Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2025, which was borne out of the economic reform roundtable. Held in August this year, the economic reform roundtable generated consensus on ways to improve productivity, enhance economic resilience and strengthen budget sustainability by bringing together a mix of leaders from business, unions, civil society, government and other experts. It had three main themes under the umbrella of 'Lifting living standards for all Australians'. These themes were: 'Making our economy more productive', 'Building resilience in the face of global uncertainty', and 'Strengthening the budget and making it more sustainable'.

Australia has one of the strongest fiscal positions amongst peer economies. This includes lower general government debt to GDP than the G20 average and all major advanced economies, with smaller deficits expected in 2025 than most. Australia is also one of only nine countries to maintain a AAA sovereign credit rating from all three major ratings agencies. As recently as 27 October 2025, Australia's AAA credit rating was reaffirmed, which is an endorsement of this government's approach to responsible economic management.The government is realistic about the challenges facing our economy, including growing global uncertainty, but this reaffirmed AAA rating is further proof that our approach to the challenges we face is one of genuine economic strength.

We also know that there is more work to do to improve productivity. The Economic Reform Roundtable and the Productivity Commission have clearly identified that fit-for-purpose regulation is a key enabler for Australia's economic potential. This government understands that regulation that is not fit for purpose or is duplicative of processes can frustrate Australians and unnecessarily drive up the costs of doing business. It also creates backlogs, and things that could be done quickly just take too long, sometimes preventing Australians from getting the help that they need when they need it.

The government has committed to boosting productivity, reducing duplicative processes and improving the quality of regulation by modernising outdated rules and improving regulator performance. Regulation that is fit for purpose and effectively administrated is vital to support a safe and prosperous community. However, regulation that is excessive or obsolete can become burdensome and needlessly cause frustration or suppress economic growth without a clear benefit. Connecting government services in order to promote a more efficient and effective way of providing help to Australians is therefore critical, and the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2025 reflects the government's commitment to connecting government services so Australians can get the help that they need faster. Providing services more quickly does not mean a cut to the quality of those services. This cannot be the consequence because Australians expect and deserve high-quality, reliable services, and that is what the government wants to deliver to Australians. The government's intention, therefore, is that this bill will boost productivity and support economic resilience without reducing necessary protections.

The reach of this bill is extensive in that it contains 60 measures which amend 28 acts, repeal two acts and affect the operations of 13 Commonwealth agencies. The bill strikes the right balance to make regulation fit for purpose and enable growth and productivity across the Australian economy. The bill will deliver regulatory reform within four themes: firstly, amendments to support a tell-us-once approach to government service delivery; secondly, amendments to improve or maintain access to government services; thirdly, amendments to reduce regulatory burden; and, fourthly, amendments to increase government efficiency and improve productivity.

The first theme is found in schedule 1, and this bill is a first step towards implementation of the tell-us-once approach to government services. 'Tell us once' means just that, eliminating the need for Australians to repeatedly provide the same information to different government agencies. Privacy considerations are, of course, important in this because it's vital to protect the privacy of Australians. But, again, regulation that is not frequently measured and tested for effectiveness impacts the efficiency and quality of the services being provided.

This bill will provide Services Australia with a more broad set of circumstances where Services Australia, like the branch at Norwood on The Parade in my electorate of Sturt, are able to share information within the agency for the purposes of administering the Centrelink, Medicare and child support programs. This information could include name, address, bank account details, relationship status, childcare details or information about a person's circumstances or vulnerabilities. The information-sharing regime between the child support, Medicare and Centrelink programs will be simplified in such a way that it may mean the individual is no longer required to contact Services Australia multiple times to make really quite simple updates to their personal information, such as a change of address. A further example is bank details. Many Australians are customers of both Medicare and Centrelink, and, when they update their bank account details, they may notify Centrelink but not Medicare. Under current arrangements, Services Australia is unable to routinely share this information between the two programs. The proposed changes would support overcoming this limitation, allowing Services Australia to deliver better connected services and avoiding the need for the customer to contact multiple agencies.

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