Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise to speak about the budget for the Industry, Innovation and Science portfolio, a portfolio that I am immensely passionate about. I am focused on ensuring the future of Australian businesses, both small and large, is successful. In my opening remarks today, I want to talk about a particular area of interest to me—that is, what we have entitled the National Business Simplification Initiative. What is it in a nutshell? It is bringing a new approach to what has traditionally been deemed as red tape and regulatory issues in this country. How have we changed our thinking? We are attempting to bring business thinking to this space. It is quite clear that we need regulation across all three levels of government. What has unfortunately and sadly been the case in our system in our history of Federation is that, for 116 years, government has traditionally defaulted to a regulatory role. This is the thinking that my previous minister, Minister Hunt, who is sitting beside me, and the present minister, Minister Sinodinos, have been working with me to change through our department.

The fact is that we are actually also a business partner with every individual business in this country. Irrespective of their ownership structure, we get between 30c and 49c in the dollar. How are we trying to change the thinking in the department and the structure of that red tape and regulation? By realising the time taken to comply with it is an expense that appears in the profit and loss statement of every business. By default, we are up for 30c to 49c in the dollar of that. If there are ways that we in government can revolutionise the business-to-government relationship and take that red tape and regulation and codify it—for example, make it easy to comply with—ultimately, whatever we do, we make it time critical that we reduce the time taken. What happens then? A few things. The expense item decreases in the profit and loss statement and the profitability of the business increases. Where do we come for the ride? We obviously get an increased tax take because of the increase in company profitability. But what do companies do? What have they always done historically in this country when they increased their profits? They reinvest in their business. What happens at the back end of that? The business continues to grow—not only their profits but also the employment outcomes that result. And guess what? As a result of the increased employment, PAYE tax receipts increase at the same time.

That is the return on investment proposition we are talking about when considering the National Business Simplification Initiative. It was originally slated as NISA 3.0. However, due to the great work initially of our New South Wales colleagues, who through Service NSW were already embarking on this line of thinking, we on 8 May worked with them to deliver our first ICT linkage to their website through business.gov.au.

What is the policy? Minister Hunt has said this term and I borrow it frequently: a no-wrong-door approach. The idea in the specific example, the beta, that we chose in New South Wales in the Parramatta LGA district in the state of New South Wales in the country of Australia, which sadly for 115 years has operated as three different regulatory environments, was that we got all three systems to talk. We chose the category of opening a business: as a specific example—a beta if you like—a bar, restaurant or cafe in the Parramatta LGA district in the state of New South Wales in the country of Australia. We took the time that it takes to open one of those from 18 months on average to three months on average. What do you get at the end of that process? You have a business functioning for 15 months further than it would have done in previous situations. What happens? Tax receipts from that business flow to government quicker, as do the PAYE tax receipts of the wage earners flowing to government quicker.

I would like to congratulate Minister Dominello and his team at Service NSW. It is pleasing to note that, off the back of that, every state has signed up to the National Business Simplification Initiative. Minister Hunt announced it with me in late November. We have chosen a beta in every state. We have delivered New South Wales on May 8. Ecotourism in Tasmania has been delivered. We are not far away from Western Australia coming online. My great hope is that this initiative becomes the centrepiece of a new approach to attack red tape and deregulation in this country, something that politicians so often speak about with zero understanding of the impact it has on the frontlines.

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