperous economy for the benefit of all Australians.

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