Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Australians have faced extraordinary economic challenges over the last few years, driven by events beyond our shores. This week's budget outlined the government's strategy to respond to these challenges through responsible savings and supporting intergenerational equality and by building an economy that is more productive and more resilient.

In particular, higher productivity is the key to boosting the real value of our wages and our standard of living. A more productive economy is a more resilient one, and reversing the decay to Australian productivity, which set in during the 2010s, is a key economic goal for the government.

Better regulation is a key piece of this economic picture. Regulation touches on nearly every aspect of everyday life. From road rules to housing construction, regulation sets the 'ground rules' which govern how individuals behave and how businesses and institutions operate. Last year's Economic Reform Roundtable highlighted the importance of getting regulatory settings right and the strong desire from businesses and community organisations for better regulation.

The government is delivering an ambitious regulatory reform agenda to facilitate investment, protect Australians from harm and reduce unnecessary regulatory costs across the economy. Through this agenda, we have been identifying and implementing continuous improvements to regulatory settings on a government-wide basis. When our agenda is fully implemented, the gains delivered for Australians will include:

Regulatory reform omnibus bills will be instrumental in delivering needed legislative reforms under this agenda. Last October, the Treasurer introduced the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2025, which was about better regulation, cutting compliance costs and launching the ambitious transition to a 'tell us once' approach to government service delivery. Today, I am proud to continue the government's regulatory reform agenda by introducing the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2026.

This bill continues the work from last year's omnibus act by further simplifying regulation, particularly for businesses, progressing additional measures to support the government's 'tell us once' agenda and making technical amendments to get regulation working better for Australians.

In total, it amends 26 acts, repeals two acts and will improve the operations of 19 government agencies.

First, the bill will update Australia's intellectual property laws.

It will provide the Registrar of Trade Marks with more discretion over the amount of costs, prescribed by the regulations, to be awarded in a trademark opposition matter. Currently, the registrar can only award scheduled amounts regardless of how much a party spent in legal fees. Giving the registrar more flexibility to determine costs will further build integrity into the oppositions process for businesses and deter poor behaviour intended to run up the costs of the other party.

It will also introduce a six-month grace period for plant breeders to renew their plant breeder rights where they are late in paying the annual renewal fee. Under the current settings these rights are automatically lost if the fee is paid late, and the plant breeder must apply again to get them back. We know that life and business get hectic sometimes. This change means that plant breeders won't accidently lose valuable rights just because they missed a renewal payment deadline.

It will boost protections by allowing investigations and discipline of patent and trademark attorneys to continue, even if an attorney de-registers to try to avoid the process. It will also impose stricter requirements for re-registration where a patent and trademark attorney is found guilty of misconduct. Together, these changes will help businesses maintain confidence in the IP attorney profession. It will close an unintended loophole, while still allowing easy re-registration for attorneys with a clear conduct record.

Beyond intellectual property, the bill will remove the mandatory 30-day appeal period for importers who advise they don't intend to appeal a negative preliminary decision by the Anti-Dumping Commissioner for a partial refund as part of the duty assessment process. This change will allow importers to receive faster refunds when they advise that they don't intend to appeal the decision.

The commissioner's preliminary decision is subject to being finalised by the minister. When the decision is finalised, the importer can be paid the refund they are entitled to. However, even when an importer has no intention of appealing the decision, the commissioner must wait the full 30-day period before recommending that the minister finalise the decision. This amendment will allow the commissioner, on receiving confirmation from the importer that they don't intend to appeal, to immediately recommend that the decision be finalised. This change means faster cash flow for businesses by adding fit-for-purpose flexibility to an administrative process.

The bill will also simplify business reporting requirements.

It will simplify workplace gender equality reporting and target-setting requirements by adding a 12-month window at the end of a target cycle. Right now, reporting at the end of a target cycle comes with additional regulatory burden for businesses. Not only must they finalise their data and reporting for the current cycle; they must also select new targets for the next cycle.

This amendment will give employers more time to identify high-quality, meaningful targets by adding a 12-month window to identify and nominate them. This change means more time for employers to analyse and understand their performance in the previous cycle, leading to more considered targets and more sustainable progress towards gender equality in our workplaces. The amendment also reduces the administrative burden for employers that comes at the end of a target cycle.

