Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

That was yet another good speech from the member for Solomon who talked about the benefit of government getting out of the way and letting business get on with the job that it does best: raising wealth and prosperity.

I heard a 'Hear, hear' from the Labor member for Rankin—he understands from his former role the need for government to get smaller and business to get bigger. He gets it—I wish a few of his colleagues on the other side understood that concept as well.

The Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2015) Bill 2015 is important, because it goes to the heart of what we are about as a coalition government—a good coalition government, a good Liberal-National government. This is a continuation of the good work started by the member for Kooyong when he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and continued by Christian Porter, the member for Pearce. As I say, this is very, very important legislation, because it takes in a whole-of-government initiative to amend or repeal legislation across nine portfolios.

There are more than 20,000 statutes, laws, regulations and bills on federal parliamentary books. I heard from some of the Labor members who were speaking in this debate that all this is about is removing apostrophes and semicolons, putting commas in place and seeing if full stops are totally needed. In one part of his speech on Monday, the member for Scullin talked about a saving of $3,000 in deregulatory costs and mocked it. That is emblematic of what was wrong with Labor—and I appreciate that the member for Scullin was not here at that time—between 2007 and 2013.

That $3,000 did not mean all that much to the member for Scullin; a million dollars did not matter all that much; a billion dollars or a thousand million dollars did not matter all that much. That is why we saw the debt and deficit rack up to record proportions. That is why, when we came into government after the 7 September 2013 election, we inherited a debt and deficit legacy, which saddled our children and grandchildren with a great burden of responsibility to lower it—which of course came back to the Liberal-Nationals to fix, as we always do. That is what Liberal-National governments do very, very well: we fix up the mess that we always, inevitably, inherit from Labor.

That $3,000—I might remind the member for Scullin that it does matter, because $3,000 here and $3,000 there adds up. He called them pennies—'If we look after the pennies,' he said in his Monday speech. That is true. They all add up and they add up to big amounts. This omnibus repeal day debate is so important, because it is a matter of adding up the pennies.

Pennies—or cents in today's terminology—turn into dollars. Dollars turn into billions of dollars. A penny saved goes a long way towards paying back the debt that we inherited. But it is not what we, as a Liberal-National government, inherited—if we inherited it, it might be okay—it is the taxpayers of this nation who inherited it. We have just got the job as the sensible people in the parliament to fix the mess.

It is not just about commas, semicolons and apostrophes; this is about dollars and cents. This particular bill brings forward a range of minor, some might say non-controversial measures to reduce regulatory burden for business, individuals and the community sector, and that is so important. We understand—as, in good faith, I know the member for Rankin does—the need to be able to get out of the way of business. You understand it, Member for Hughes, sitting in the chair. I have heard you many times in this place advocate passionately—

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