Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

For the benefit of Senator Birmingham and for the Senate, I am pleased to outline each of the measures proposed in this bill and their impact. Schedule 1 relates to the Agriculture portfolio and contains no deregulatory savings.

Repeals of acts: items 1 to 7 of the schedule relate to the repeal of the following acts. The Dairy Adjustment Act 1974 was enacted to provide financial assistance for the purposes of dairy adjustment programs, allowing agreements to be made with the states to make payments. The last agreement came into effect in 1976, and the period for the approval of these new agreements lapsed in 1977. There are no agreements currently in place and all loans, payments and repayment obligations have been finalised. The Domestic Meat Premises Charge Act 1993 provides for the imposition of a charge payable by an operator or owner of certain accredited killing or processing plants. The Department of Agriculture deregistered the last two meat establishments that were covered by this act on 12 June 2009.

The Meat Export Charge Act 1984 was enacted to impose a charge on applications for the inspection of export meat and meat products. As part of the Export Certification Reform Package we implemented when we were in government there were new arrangements that covered this. Cost recovery arrangements are set out under the Australian Export Meat Inspection System and fees are collected under other legislation. The Meat Export Charge Collection Act 1984 was enacted to provide for the collection of the charge implemented under the Meat Export Charge Act 1984. The Meat Inspection Act 1983 was enacted to provide for the domestic inspection of meat intended for human consumption or for use as animal food. None of the activities covered by this act are currently carried out by the Commonwealth. Domestic meat inspection is carried out by the states and territories under their own statutes. The Meat Inspection Arrangements Act 1964 was enacted to enable the Commonwealth to enter into arrangements with the states for Commonwealth inspectors to inspect meat for consumption in Australia. As the Commonwealth no longer employs any domestic state meat inspectors, which is done at the state and territory level, this act is redundant. The Primary Industry Councils Act 1991 was enacted to establish industry councils for primary industries. There are no industry councils established under the act that exist, and none have been established since 1993.

There is the abolition of the Australian Landcare Council. Items 8 to 16 of the schedule relate to the abolition of the Australian Landcare Council. The plan was to consolidate the Australian Landcare Council and the Natural Heritage Trust Advisory Committee into the National Landcare Advisory Committee. There are currently no members on the Australian Landcare Council. In other amendments, items 17 to 30 of the schedule relate to amendments that are consequential as a result of the proposed repeals of acts in this schedule.

Schedule 2 relates to the Environment portfolio and has no deregulatory savings. There is the abolition of the Natural Heritage Trust Advisory Committee. This committee is being merged with the Australian Landcare Council to form the new National Landcare Advisory Committee. The Natural Heritage Trust Advisory Committee has not met since 2010

Part 2 of schedule 2 relates to the abolition of the Biological Diversity Advisory Committee. Membership of this committee lapsed in 2007. Items 7 to 12 of the schedule will remove duplicative exemptions covering Heard Island and McDonald Islands relating to protected area management plans. They are covered by exemptions covering the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve. In relation to director's functions and powers, item 13 repeals a redundant section in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 that relates to the portion of the Australian National Botanic Gardens that is in the Jervis Bay Territory.

Schedule 3 relates to the Health/Human Services portfolio and contains $41.4 million deregulatory savings. This schedule relates to amendments to the Health and Other Services (Compensation) Act 1995. It removes the requirement for claimants to sign a statutory declaration when submitting a compensation claim, and removes the requirement for both the compensation payer and claimant to sign a notification to Medicare of the settlement of the compensation claim. The claimant will instead be able to declare that the information provided is true and correct using existing forms required for the process. In terms of signing the notification to Medicare, only the compensation payer will need to sign the form, which will reduce the burden on the payer and reduce the risk of non-compliance.

Schedule 4 relates to the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Indigenous Affairs and contains no deregulatory savings. It repeals the Aboriginal Affairs (Arrangements with States) Act 1973. This act enables persons employed by the states to be appointed to the Australian Public Service and Australian Public Service permitted persons to perform functions under the laws of the states relating to Indigenous Affairs. A similar arrangement already exists under the Public Service Act 1999. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Queensland Discriminatory Laws) Act 1975 will also be repealed. This act was enacted to supersede certain Queensland state laws that discriminated against Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. The Queensland laws have since been repealed.

