Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

the red-tape burden through a comprehensive program of microeconomic reform, cutting red tape and ensuring through the Council of Australian Governments that we have a seamless economy, as called for by the Business Council of Australia, which is in the interests of small business. By reducing that regulatory burden, by simplifying life for small businesses, by rewarding effort, risk-taking and entrepreneurship, we will ensure that small businesses are made better off in this country so that they are not weighed down by this compliance burden that was imposed by this mob opposite.

A decade after the report to which I referred was first commissioned, a second report was commissioned. That was produced by Gary Banks, the head of the Productivity Commission. And what did the Business Council of Australia say as a result of the 10 years of neglect of this mob? It said that they had presided over the ‘creeping re-regulation of Australian business’. So, don’t come into this chamber asking, ‘What’s Labor going to do about easing the burden on small business?’ when for 10 years you did nothing. You re-regulated the Australian economy. You reversed the reforms of the Hawke and Keating governments.

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