Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) | Hansard source

Well, it shouldn't be news, but Labor's red tape obsession is continuing to strangle Australia. It is the same story everywhere I go. You just need to listen. When I recently visited South Australia's Clare Valley, winery and small-business owner-operators told me the stagnant economy and the raging bureaucracy threaten their futures every day. In fact, in any wine and tourism district anywhere, the story is the same: they are all getting smashed by the ever-increasing cost of doing business. Energy costs are up. The cost of freight is up for them. The cost of mandatory equipment is up. I could go on all night listing the failures that Labor has presided over and made worse. Australians know it because they are living the consequences. Under Labor's economic mismanagement, it is their obsession with regulation and bureaucracy that is making it more costly to do just about anything.

In the Clare Valley, what the owners of the Watervale Hotel want is the same as what the owners of Taylors Wines and of the smallest cafes in the main street want. Just ask them. It's a simple walk down the street. They're happy to tell you what's going wrong, and they all talk about the state of the economy under Labor. What they want is certainty and a government that gets out of their way. They are job creators, and it is their prosperity that contributes to making their communities better, especially ones in the regions.

The Corporations Act, tax acts and Competition and Consumer Act have become a compliance nightmare for businesses large, medium and small. Environmental laws are being weaponised by activists to kill nation-building projects. In fact, I remember Labor giving taxpayers' money to those bad actors who did just that. South Australia recorded 691 business insolvencies in 2025. Nationally, it is 15,000 that have collapsed, the worst year on record. It hasn't happened by accident; it's by Labor's design. They have gone, but others are disappearing overseas when they can, and many small businesses right now are on their knees.

Labor does not see that behind every business is someone who has taken a risk with their family, their retirement and their livelihood and made sacrifices. They work hard. They go without. They do it to make it work. Right now, customers are their friends. Canberra is not.

Today at Parliament House, I met with BHP about the Northern Water Project, an initiative that means even more jobs and opportunity for South Australia. In fact, BHP employs 44,000 Australian workers, including 10,000 in South Australia. Escalating regulatory complexity, duplication and uncertainty are the greatest threats to expansion and innovation.

Labor must stop treating job creators, small and large, as a compliance target and instead focus on dismantling the proliferation of the bureaucratic roadblocks. Profit should pay for growth to create bigger, better communities, not to fill the greed of Labor's Canberra cash grab and tax grab. Environmental protection should not mean tying up Australian industry in unnecessary bureaucracy that adds little value. It's about balance. Labor's toxic taxes obliterate opportunity. You don't restore aspiration by taxing it; you restore it by rewarding it.

The coalition understands this. We stand for simple, straightforward laws, smaller, more effective government and regulation that, again, strikes the right balance. We will be focused on building up, not breaking down—more incentive, less interference. Australian job creators, the coalition hears you. Sparking the economic engine means being simple and straightforward. That's what wins the day and keeps the country going. Labor need to get out of the way, let the Australian economy thrive and take the terrible, toxic red tape and toxic taxes with them. The coalition plan is to fix the economy and protect our way of life. It's not that hard. Lower taxes, cheaper power, less migration, more homes—that is what the coalition stands for. We will put Australians first, from Fremantle to Canberra.