Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Treasurer: Many people in the business community and at the economic reform roundtable have asked for regulation that better enables growth as well as manages risk. But any permanent consolidation of red tape is hard when the incentives for regulators and, frankly, politicians is for just to add more and more complexity. How can the government permanently shift incentives to reduce regulatory complexity, and will you set targets for reductions in regulatory complexity?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Wentworth not just for her question but for being a really important contributor to the Economic Reform Roundtable that we hosted here just a couple of months ago.

Now, I can hear the opposition leader chirping at me about the Economic Reform Roundtable. When she was down the hill with the Australian Industry Group, she said it was a useful discussion and a very welcome conversation. But, anyway, leaving that aside—

You did. I'll show you. I'll table it. Mr Speaker, more seriously—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Treasurer will just return to the question.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Wentworth for her important question, and I thank her for the role that she's played as we've worked through some of the issues that she raises in her question. The member for Wentworth knows that, even with the progress we're making in our economy, particularly in the private sector, our economy is not productive enough. One of the ways that we make our economy more productive is we find ways to reduce compliance costs, and one way that we do that is to reduce complexity and wind back red tape where we can. Obviously, regulation has a useful role to play in our economy, as long as it's serving the purpose for which it's intended, but I think the government and the member, as well as participants at the roundtable, recognise that we have some work to do to wind back some of this complexity and some of this red tape.

The member for Wentworth has asked me about targets. We have been considering targets. We will work with the Productivity Commission to see if those targets are appropriate. But we haven't been waiting. We've actually taken a number of quite substantial steps just in the last couple of months, since the roundtable, to wind back red tape. We've slashed another 500 nuisance tariffs. That will reduce compliance costs for a lot of businesses. We've introduced regulatory reforms into the parliament: 60 improvements across 13 agencies. We got the Investor Front Door pilot up and running. That's about quicker approvals. We're getting the regulators to reduce unnecessary regulations. The Assistant Treasurer is working with me and the Council of Financial Regulators to unwind some of the unnecessary data duplication, for example. We've asked the board of tax to help us reduce complexity in the tax system. We're progressing a single national market with the states, harmonising standards and national occupational licensing. There are a number of important measures there. We've started clearing a backlog of 26,000 homes, because the regulatory burden on building homes is still too great; we recognise that. We've signed off on a whole bunch of reforms with the states and territories to wind back complexity as well. I could go on, but I think the House gets the point.

We have taken substantial steps when it comes to winding back red tape, but we know that there's more work to do. Our way to improve productivity in our economy is not like the way of those opposite, which is to make people work harder and longer for less, but to work through these issues in a sensible and methodical way. The member for Wentworth is playing a constructive role in that. If only those opposite were as well.