Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted to close the second reading debate on the Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2015) Bill 2015. I am terribly excited to speak about this bill, notwithstanding the cynicism that Senator Brown displayed in her remarks—though I am pleased, Senator Brown, by your remarks about the wonders of autumn, which left a warm inner glow that I am sure all in the chamber benefited from. We do look forward to the onset of autumn—a wonder of living in a nation with such wonderful seasons which are, of course, distinct between the northern and southern parts. Enough about the weather; that is my old portfolio. This bill also is not in my portfolio but still I am delighted to be summing up the debate in relation to this bill.

As many in the chamber have alluded to, the government has sought to make sure that regulatory and red tape reduction has been central to the activities of government. I am sorry that Senator Brown seems to be so dismissive of even minor savings that can be achieved. Senator Brown spoke almost with contempt at the idea that $3,000 of regulatory savings could be achieved somewhere. Well, I think if $3,000 of regulatory savings can be achieved somewhere then $3,000 of regulatory savings should be achieved somewhere. And of course, overall, I think the $41.7 million of regulatory savings attached to this bill are worth achieving because they are a good strong step in the right direction.

Senator Brown did kindly go through in extensive detail many parts of the measures that are proposed, so I do not intend to repeat all those. I would simply highlight the fact that the bill does amend or repeal 14 acts across a number of portfolios. Yes, some of them are spent and redundant and have remained on the Commonwealth statute books for some time; and others have been amended or repealed but have provisions that have been superseded by other pieces of legislation. But, importantly, there are measures that do have real savings, and the largest of those relates to one particular measure that results in over $41 million of deregulatory savings.

These amendments to the Health and Other Services (Compensation) Act 1995 will remove the requirement for compensation recipients to separately submit a statutory declaration when submitting a claim for benefits provided under Commonwealth programs for Medicare, nursing home, residential care and home care services. This will be of benefit and will reduce the regulatory burden on both compensation payers and around 50,000 claimants per year and allow automation of certain compensation recovery procedures for the government. That is one example of a very worthwhile change that is contained within the bill. There are, as I indicated, changes that reduce the number of unnecessary agencies that are defined within legislation or committees or advisory bodies or the like and a range of other changes.

Senator Brown suggested that, in some instances, the bill might correct punctuation. Whilst I do not hold myself up to be the nation's great and virtuous guide on appropriate punctuation, as Minister for Education I do at least think that is a worthwhile objective to pursue when you have the opportunity. To be serious, I commend the bill to the Senate. It adds further to the government's deregulation agenda and, most importantly, in doing so reduces real costs across government as well as for those who have to deal with and respond to government legislation.

Bill read a second time.