Zhi Soon (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2025. This legislation is the latest example of a tangible set of reforms to come out of the Economic Reform Roundtable hosted by the Treasurer earlier this year.

This bill follows the previous announcement that we'll be moving forward with implementation of hundreds of ideas from the roundtable, including those put forward by various regulators, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's announcement that it would partner with the New South Wales state government to crack down on illegal bid-rigging practices in government procurement processes.

Those who paid attention to the Economic Reform Roundtable would remember that it identified fit-for-purpose regulatory settings as a key enabler for unlocking Australia's economic potential, as has the Productivity Commission. This bill is a key step in the continuous improvement of Australia's regulatory environment to achieve these outcomes, getting the balance right between important protections and opening the door for continued economic growth.

Altogether, this legislation contains 60 measures, which amend 28 existing acts, repeal two acts, and will affect the operation of 13 different government Commonwealth agencies. I want to spend my time today looking at the legislation, some of its stand-out provisions, and ones that I think will make real difference in our communities.

This bill delivers its reforms in line with four key themes. The first is supporting the implementation of a tell-us-once approach within Services Australia, which aims to reduce the number of times Australians are asked to provide the same information across its various programs. This is something that I personally was very pleased to see. In my first speech to the House a few months ago, I spoke about how I wanted to help create an environment where government was more accessible to the people it serves. Perhaps the most common source of frustration that I hear from my constituents, from my electorate, about Services Australia and Centrelink is being asked to provide documentation they have handed over previously and that each time they're required to repeat their story or situation, again and again. A tell-us-once approach does what the tin says: it aims to support sharing and use of information provided to government agencies to reduce instances of Australians being asked to repeat and provide the same information. Currently, the existing legislation includes an unnecessarily narrow information-sharing provision which fails to facilitate government agencies sharing information they already have. It is clearly out of date. This bill goes some way to fixing this bottleneck by giving the administrators of various programs within Services Australia more leeway.

Australians should never have to feel like they are battling their own government, especially not when trying to access the important services they need and are entitled to, such as pensions, childcare subsidies and Medicare benefits. With the passage of this legislation, Australians will not have to contact Services Australia multiple times for something as simple as updating their address with each program they rely on. Additionally, there are currently more than $270 million of Medicare benefits that are rightfully owed to Australians but that are not yet able to be disbursed. This legislation will allow Medicare to access payment destination details from Centrelink where an individual is a customer of both programs, ensuring Australians get everything from the government that they are owed, delivering a real and immediate benefit for Australians.

Another area the bill looks to improve is maintaining access to government services. Many Australians rely on government services to support their access to health care. Medicare is the envy of the world, and we should be incredibly proud of it, as Australians are. However, there are opportunities for government to improve the way it functions. As I said in my first speech, having high expectations of your government is a good thing. This legislation before the House improves on the current regulatory settings around key healthcare services and a form of the additional childcare subsidy, making them more efficient and reducing the burden on Australian patients.

For example, when a patient needs multiple diagnostic imaging services, their doctor can use one form to make several requests. However, currently, all the services requested must be accessed within seven days. The current regulation fails to give leeway for the reality that sometimes services can be delayed for reasons beyond the patient's control. This legislation changes that, doubling the access period from seven days to 14. This will immediately make access to health and diagnostics easier for Australians. While this week and just past the government's once-in-a-generation reforms to make GP visits more accessible through more bulk-billing came into effect, no-one wants to return to their GP to get the same referral a second time. Additionally, the bill includes changes that enable better information-sharing between the Commonwealth agencies involved in administering Medicare and addressing gaps in regulations that currently can allow unapproved pharmacies to continue operating in some specific circumstances.

The third key theme is reducing the regulatory burden on Australians and Australian businesses. In my first speech, I also spoke about the need for Australia to find ways to boost its productivity. As a rule, well-balanced regulation provides vital protections to the Australian community while allowing business to succeed and thrive. However, when outdated or needlessly prescriptive regulations exist, they drive up the cost for Australians and the Australian businesses that have to navigate them. This omnibus bill updates some provisions that have been left unchanged for too long, as well as enabling better information-sharing between regulators to reduce the burden on business.

As an example, under the current law, a marriage celebrant must verify the identity of the parties to a marriage. Fair enough—that seems like an important thing to check! However, the regulations have not been updated for some time, meaning celebrants must cite physical copies of identity documents. To ease the burden on celebrants while not compromising on the level of due diligence that must be undertaken for such an important process, celebrants will now be allowed to use digital identity solutions as well to overcome some of the limitations of physical copies.

