Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise today to speak on the Omnibus Repeal Day (Spring 2014) Bill 2014. This is another example of this government following up on its election commitments and it follows on our efforts on the autumn repeal day back in March. Fittingly, this spring omnibus repeal day gives us the opportunity to continue the job of the spring-clean of red tape and regulation in our economy. We made a commitment at the last election to cut over $1 billion in red and green tape and with this bill we are continuing to deliver on that commitment. In fact, the reality is that we are more than doubling our commitment by a reduction of over $2.1 billion in red and green tape costs to our economy. With our March repeal bill we repealed some 10,000 pieces of regulation and some 50,000 pages of legislation, removing some $700 million of compliance costs.

This is the first time ever that we have had the two repeal days in the one year. You might ask why this is important. It is important because we need to deregulate to free up the productive sectors of our economy to achieve and grow for the future benefit of this country. This is important because the previous government left us a legacy of red tape and regulation by introducing more than 21,000 additional regulations. In addition to that, there were over 80 examples of noncompliance or exemption from regulatory impact statements in those legislative processes. As a result of the inaction towards reduction of red tape and green tape by the previous government in the years from 2007, multifactor productivity declined by some three per cent.

It is worth noting that in the Financial Review today there was an article about a report that has been released by Deloitte Access Economics, and I will quote from that. It is titled 'Red-tape staff cost $250 billion' and it reads:

A growing thicket of business red tape is creating a new class of workers devoted solely to complying with rules and regulations, potentially costing the economy more than $250 billion a year.

Deloitte Access Economics reveals more than one in    11 Australians are now employed in compliance jobs such as office managers, inspectors, public relations and occupational health jobs.

So it is no wonder we have seen that decline in productivity. This is despite the promise by the previous Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, in 2007 of a one regulation in, one regulation out policy and the then small business minister, Mr Emerson, saying in 2008 that Labor would 'take a giant pair of scissors to the red tape that is strangling small business'. I would suggest you, Deputy Speaker Mitchell, that those scissors went well and truly missing during their term in office and it has taken a coalition government to pull them out of the cupboard, dust them off, sharpen them up and get stuck into the job of reducing red tape and regulation in our economy.

A number of speakers have already focused on the important needs of small business. Why is that? It is because 94 per cent of all businesses in Australia based on turnover, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, are small businesses. They also make up 99 per cent of the some 816,000 employing businesses in Australia. They employ approximately 4.5 million Australians, or 43 per cent of the private sector workforce. Interestingly, this is down seven per cent on what it was prior to the election of the previous Labor government. This government has made it well and truly clear over the past 12 months or so, and even prior to that, the importance of small business to our economy and to employment, growth and innovation. Part of the process of this repeal of red tape and regulation is to ensure that we free up that productive and innovative capacity in our economy.

The Productivity Commission has also estimated that regulation compliance costs could amount to as much as four per cent of Australia's GDP, further identifying importance of going ahead with our deregulation agenda. What is interesting is that if you take the figures from this Deloitte Access Economics report, the reality is that red tape and regulation, both the government level and in the corporate sector, could amount to as high as 15 per cent of gross domestic product. What an enormous drag on our economy.

As with other activities already undertaken by this government, including getting rid of the carbon tax and the mining tax, we are continuing well down the road on our deregulatory agenda. Just briefly in summary, some of the things we have looked at is minimising and simplifying the interaction with government; reducing regulatory obligations and reporting requirements; fuelling economic growth by a one stop shop for environmental approvals based on agreements with every state and territory that alone is estimated to save some $426 million; and making it easier to provide direct finance to our exporters, where we generate an enormous amount of our national wealth.

There are also a number of common sense reforms: Australia were now accept products, systems and services that have been approved overseas under trusted international standards or risk assessments; NBN customers will be able to opt out of having a battery backup installed in their home; the extension of the Do Not Call Register is now indefinite—people will not have to renew at every eight years; beef producers exporting to the European Union will no longer have to tag their cattle with additional tags; for those who love to ride motorcycles—not that I am one of those—they will no longer require a modification to be fitted with an Australia-specific rear mudguard, bringing Australia into line with United Kingdom, France and Germany. That alone is estimated to save the motorcycle industry some $14.4 million in compliance on manufacturing costs. Local clubs and organisations registered as a company limited by guarantee with revenue of less than $1 million will no longer require an auditor where that has been previously required, even though audited financial reports were not.

This omnibus bill I highly commend to the House, as it continues to pursue the deregulatory agenda that this government has set out to free our economy up to be productive, innovative and grow for the future benefit of all Australians.

See this speech in context