The bill will also align the reporting period for public and private sector employers to ensure comparable data on gender equality in the workplace is available for both Commonwealth and private sector employers.

Another improvement to business reporting made by the bill is to move reporting under the new eligible drama expenditure scheme from a financial-year to calendar-year basis. This aligns these reporting requirements for subscription television broadcast licensees and channel providers with other Australian content reporting schemes. This change will make it easier for businesses who are reporting under multiple schemes to prepare, compare and lodge the required information.

A core part of the 2025 omnibus act was supporting a shift towards a 'tell us once' approach to how government works for Australians.

A realised 'tell us once' approach across government means Australians and businesses won't have to enter the same information more than once when interacting with government.

This bill will advance the government's efforts to embed a 'tell us once' approach across a wider range of government activities and services.

For importers, it will allow goods that are covered by a tariff concession order to be exempt from dumping and countervailing duties in certain circumstances, without requiring a further administrative decision. This removes administrative delays in exempting some goods from dumping and countervailing duties and means importers can get on with business more quickly.

The bill will make it easier for people who are 'nominees' under the social security law to cancel their nominee arrangements by removing the requirement to cancel in writing. Nominees are appointed to assist social security, family assistance and paid parental leave recipients who need help interacting with Services Australia. Currently, when nominees want to cancel their nominee appointment they must notify Services Australia in writing, even if they've already said they want to cancel their appointment over the phone.

This adds administrative burden and can cause delays in the cancellation of arrangements that may no longer be appropriate or tenable (for example due to the presence of family or domestic violence). This change will ensure that nominee arrangements are simple to cancel on a 'tell us once' basis and can be actioned by Services Australia as soon as possible with minimal impost on the nominee.

The bill will also make it easier for recipients of some Commonwealth pensions to comply with their proof of life obligations and reduce duplication of effort by Services Australia. These obligations apply to Australians aged 80 years or over who have been away from Australia for at least two continuous years. These amendments will allow Services Australia, in some cases, to rely instead on information it has already collected from other places. This is a significant change that will reduce the regulatory burden not just on elderly pensioners but also on Australia's consular officials, who often help prepare the certificates.

The bill will also make changes that will get government working better for Australians.

It will improve the Australian Human Rights Commission complaints process by removing excessive mandatory complaint notification requirements. These requirements were introduced in an attempt to increase procedural fairness. In practice, they have only applied to people who play no role in the resolution of complaints and aren't able to formally respond. Receiving a notification can be a confusing and stressful experience for these people, and they may contact the commission for support even though there are no legal consequences for them. The notification process has also not helped complainants get better outcomes. This change will mean more time for the commission to spend supporting complainants and less stress for people who would otherwise receive these notices.

The bill will also allow eligible Defence Force Superannuation Scheme members to access an account based pension from CSC when they retire. This will give former ADF members more choice to manage their money in retirement and has support from serving and former ADF members.

Finally, the bill will also make various technical amendments to improve the operation of existing regulations. It will repeal acts that have become redundant. It will clarify and align legislative definitions and concepts to support more efficient and timely administrative decision-making.

I am introducing this bill into the House on behalf of my colleague in the other place Senator the Hon. Katy Gallagher, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Minister for the Public Service and Minister for Government Services. I want to acknowledge her and thank her for her work in bringing this bill together. It is a reflection on the commitment of this government to continued regulatory reform that we are able to introduce another regulatory reform omnibus bill so soon after the first.

As the Treasurer said when he introduced the 2025 omnibus bill, regulation should be there to protect Australians and empower them, not weigh them down.

This bill is about making sure regulation supports businesses to get the most out of their investment and their hard work.

It is about sensible changes that simplify regulations while maintaining essential safeguards for the community.

It takes further steps towards a wider 'tell us once' approach across all of government.

It will support the government's work to build an economy that is more dynamic, more resilient and more productive for all Australians.

We understand that there is more work to do and expect to introduce further omnibus bills in the future.

This bill is another step forward towards delivering the better regulation that Australians deserve.

Full details of all the bill's measures are contained in the explanatory memorandum.

Debate adjourned.

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