Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I take this opportunity to thank those members who have taken part in the debate on the Financial Sector Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Regulation and Review) Bill 2007. This bill introduces measures to streamline, harmonise and simplify prudential regulation of the financial sector. It implements the government’s commitments in response to Rethinking regulation, the report of the Taskforce on Reducing Regulatory Burdens on Business.

The task force found that Australia’s financial and corporate sectors and the associated regulatory structures have broad support within the business community in Australia and are well regarded internationally. The rethinking regulation task force noted, however, that there is scope to improve the regulatory framework in some areas so as to reduce the compliance and the reporting burden on prudentially regulated businesses. The government accepted all the recommendations in Rethinking regulation relevant to prudential regulation. Most of those recommendations which require legislative amendment have been included as measures in this bill.

The bill cuts red tape by removing regulatory overlaps, providing greater flexibility for APRA to tailor prudential requirements to particular circumstances and removing unnecessary or outdated provisions. In particular, it will reduce compliance costs for businesses by reducing duplication in breach reporting. It also introduces a more equitable process for making claims for superannuation funds that have suffered a loss as a result of fraudulent activity.

These measures have been subject to extensive consultation through the release of a proposals paper, an exposure draft of the bill and an industry roundtable discussion on the draft bill. I thank those organisations and individuals that provided input into the development of this bill. Treasury will continue to work with industry to ensure the smooth implementation of the measures in this bill and the government will keep the measures in this bill under review to ensure that they operate as intended, to both maintain appropriate prudential controls and to minimise compliance burdens for business.

Australia has a strong financial services sector which has grown markedly as a result of the reforms of the Howard government over the past decade. The Howard government remains committed to reducing red tape and to ensuring that Australia’s prudential system remains efficient, effective and flexible in order to help our financial services sector grow into the future. The government has indicated that it will keep provisions in relation to whistleblower changes under review. I do want to take this opportunity to again thank members who have contributed to this debate. I commend this bill to the House.

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