Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to speak on these telecommunications legislation amendment bills because the focus is on deregulation. This is an area of focus for the government that is so important to raise productivity and give businesses a better chance to approach. So many people have a horror story about regulation that costs them time, money and is so frustrating when they are doing what they need to do in their operation or organisation.

There was a Deloitte Access Economics report released only last month entitled Get out of your own wayabout unleashing productivity. It was the fourth report in a series. It said:

Australia is a lucky country, with a bright future. But we have a problem – and its colour is red. Red tape, that is.

There’s too much of it … and we need to address the grip it has on our economy.

I will share just one example from my own perspective. Earlier this year, I volunteered at a local charity in my electorate in Glenelg. I found myself having to fill out a South Australian police clearance and an OH&S form just to go down and cut a few vegetables and help the local needy in that area. I am sure many others have had this same frustration across so many different areas. Recently, there was a volunteer Neighbourhood Watch group that had to jump through a large number of regulatory hoops just to hold a barbecue fundraiser in the local park. It just gets worse. There was an award given to a volunteer group for filling out forms. So it is gone to the extent of rewarding people because they have had to fill out so many forms! Where does it stop?

We need to make changes to make it easier. That is what we are doing. We have started this long process. We know that red tape compliance does not help create conducive societies and operations, especially when there is overburdening and people need to dedicate their time to navigate the various rules that government have imposed on them. The Productivity Commission has estimated that regulation compliance alone costs as much as four per cent of Australia's GDP. We are all aware that excessive, unnecessary regulation hurts productivity, deters innovation and investment and cost jobs.

I want to say a few words about productivity, because it is such an important element of getting our economy ticking the way it should. To understand why it is important, I will go through some of the context. It has been a key, long-run determinant of income growth for Australians over many decades. When productivity growth has not been high then other growth has often languished. So slower productivity growth with falling terms of trade and an ageing population present significant challenges for our future. That is why we have prioritised getting rid of this regulatory burden. It will help business operators use their resources more efficiently and thereby improve productivity.

Twice a year we are holding repeal days where our attention is solely focused on reducing the compliance burden on not just organisations and business but also individuals. As of today, the repeal measures announced by the government will save individuals, businesses and the not-for-profit sector over $2 billion—far greater than what we initially undertook to do. It is twice as much, in fact. We have doubled our efforts in 12 months. On our first repeal day, we cut 10,000 pieces of legislation, and on our second repeal day we cut another 1,000 pieces.

As the renowned economic commentator Alan Kohler states:

The cost of doing business in Australia is far too high and some of that is down to unnecessary laws and regulations.

Well, we are addressing one of those costs of doing business here. The government has also announced more than 400 new measures to cut red tape across the board, from the environment to education, health, human services and Treasury.

I want to return to the area of telecommunications and, in particular, the Do Not Call Register, because it affects so many individuals, families and businesses when they are unnecessarily contacted by marketers and others. A listing was initially for eight years and then it had to be renewed. But now you can stay on it indefinitely. This might seem rather small, but in reality it is these small changes that make it easier for everyone to get on with their lives and get on with their business.

Telecommunications and broadcasting are two of the most heavily regulated parts of the economy. That is why we are tackling a number of elements within these sectors. As they should, the department and the government have collaborated widely with all industry stakeholders on these measures, releasing discussion papers and engaging in stakeholder forums.

The regulatory burden on telecommunications is especially onerous in terms of the sector's long-term structural evolution from a leviathan government owned monopoly, to a competitive ecosystem of many large and small players. We just heard the member for Indi speak about how there is still a lot of work to do in terms of that market. But the build-up of red tape has left the communications sector with numerous outdated and burdensome requirements which stifle innovation and put barriers in the way of new businesses joining the industry. As we know, we need competitive markets and competitive industries to get the best innovation and the best outcome for the consumers and companies in particular.

These measures, announced as part of the package to eliminate unnecessary red tape and to remove onerous and outdated reporting requirements, will generate savings of over $70 million for consumers and businesses and result in over 3,000 pages being made redundant. I want to go through a few key measures: repealing regulation that currently requires subscription broadcasters to independently audit their expenditure on Australia and New Zealand drama; removing the current captioning compliance reporting obligations on free-to-air broadcasters; and, as I said before, extending the registration period for the Do Not Call Register so consumers only need to register a phone number once to ensure they do not receive those unwanted telemarketing calls or marketing faxes.

If you look at the anecdotal evidence out there as you walk around the suburbs of Australia, you will sometimes see, in some particular areas, 'Do Not Knock' stickers. This is the same principle; they do not want to be hassled. Individuals, companies and consumers do not want to be constantly bothered by answering the phone and door—unless it is a visit from their local member of parliament; they then love to hear about many of the great things the government is doing! I know the member for Throsby acknowledged that quite quickly, so it is good to see he is paying attention and also agrees with the achievements of the government's year in office.

But in terms of other measures that we are looking at, the Australian Communications and Media Authority has announced a number of measures in support of the government's deregulation agenda, which also focuses on removing unnecessary reporting obligations and updating codes of practice.

In conclusion, apart from the specific laws that get repealed, we are removing the unnecessary and overlapping regulation at different levels of government. The government is encouraging the states to introduce a new culture of regulatory rollback. Many of the most costly regulations in our states and territories need to be put aside. I know the South Australian Labor government identified unnecessary red tape and regulation as an area they need to work on further. They have been in office 12 years; I would have thought they might have done more up until this period than suddenly wake up and think to do what the Commonwealth is doing and remove the unnecessary burden on businesses and households.

We have acted, and we have got results. We have got on with the business of governance, removing these unnecessary regulations and getting results for small businesses, for households and for a better society and community. I want to congratulate Josh Frydenberg; he has done a fantastic job as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister driving this—

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