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

The tell-us-once improvements to regulatory settings proposed by schedule 1 of the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2025 will do a number of things. They will improve the payment of Medicare benefits, because the Medicare program will be able to access payment details from Centrelink for customers who receive services under both programs. They will also make it easier for Australians to use digital solutions to reliably prove their citizenship status, thereby making it easier to access the services. They will improve the use of healthcare identifiers to support better healthcare service delivery, and improve the legislative arrangements for sharing protective information internally within Services Australia to deliver a more seamless experience for customers. They will also clarify the ability of Services Australia to more easily transfer recipients to a new social security payment or concession card when they have been already assessed against identical qualification or payability criteria for their existing payment or card, and they will simplify processes for reissuing non-income-tested seniors health cards to Australians who have lost and subsequently regained eligibility due to the portability requirements or being in receipt of a means tested social security payment. The tell-us-once approach will improve efficiency, reduce frustration for Australians and result in a more seamless provision of assistance to Australians by Services Australia.

Then we have schedule 2 of the bill, which is directed at improving access to government services, subsequently maintaining that access in connection with healthcare services. For example, if patients need multiple diagnostic imaging services, their primary health provider can use one form to make multiple requests. However, if the services are not accessed within seven days, the patient must return to their health provider for a new request. This is a very short timeframe that does not take into account the reality of balancing family, work, life with medical appointments. This bill doubles the access period from seven to 14 days, which will immediately provide easier access to health services for Australians, and will mean that they don't need to return to their primary health provider to have the same referral completed again.

Schedule 3 of the bill is all about reduced regulation for businesses and individual Australians. Regulation is, of course, important in that it establishes rules and standards that set a minimum level of quality and prevent a race to the bottom in critical industries. Regulation is also necessary to manage risks and to embrace opportunities by driving social and environmental change. Protecting the public interest is another key motivator of official regulation, again in critical areas like health care and workplace safety, because safety, fairness and accountability for workers are key drivers of regulation. Equally, regulation provides certainty to businesses, allowing them to plan for what is next and understand what is expected of them in how they pursue their economic agenda.

Staying with business, regulation also plays a role in ensuring fair competition by creating a level playing field and by establishing rules and safeguards for market behaviour, which not only benefits business but also benefits consumers. The setting of rules, incentives and penalties and then the monitoring of performance and compliance against the rules is important for fairness, quality and transparency, and is successful when balanced with the benefits that come with allowing businesses to operate freely. In this sense, overregulation or inefficient regulation causes business paralysis and can act as a disincentive.

Schedule 3 of this bill is a first step in the government's agenda to reform regulation to ensure that it enhances productivity and does not paralyse business. The small but significant improvements introduced by schedule 3 include: amending private health insurance legislation to remove the possibility of insurers breaching the law on a rounding technicality; allowing petroleum and environmental regulators to share information to avoid needing to collect information from industry more than once and supporting better coordination across those petroleum regulators.

Finally, schedule 4 is directed at amendments to increase government efficiency and improve productivity by eliminating bureaucratic tasks that do not achieve outcomes that are proportionate to the time and resource investment.

As well as repealing redundant legislation that is no longer fit for purpose, the amendments in Schedule 4 include: allowing the Australian Communications and Media Authority to more efficiently delegate ordinary administrative functions; allowing the Department of Defence to more efficiently delegate powers and decisions relating to the Woomera Prohibited Area; and updating outdated legislation, which will ensure that NBN mapping data remains publicly available.

They include updating legislation to facilitate information-gathering to enable the Commonwealth to monitor and regulate fuel security. Information about fuel-related products, critical to Australia's trucking industry, fuel markets and fuel stocks, will be able to be collected by the Commonwealth where there is a risk of potential shortage of critical fuels.

The amendments also include updating legislation to recognise the needs of Australia's renewable energy transition by making it easier to buy smarter appliances that use electricity when it is cheapest, like hot water systems that heat water for the evening shower while the sun is still shining, and, finally, providing more consistency across social security legislation to streamline government processes.