Another notable change in the third schedule of the bill is the one allowing petroleum and environmental regulators to share information, to avoid needing to collect information from industry more than once, in the same style as the 'tell me once' system for public services. These changes will support better coordination across regulators, especially by ensuring that the roadblock often presented to regulators in the private sector can be bypassed.

Finally, the bill makes amendments to increase the efficiency of government and in turn improve productivity across our economy. In the same way that updated regulations can increase the costs to Australian businesses and consumers, outdated regulations in the public sector create the need for Commonwealth departments and agencies to devote time to bureaucratic work with little return on investment. This bill makes a number of regulatory changes that cut down on the number of junk tasks required of public servants and improve transparency and public oversight for certain government works.

For example, the bill amends legislation related to the National Broadband Network, which currently references Geoscience Australia's NationalMap. That NationalMap was actually decommissioned at the end of June this year. The current legislation both demands that it be a basis for certain public data and limits alternatives. Sensibly, this bill replaces that provision with a more generic one to ensure that the public continues to enjoy an NBN that is transparent and visible as it continues to be rolled out and upgraded for the best outcomes for all Australians.

Additionally, the legislation makes amendments to the regulation of critical fields to enable more targeted responses to shortages. It also provides more consistency across legislation to deliver a more streamlined approach, ensuring that the importance of our renewable energy transition is recognised, and repeals some redundant legislation that is no longer relevant or fit for purpose.

Overall, this suite of measures will improve how information is shared within government, improve how the government responds to certain shortages, improve the standard of interactions the Australian people have with government and improve the efficiency of public sector operations. While these reforms will not attract the same attention as some other bills that go before this House, they are an important part of building a stronger economy for all Australians.

I was fortunate enough to speak in the House just last week, during private members' business, about the economic reforms delivered by successive Labor governments, from Hawke and Keating modernising our economy and opening it up to the world to Rudd and Swan steering Australia through the global financial crisis while avoiding the deep recessions that plagued the world. This government's agenda continues in the Labor Party's enviable tradition of delivering an economy that works for all Australians, and the results speak for themselves. When Labor came to government, the warning signs were everywhere. Inflation was rising out of control, more than double the top of the RBA's target band, showing no real signs of slowing and taking interest rates with it. As a result, real wages were falling and Australians felt the pinch on their living standards. But this government, the Albanese Labor government, has turned around these failures. Inflation is now half the level it was at in May 2022, and this has enabled the RBA to make some rate cuts, making it cheaper for Australians all around the country to pay their mortgages. We've seen seven straight quarters of real wage growth and the lowest average unemployment of any government in 50 years, and 1.1 million jobs have been created. This is nothing short of remarkable, and it demonstrates clearly what happens when the government has the interests of working people at the core of its mission.

The coalition love to claim that they are the parties of competence when it comes to the budget, but history, including recent history, tells a very different story. In the first three years after Labor came to government, we delivered the biggest nominal improvement in the budget in a parliamentary term. The budget is more than $200 billion stronger than what was inherited from those opposite. We found more than $100 billion in savings for the budget, where the coalition could not find one single cent in their last budget. While the closest the Liberals got to being back in the black was getting mugs printed, Labor actually delivered it—not once but twice.

The significant improvement in the budget position means that we've been able to pay back some of the debt that was inherited when we came to government. Gross debt is $188 billion lower, saving us more than $60 billion in interest costs over the next decade. But, most importantly, our sensible approach to the economy and the budget is enabling us to do what matters most to the Australian people—more tax cuts for all 14 million taxpayers, a 20 per cent cut to HECS balances for every Australian with student debt, the biggest ever boost to Medicare to deliver 18 million more bulk-billed GP visits across the country.

In conclusion, this government, the Albanese government, is getting on with the job of creating an economy that works for the Australian people. And, like any good government, we are regularly reviewing regulatory settings to identify areas where we can improve and open doors for economic activity and ways to boost productivity. This bill may be the first of its kind in this term of parliament, but it will not be the last as we seek to improve the productivity of both the government and the Australian economy as a whole. I am so pleased to be able to speak to this bill. I commend the government's economic team for their work on this legislation and I commend the bill to this House.

See this speech in context