Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

This is what was contained on most of the 18,000 pages: they were blank. They got rid of stuff that made no difference to anybody. If I were to ask small business now, 'Does your bottom line in your business look better today or worse than before we had the bonfire on red tape?' Most of them, I think, if they did the sums, would find no difference. This is the problem: no difference. It sounds good and looks good—nudge nudge, wink wink, we are on your side—it just does not add up to anything real. This is the problem: nothing real. Nothing for the future, nothing about sustainability—nothing that actually makes a real difference.

In the less than a minute that I have left, I want to touch on the Intergenerational Report, because it is a very important report. It has always been a bipartisan report. It has been a report that is really not about the politics. It is really about what will look like in 2055, but unfortunately it has become a work of fiction. It is now no longer Treasury's report. In fact, the head of Treasury has walked away from it and said it is not ours. It is owned by Joe Hockey. It is his report, not the Treasury's. The head of the fiscal group, when he was asked, said 'It is not ours, it is Joe Hockey's report. It is the Treasurer's report.' They are all walking away from it because it has been politicised, it has been delayed, and there has been fudging on the migration numbers. In fact, it is so fudged it still contains the GP tax measures, which do not exist anymore. Shame on the Liberal government for always attacking the economy and small business.

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