Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank members of the government for enthusiastically voting for the motion to allow me to speak for 13 minutes! I certainly hope that the repeal day coming up goes better than the last one. The Prime Minister said in his ministerial statement just then that 'our purpose is to look beyond the absurd'. That would have been a valid aim on the last so-called repeal day.

Since the last one I have had a chance to go through the costings provided for the savings. The Prime Minister just now referred to a number of global figures for how much will be saved through these bills. Last time we ended up with costings for how much individual acts were contributing, in dollar terms, in red tape reduction. The Amending Acts 1901 to 1969 Repeal Bill 2014 allegedly saved—and it is part of the global total the Prime Minister uses—$210,000. This was the act that repealed a Defence Act, which had a definition relating to a naval officer of a state navy, notwithstanding that the states have not had navies since 1913. It repealed the Defence Act 1909 that, among other things, stipulated that the owner of a mule or bullock required for naval or military purposes shall furnish it for such purposes and the owner may have to register them from time to time. The minister who is at the table, the Minister for Agriculture, will know the extent to which the owners of mules and bullocks have been frightened that—

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