So, following on from the economic roundtable, this bill is intended to be the first of a series of regulatory reform bills that will improve productivity across government and across the economy. Better regulation is at the heart of this bill. More efficient regulation is at the heart of this bill, because we know we need regulation that meets the opportunities and challenges of a global economy, which is constantly moving and changing. I commend the bill to the House.

Zhi Soon (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2025. In preparation for this, I have said that title a number of times out loud and in my head, and I stumble over the word 'regulatory'. It's difficult enough to say the word, let alone complete the task. When you're a businessperson or an individual dealing with government bureaucracy, regulation is confounding, it is constraining, it is a break on productivity, and it is very annoying, to say the least, on a personal level.

I'm reminded of the story I came across years ago of the young kid watching their grandmother cook a leg of lamb in a saucepan. He observed that the grandmother would chop off the end of the leg of lamb, put it in the saucepan and then cook it. It would be, of course, delicious, as all of those meals were. Years later his grandmother came to visit his house. She observed him cutting off the end of the leg of lamb, sticking it in the saucepan and then cooking it. She said, 'Why did you bother cutting off the end of the leg of lamb?' The grandson said, 'Well, that's what you used to do.' She said: 'Yes, but the only reason I used to do it was so that it would fit in the pan. You've got a bigger pan. You don't need to cut it off.' So often, regulation is just like that. It is about doing something which, at some time in the past, made sense but doesn't make sense anymore. And it is about looking at things which have become almost tradition but, really, when taking a second look, have become entirely superfluous.

It is something that I came across when I was in small business for myself. I used to run a small contract-mustering business in western New South Wales, where I learned that idea about personal responsibility and creating something out of nothing. Entrepreneurialism really is that—it's about taking what you have and forging ahead to create value for yourself and for the people in your life. I then took the lessons that I learned there, when we moved down to the coast, and I ran a construction company in Beenleigh. The same spirit of entrepreneurialism and creation is something which almost all entrepreneurs are seized by, but the most frustrating thing is dealing with unnecessary government regulation. As we go into the future, I think it is something that becomes more important to look at—that the regulations that are in place actually have some purpose and that they are about helping businesses and individuals rather than constraining them. Particularly as our economies move into the future, there is a need for us to move quickly as individuals, as businesses and as a country. That's why I commend this government for the work that it has done over the years but, more particularly, for the work that it did around the economic roundtable.

We were lucky enough in Forde to host our own economic roundtable, thanks to Anne Nalder from the Small Business Association, and I heard time and again that people were frustrated by government regulation. It is something which held them back in their businesses, held them back from employing people and held them back from providing a service to their customers. We were able to take some of those local examples and feed them into the national economic roundtable.

Let's just step back and reflect for a moment. Paul Keating often spoke about the moral purpose of economic reform. He argued that policy is not just about efficiency but about fairness, dignity and opportunity. This bill carries that same vision. It recognises that government is a servant and not a master; regulations are tools and not obstacles; and the goal is a system that protects, empowers and enables. Paul Keating might have also said that trying to navigate government services is like trying to do a crossword puzzle with half the clues missing while riding a roller-coaster. Now, thanks to these reforms, Australians can solve that puzzle and keep both feet on the ground.

Of course, it's not just businesses that are going to be advantaged by this bill but people too. We all have frustration dealing with government departments or, indeed, with private bureaucracies; everyone these days seems to want us to get onto a web portal and do their paperwork for them. This bill does deal with some of the personal problems, the individual problems, that people face when dealing with a government department. Think about somebody called Robert living in Logan. He relies on Medicare and Centrelink to manage his family's health and financial needs, and for months he has been owed Medicare benefits. In fact, something like $270 million in total is owed to nearly a million Australians who are in his situation. The problem is simple: his Centrelink bank details are up to date, but Medicare doesn't have the same information. Today, under the current system, he could wait weeks, even months, to get these funds—if he knew he was owed anything at all. With the changes in this bill, the so-called 'tell us once' approach will allow information shared with one agency to be available to others, meaning that he can get the money he's owed without repeated phone calls, multiple forms or frustration.