Part 2 of schedule 4 contains consequential amendments on repeal of acts. Item 3 repeals section 16 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Queensland Reserves and Communities Self-management) Act 1978 as it will be made ineffective upon the repeal of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Queensland Discriminatory Laws) Act 1975. Schedule 5 relates to social services and contains $3,000 in deregulatory savings. In relation to the use of protected information, part 1 of schedule 5 makes amendments to the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999, the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010, the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 and the Student Assistance Act 1973, to facilitate greater access to aggregated information that does not disclose information about a specific person. Previously, you could only access the information if the purpose was one that satisfied the relevant act. The amendments will allow greater access to data for use by researchers and the public. These amendments are estimated to generate $3,000 in savings.

Part 2 repeals spent indexation provisions from the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 and the Social Security Act 1991. These provisions have passed their date of effect. Part 3 repeals the Retirement Assistance for Farmers Scheme and the Retirement Assistance for Sugarcane Farmers Scheme from the Social Security Act 1991. These schemes closed in 2001 and 2007 respectively. Part 4 repeals spent savings, transitional and application provisions from the Social Security Act 1991. These provisions relate to rules that were required to deal with former amendments dealing with persons transitioning from one set of arrangements to another. They have no effect as they deal with circumstances that can no longer occur—for example, a clause dealing with the transition arrangements for people who were receiving rehabilitation assistance before 20 March 1994 and two other clauses relating to provisions for payments, which contained end dates of 30 June 1999 and 30 June 2003, are being repealed.

Schedule 6 relates to Treasury. The Income Tax (Withholding Tax Recoupment) Act 1971 will be repealed. The act imposes a tax on interest from borrowings that received a particular exemption from withholding tax. Owing to changes to the tax law in September 2006, such borrowings can no longer arise, and so this act is redundant. The International Monetary Agreements Act 1959 will also be repealed. This act related to an increased quota in the International Monetary Fund, and an increase in the capital stock of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. As these transactions have been completed, the legislation is no longer required.

The Occupational Superannuation Standards Regulations Application Act 1992 will also be repealed. This act modified the time at which the Occupational Superannuation Standards Regulations 1987 were taken to have commenced. As these regulations were repealed in 2013, this act is no longer required. The States Grants (Aboriginal Advancement) Act 1972 is another act that will be repealed. This act provided for the payment of grants to the states and territories in the 1972-73 financial year. All grants under the act have been paid and therefore the act is no longer required.

The Taxation Laws (Clearing and Settlement Facility Support) Act 2004 will be repealed. This act was introduced following amendments to the Corporations Act relating to the transfer of responsibility for providing financial backing for parts of the clearing and settlement support system from the National Guarantee Fund to ASX Clear Pty Ltd. As the transfer of responsibility has been completed, this act is now redundant.

Other amendments in schedule 6 repeal sections 23E and 23J of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936. Section 23E provides that an amount received by a person upon the redemption of a Commonwealth special bond—other than an amount paid as accrued interest—is not assessable income and not exempt income. The Commonwealth no longer issues these special bonds and all such bonds that were issued have matured. Section 23J provides similar treatment for many types of securities that were issued at a discount prior to 1982. Section 26C of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 will also be repealed. The section provides a tax concession for certain securities which is currently available under the general tax law. As such, it can be repealed. Paragraph (c) of the definition of 'traditional security' in subsection 26BB(1) of the act will be removed. As section 26C is being repealed, the reference to section 26C in the definition of traditional security is also being repealed.

Subdivision CB of division 3 of part III is proposed to be repealed as no entity has sought to have the Treasurer make a determination under this part of the act to entitle them to deductions relating to pre-establishment expenditure. That is because in 1999 the rules around this type of expenditure were changed so that it was available to all taxpayers.

Items 12 to 15 in this schedule deal with consequential repeals of references to section 26C. Items 16 to 18 make repeals to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 as a result of the repeals to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 relating to section 26C and subdivision CB of part III.

There are others, but I would like to end my remarks by saying that what we are dealing with here today is, rather than hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in savings, a minuscule percentage of the total deregulatory savings that the government would want to claim. It is a saving of just $47.1 million, which is less than 10 per cent of the government's claimed $475.7 million in savings that have been reported between the spring 2014 bill and this bill. Serious deregulation can be done, but the government should not be pretending that it is making a difference when it is not actually getting rid of regulation in any real way. (Time expired)