Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise in support of the Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2015) Bill and associated bills, which as we have been hearing on this side of the House have a direct and positive impact on Australian industries and our communities. Today, the Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2015) Bill—which is before the House along with the Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 2) 2015 and the Amending Acts 1980 to 1989 Repeal Bill 2015—will further clean up the Commonwealth's statute books by repealing acts and amending unnecessary and outdated provisions. The Spent and Redundant Instruments Repeal Regulation 2015 is also part of the repeal day package.

Cutting red tape is at the heart of the coalition's commitment to build a stronger, more prosperous economy and a safe, secure Australia. To quote the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Christian Porter, who has done some outstanding work in this area:

Regulation should only remain in force for as long as necessary.

This package of legislation before us today is not about removing protections. This is, rather, the application of common sense. Subject to the parliament, these bills will collectively repeal over 890 Commonwealth acts. The Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2015) Bill alone will amend or repeal 14 acts across portfolios, some of which are spent and redundant or have remained on the Commonwealth's statute books long beyond the date of fulfilling their purpose. Other acts being amended or appealed have provisions that were superseded by other legislation many, many years ago.

These measures, part of the coalition's third repeal day, build on the $2.1 billion in red tape reduction decisions we made in October last year. We set a target of reducing the regulatory burden by $1 billion a year. Not only did we exceed that net target by more than double in our first year, but we are well on our way to meeting a new target of $1 billion worth of deregulatory decisions this year. Compare this to the previous Labor government's record, when Commonwealth regulation was costing Australians approximately $65 billion per year—a remarkable 4.2 per cent of GDP. Labor introduced more than 975 new or amending pieces of legislation and over 21,000 additional regulations. This is despite Kevin Rudd's 2007 promise of a 'one regulation in, one regulation out' policy. As a result of six years of Labor's red tape, last year we ranked 124th out of 148 countries in the world competitiveness index, which describes the burden of government regulation.

Let's not forget the carbon tax and the mining tax—two business-destroying, ineffective taxes now scrapped by the coalition. As we know, Labor introduced the world's biggest carbon tax, which drove up prices, reduced growth and added red tape for over 76,000 businesses or organisations each year. If left in place, this would have cost the Australian economy a cumulative $1.3 trillion by the middle of this century. Of course, after voting time and time again to stop us abolishing the carbon tax, now Labor wants to bring back the carbon tax if they are elected. I have to say, this is something that is of great concern to businesses and residents in my electorate on the Central Coast. Small businesses talk about the choice between paying the carbon tax and the increased electricity bills or employing another young person in their business. People in the streets of the Central Coast came up and spoke to me about their concerns about the increasing prices of electricity. Make no mistake: this is a very real issue on the streets of the Central Coast.

In relation to the mining tax, we were told it would raise $12 billion over its first two years. Instead it raised less than three per cent of what was promised but added record levels of red tape and discouraged investment in Australia. This sort of unnecessary red tape is a contributing factor to Australia's productivity challenge. It reflects Labor's fundamental inability to understand business and the value of individual enterprise.

The Productivity Commission has previously estimated that reducing red tape will boost national GDP by $12 billion a year. Across industry it is believed red tape accounts on average for four per cent of business costs, so I am pleased to be part of a coalition government that is tackling this head on. It means we are now able to, with a very high degree of accuracy, publicly report to parliament a downturn in the total amount and cost of federal regulation. In fact, the government will have repealed more than 10,300 legislative instruments and introduced legislation to repeal over 2,700 acts of parliament. Ultimately, cutting red tape is about Australians spending less time filling out paperwork, less time waiting in queues and less time searching for information.

The New South Wales government have also made moves to cut red tape because they know the benefits to the local economy. When the state government announced recently they would cut more than $815 million in red tape, the New South Wales Business Chamber was full of praise. The chief executive, Stephen Cartwright, described it as 'a significant achievement that will make it easier for small businesses to grow and employ more people'. He described red tape as an 'incredible burden on small business operators' and said that regulations of all levels of government were 'combining to create billions of dollars in compliance costs for businesses each and every year'.

This desire expressed to see small businesses grow, thrive, prosper, succeed and create even more jobs and more opportunities for people right around Australia reflects my own passion, particularly in my electorate on the Central Coast, where we see 30,000 commuters leave early in the morning to Sydney or Newcastle and return home late at night to their families because currently that is where their job opportunities are. We see this measure, this suite of bills, and our policy to reduce red tape as vital in helping us boost confidence in our local economy. It is also something that is central to our commitment to deliver our Growth Plan for the Central Coast, which is about delivering more opportunity for people to live and to work in our local region.