But, of course, he is not alone. Linda, a resident at the northern end of the Gold Coast, fled domestic violence. She has had to update her details with multiple government agencies: her new address, her child's name and her bank account. Today, every form she fills out is a chance for delay or an error—a potential stressor, when she should be focused on safety and rebuilding her life. This bill allows for her details to be updated once and shared securely across relevant government programs. In practical terms, it means that she spends less time repeating herself and more time supporting her child.

Take the healthcare provisions in this bill. The time frame for accessing multiple diagnostic imaging services has doubled, from seven to 14 days. Think about Simone, another young woman living on the northern Gold Coast, referred by her GP for both an X-ray and a CT scan. Under the old system, if she missed one appointment she had to go back for another referral. That wasted time, travel and stress is now gone, with this bill's changes. She can complete that imaging without unnecessary repetition, allowing her to focus on her recovery rather than on paperwork. For people in outer suburbs, where GP visits can take quite some time, this is not a small improvement; it is a transformative improvement.

One of the most important reforms is the 'tell us once' system. Currently you have to tell multiple government agencies the same information. It's like being stuck in a loop with your own life story, over and over again.

There are real examples of benefits available through this bill, such as healthcare identifiers. Digital sharing improves care and outcomes. For seniors, cards can be reissued automatically after overseas travel. Regarding childcare subsidies, simplified language encourages vulnerable families to apply. On fuel and energy security, companies can respond more flexibly to disruptions. These aren't abstract numbers; they're real and tangible improvements in people's lives.

This bill reduces unnecessary burdens across government. For example, marriage celebrants can now use secure digital documents instead of chasing paper. It means fewer trips to offices, less stress and, frankly, fewer opportunities to lose your sanity. Agencies can share information more effectively in projects like offshore gas development, which streamlines processes and reduces costs. So, for families and businesses in outer suburbs, this is a real win—less paperwork and more time for work and family or, if you're lucky, a chance to just have a cup of coffee without feeling guilty.

This takes a whole-of-government approach. It isn't piecemeal tinkering. It amends 28 acts and repeals two, and it affects 13 agencies. Government is a complicated machine. You can't oil just one cog and expect the engine to purr. This is orchestration, not patchwork. By coordinating reforms across departments, this bill ensures consistency, efficiency and coherence. It's a recognition that change works only when the system changes together, like a well rehearsed band. Everyone needs to play in tune.

This bill boosts productivity. Less regulatory friction means businesses can invest and operate efficiently and families can spend more time doing what matters. For Logan, for the northern Gold Coast and for outer suburban and regional areas, small and medium businesses drive local employment. This bill will help them grow without losing the protections that keep employees and consumers safe.

So today is not just another day of legislation. Today is a step forward in how our government serves the people and the small businesses of this nation. especially those in the outer suburban communities, like Logan on the northern Gold Coast. This bill is about making government work for Australians rather than Australians working for government. When we talk about regulation we really need to ask: Is this fit for purpose? Is this fit for the modern time? Why do these rules exist? What should they achieve? Yet we know that, if a law or rule exists for its own sake or because it has always existed, it loses its meaning, like cutting off the end of a leg of lamb. Entrepreneurialism is the way of the future.

Deputy Speaker Chesters, your advice the other day about ringing up Medicare clinics in our area was something that I took very much took to heart. It was about not waiting for the bureaucracy to tell us when the local GP clinics had taken up the government's bulk-billing incentive. It was about getting out there and doing it yourself. It was about getting out there and using your own skills to create something of real value. I now have a list of GPs in our area which have taken up the incentive. The number of GP practices in our area that are bulk-billing has in fact doubled, by the way, and we now have that list and are able to give it to people in our community. It is something that has created value for them. It is something that we have done outside of the bureaucracy.

The bureaucracy will get there in the end. I'm sure they'll do a more accurate and thorough job than we have, but taking that spirit of entrepreneurialism—which you did lead, Deputy Speaker—is something that I think is an example of the future of Australia. It is the future of work as we become less dependent on the old ways and less dependent on the recipes that we got from our grandparents, as successful and timely as they were. It is a recognition that people are now going to have the opportunity to create their own future, and the less regulation that gets in the way, the better. This is only the start, so to anybody who thinks of opposing this bill: don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. This is about continuous process. This is the first in a series of regulatory reform bills that will improve productivity across government and the economy. I commend the bill to the House.

