Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I cannot let some of what Senator Cameron said go without some sort of response. I appreciate Senator Cameron does not like the 1980s much, that brief period of Labor economic rationalism that I remember reading when he was secretary of the AMWU in the metalworker newspaper that he rejected. I am sure he likes the 1940s much more, with their period of nationalisation if not the period of Labor sending the trips into the coal mines.

I cannot help but think that occasionally Senator Cameron has not seen a deregulation bill or a trade liberalisation bill that he does not like or find an excuse to criticise. Removing redundant legislation is important. The government's deregulation agenda has actually substantially achieved a reduction in unnecessary regulatory burden on many businesses. I can say from my former portfolio of education, the amount of duplication of record collecting that was being done multiple times within, for example ,university and vocational education providers was truly extraordinary and removal of that has been a priority. So with those comments, I commend the bill to the Senate.