Red tape is one of those things that hold small businesses back and that hold back opportunities in our local community. In fact, one of our community leaders, Sean Gordon, the CEO of the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council, spoke recently about this in The Australian. He spoke about the red tape that he faced at almost every turn while working on a major project on the Central Coast. Indeed, I am advised that Indigenous service delivery has, under Labor, had to navigate 200 Indigenous related programs administered by 17 Commonwealth agencies. I understand that each program had its own application form and processes. In the resources sector the member for Bradfield, earlier in the chamber, recounted a story of one particular project that apparently required 4,000 meetings before approval was granted, and ultimately 12,000 state and 300 Commonwealth conditions were placed on that project.

I will now briefly outline some of the ways that we are making life easier for businesses, particularly businesses on the Central Coast, by cutting the red tape burden. We have established the Fair Work Ombudsman's Small Business Helpline to assist business owners with advice on employee wages and workplace laws. There is improved communication from the Australian Taxation Office with small business through a new digital news and information service. The ATO's website is also being improved to make it easier to browse. We have introduced a bill to amend the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to reduce compliance burdens. This includes the surely common sense removal of unnecessary requirements relating to reporting food related product safety incidents. We have improved the pay as you go instalment system by changing the entry and exit thresholds, meaning that certain small businesses will no longer have to interact with the pay as you go instalment system. We have amended intellectual property laws to make them more efficient and less complex by reducing unnecessary regulatory requirements.

Many industries like aged care, an important industry in my electorate on the Central Coast, have also been crying out for support in specific areas. So I am pleased to report that under this government's reforms we have started simplifying the proposed accommodation pricing process which removes the requirement for aged-care providers to follow a complex, detailed process in setting prices. We do this because, with an ageing population, we need to ensure that aged-care providers are able to get on with doing what they do best without being weighed down by paperwork and red tape. We have scrapped complex certification requirements of aged-care facilities, including those that duplicate state building requirements under the Building Code of Australia. We have streamlined the forms for the Aged Care Approvals Round process, reducing the overall size of the application forms by half.

We have also taken measures that will result in millions of dollars in compliance savings for the disability services sector. In fact, I was pleased to be speaking in the Federation Chamber just this morning to confirm details about the full rollout of the NDIS on the Central Coast, which is significant and welcome news for our region. With the rollout of such a big project it is vital that we implement solutions to improve outcomes for people with disabilities and service providers. Among the changes as part of this legislation participants will be able to accept their Employment Pathway Plan on the Australian JobSearch website rather than using email or post. We have also streamlined the process for mergers and amalgamations of Australian Disability Enterprises, of which there are three in my electorate, for those looking to merge for viability and sustainability reasons. The Hearing Services Program's online portal will also be improved to enable real-time confirmation of client eligibility and automated application processing. This reduces record-keeping requirements, eliminating numerous paper forms and simplifying a variety of administrative tasks.

This government's commitment to repeal red tape is ongoing. Indeed, today earlier in this place, the Minister for Education introduced new legislation to streamline regulation, remove duplicate requirements and cut red tape for Australia's international education providers. The Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Streamlining Regulation) Bill 2015 removes unnecessary reporting from the act while protecting the high quality of Australia's international education sector. International education is Australia's largest non-resource export and generates an estimated 130,000 jobs throughout the country. Through this bill we are cutting unnecessary red tape to allow our institutions to focus on their core business and to be even more competitive in offering world-class education. The minister estimates it will generate $76 million a year in deregulatory savings for our education institutions. So it cuts red tape while improving Australia's reputation as a high-quality, world-class destination for students.

This is an issue particularly close to my heart, because we have a dream on the Central Coast to see our region known as a world-class region of excellence, not just for our beauty, not just for more local jobs and more businesses growing, thriving, succeeding and prospering, but also to see world-class excellence and world-class educational opportunities on the Central Coast. I am pleased to say that the University of Newcastle is currently promoting a wonderful proposal that would see a stand-alone Central Coast medical school and medical research institute, which is their dream, in the heart of Gosford in my electorate. It is outstanding opportunity for more students, not just on the Central Coast, but around Australia and beyond to be able to access and participate in world-class education right in the heart of the Central Coast.

In conclusion, I want to put on record one more thing. As the granddaughter of a farmer I want to indicate that this bill also helps slash red tape for cattle producers with the removal of the need for tail tags on cattle needed for processing for the EU meat market. From this month Australian producers are no longer required to use special lime-green tags on the tails of cattle produced for processing into beef exported to the EU. I have been advised that cattle producers will save up to $1 million a year just by the removal of the need for these unnecessary tags.

Like I said at the beginning of my contribution, this is common sense legislation. It is all part of the government's plan to make life easier for businesses and industry and, of course, for the Central Coast community. I commend the bills to the House.

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