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In August this year, the Treasurer hosted the Economic Reform Roundtable. Those three days brought together a mixture of leaders from business, unions, civil society, governments and other experts. The roundtable discussed three main themes: making our economy more productive, building resilience in the face of global uncertainty, and strengthening the budget and making it more sustainable. The roundtable will be integral to Australia's ongoing economic success and prosperity. One of the clear messages from both the roundtable and the Productivity Commission was the need for fit-for-purpose regulation. In recognition of that, and in the spirit of the first stated theme of the roundtable, I'm delighted to see this matter come before the House for debate as a tangible outcome of the roundtable.

Excessive regulation, red tape and duplicative processes not only frustrate the lives of millions of Australians but drive up the cost of doing business. Who hasn't been given a wrong or outdated form? Who has not had to produce the same identification document again and again? Who has not had a document either not be uploaded or be lost? These are everyday occurrences, and they not only frustrate us personally but cost countless hours and add inextricably to inefficiency and cost. The Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill takes a whole-of-government approach to amending regulation to ensure it remains contemporary and relevant. For Australians, it means making sure Australians can connect faster and more efficiently with the services they need and rely on.

The bill contains 60 measures which amend 28 acts, repeal two acts and affect the operation of 13 Commonwealth agencies. Importantly, and probably most significantly for Australians, the bill supports the implementation of a tell-us-once approach within Services Australia, thereby reducing the number of times it would be required for you to provide the same information again and again across different government programs or platforms. It is an understatement that this aspect of the bill on its own will be warmly welcomed and applauded. The days of having to supply the same document again and again like this will not continue to happen.

The bill will enable the use of data and digital technologies to improve access to government services. It also provides new powers to make delegated legislation. Schedule 1 of the bill removes barriers to provide digital evidence of Australian citizenship, making the process reliable and less costly and providing further security. Schedule 1 part 2 deals with healthcare identifiers who have access to these systems. The amendment allows healthcare recipients to facilitate the tracking of longitudinal data, providing more accurate evidence to support policy and design. Currently there's no standardised approach to sharing health information across Australia, and this bill supports work to address these issues. More importantly, the bill will allow updates made to Centrelink when an account number changes to be recognised by other agencies like Medicare. Currently, 980,000 Australians are owed money in unpaid Medicare benefits. That's $270 million that would be much better off in Australians' pockets.

With your indulgence, Deputy Speaker Chesters, I would like to speak to my constituents. Have you looked at your myGov and made sure your information is up to date? It is important that Medicare benefits are in your pocket; it's your money. Take some time out in the next couple of days to update your details if necessary. As soon as your details are updated, any outstanding benefits will get into your account.

This bill also removes stigmatising language to ensure that all vulnerable children and their families can apply for the additional childcare subsidy. Schedule 2 doubles the timeframe for patients needing to complete multiple diagnostic imaging services without having to return to their GP for a new referral, saving both time and money for the government, GP and patients. Schedule 2 authorises appropriate sharing between Services Australia and the Department of Health, Ageing and Disability to assist in supporting the proper functioning of processes within them.

Schedule 4 makes amendments to the Australian Communications and Media Authority to allow appropriate delegations to ACMA members. Some part of this schedule repeals redundant legislation and requirements. Schedule 4 improves fuel security, ensuring government knows what stockpiles are available for transport and other industries in Australia. The bill will also modernise greenhouse and energy minimum standards to support the contemporary energy systems and Australia in its transition.

Schedule 4 will look at ensuring consistency across social security benefit calculations as it affects a number of social security and veterans' affairs benefits. The bill also touches Services Australia, the Seniors Health Card and childcare subsidies, and strengthens the pharmacy approval process. Finally, the bill before us will improve access to government services, reduce the regulatory burden on both industry and Australians, and increase efficiency and productivity.

Australia stands tall as an economic success story. The success, however, has not been accidental or by luck; it is the result of careful management and policy direction by this government. Our government will continue to review the regulatory settings to identify any areas of improvement. The bill is intended to be just the first of a series of regulatory reform bills to improve productivity across government and then across the economy. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour.