Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

For 12 years, they had the ball at their feet to do something about deregulation. They had the ball at their feet when it came to doing something about the complex interplay of federal, state and local authority regulatory impacts on operating a business. They had 12 years to actually produce an outcome on this. Instead there has been a red-tape explosion across this country under the 12 years of political tutelage of those opposite. If you are running a small business and have to deal with a mountain of red tape on the one hand and 12 interest rate rises in a row on the other, it affects the way in which you plan the future operations of your business. I would suggest that those raising any substantive question about small business in this parliament should reflect on what opportunities were presented to them over the last 12 years and ask themselves this question: ‘Why did we do nothing about it?’ Instead, embrace a course of action with us to fight the fight effectively on inflation, to put downwards pressure on interest rates and to act decisively on the question of deregulation as it impacts this critical sector of the Australian economy.

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