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

wait for it, brother—by COAG under the previous coalition government. Those 10 regulatory hot spots were identified by COAG under the previous coalition government. And what did the Business Council of Australia have to say on progress by the coalition on these 10 hot spots? It said: ‘Eighteen months ago COAG released a plan to tackle 10 business regulation hot spots.’ It was referring to 2007. ‘Clearly they were so hot they burnt a hole in the piece of paper and we haven’t seen them since.’ That is an indictment of you, the coalition, for lack of progress on these 10 important regulatory reforms. Indeed, the Business Council of Australia further described the period covered by the previous coalition government as one of ‘the creeping reregulation of business’.

Now that they are in opposition, the coalition have sought to thwart perhaps the most important of these reforms, and of course I refer to a national system of occupational health and safety, for which the coalition opposed in the Senate the facilitating legislation not once, not twice but three times, such is their lack of commitment to economic reform in this country. I call on the Leader of the Opposition to rethink his strategy of opposing Rudd government reforms for the sake of opposition and to support the Rudd government’s economic reform program.

It is already well known that the opposition leader is a big risk to the Australian economy and so too is his sidekick, Senator Barnaby Joyce. Senator Barnaby Joyce wanders around Australia with a briefcase full of new regulations. He has the Birdsville amendment, the Blacktown amendment, the Richmond amendment and the Breakfast Creek amendment—amendments named after just about every pub in Australia. We know Senator Joyce will go, but what will remain is the opposition leader’s poor judgment—his poor judgment in appointing Senator Joyce.

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