Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the House for the House's keen interest in the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2025. In summing up debate, I'd like to thank the opposition and others in the House for their constructive engagement with the government on this bill and for their support for its passage. I thank all members for their contributions to debate on the bill. In particular, I'd like to thank the member for Wannon for his productive discussions with us on measures relating to ensuring supply of critical fuels during an emergency shortage. These discussions have resulted in the government moving amendments so that the minister will not be able to reduce the minimum stockholding obligation for more than the duration of six months unless subsequent decisions are made to grant further temporary reductions. This will provide an additional safeguard on the minister's power to reduce the amount of critical fuels an entity must hold in its stockpiles.

I'd also like to acknowledge the amendment to be moved by the member for Wentworth relating to the availability of paid parental leave for serving partners of ADF personnel deployed overseas for extended periods of time. The government will not be supporting this amendment, as the member for Wentworth's draft amendment would remove reference to a determination made under the Defence Act 1903 so that the provision would no longer be tied to the specific meaning it holds under the Defence Determination 2016/19, Conditions of Service. This would introduce uncertainty as to how a court would interpret the word 'deployed', which is not otherwise defined in the Paid Parental Leave Act. In addition, it does not meet the intended purposes of the bill: better regulation, cutting red tape and ensuring streamlined access to essential services. However, we're committed to working constructively with the member on the issue.

As the Treasurer said in his second reading speech, better regulation is a key focus of the Economic Reform Roundtable we convened earlier this year and a key focus of our second-term economic agenda. The government is committed to better regulation which boosts productivity, gets investment moving and creates Australian jobs for today's economy. That's what this bill is about. It cuts compliance costs and cuts red tape. In short, it cuts the clutter. It's part of a comprehensive suite of reforms we've pushed forward since our roundtable. These reforms include cutting 500 further nuisance tariffs; working through 400 ideas to reduce regulatory burden from 38 Commonwealth regulators; tasking the Council of Financial Regulators to declutter and improve regulation in the financial sector, with a priority focus on streamlining and harmonising data collection; and officially opening our Investor Front Door to make it quicker and easier for investors to back big projects that create jobs and opportunities for Australians. These are all important steps in implementing our government's agenda to make our economy more dynamic, resilient and productive. Passing the bill through the House today is another step forward.

This bill will make regulation work better for Australians and let businesses get on with the job. The number of measures and government agencies that will be reformed by this bill is a measure of how widely we're looking across government to improve regulation. This bill contains 60 measures that will amend 28 acts, repeal two acts, and directly affect and improve the operations of 13 Commonwealth government agencies. These are all meaningful improvements to how Australians and other businesses work with these agencies.

It'll help Services Australia shift towards a tell-us-once approach to how it delivers services. That means Australians won't have to put in their details every time they access a different government service they need. As an example, once this bill is passed, we can make changes so that, when Australians update their Centrelink bank details, Medicare gets them too. This will help people claim their unpaid Medicare benefits, which are estimated to total $270 million owed to almost a million Australians. We know it'll take time to make this tell-us-once shift, but this bill will let Services Australia begin this important work.

It'll reduce unnecessary regulations to improve access to government services, including by doubling the amount of time that patients can have access to multiple imaging services, which are requested on a single form. In addition, with an individual's consent, their healthcare identifier may be used as part of research, which may, for example, facilitate longitudinal tracking of health journeys and better integration of clinical and social data, providing more accurate evidence bases for health service policy and design.

The bill will help reduce the regulatory burden on Australians and on industry, including by introducing measures to allow secure, sustainable, suitable digital options for identity verification for couples getting married. And it will help increase government efficiency and improved productivity, including by providing additional flexibility for government to respond to temporary critical fuel shortages, allowing stocks to be reduced but not depleted. All of this will make real improvements to how regulations work for Australians. And these are only some examples of the important reforms this bill delivers.

As the Treasurer said in his second reading speech:

Regulation should be there to protect Australians and empower them, not weigh them down.

Regulation must ensure our economy works for Australians without holding them back. That's what the reforms in this bill will help to achieve.

I thank the House for supporting our work to deliver the regulatory environment that best serves the Australian community and the Australian economy.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.