Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Legislative Instruments Amendment (Sunsetting Measures) Bill 2012. The Legislative Instruments Act 2003 provides that all regulations and other legislative instruments cease automatically after 10 years unless action is taken to exempt or preserve them. Because a large number of instruments were registered in the years immediately following commencement of the act, sunsetting will cause the mass expiration of over 6,300 instruments from 2015, with twin peaks in 2016 and 2018. The Productivity Commission in its 2011 report Identifying and evaluating regulation reforms identified a risk that instruments will be remade without adequate review and without proper consultation with business and other stakeholders.

It is noted that the sheer quantity of instruments required to be remade by government increases the risk that business and other stakeholders will not have sufficient time to make a meaningful contribution to any review. This bill will smooth sunsetting peaks by simplifying sunsetting dates. For instruments registered in bulk when the register commenced in 2005, the sunsetting dates will be spread out to reduce the number of instruments that expire at the same time and to provide for review and consultation.

The bill also inserts a provision to provide for thematic reviews. The introduction of thematic reviews was recommended by the Productivity Commission. Stakeholders will be able to participate in the regulation of their sector and contribute to consistency in regulation making. The bill will also allow for the repeal of spent and redundant instruments on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments. Approximately 40 per cent of the 40,000 titles on the register are either spent or redundant but, to a person looking for information on the register, these instruments appear to be in force. The bill will also clearly communicate the requirements for explanatory statements that accompany legislative instruments. This will assist businesses and individuals in understanding the exact implications and effect that each legislative instrument will have.

The coalition recognises that small businesses are the backbone of the Australian economy, and that is why we continually look for ways that we can support those 2.7 million businesses by cutting red tape and encouraging productivity, investment and growth. The Coalition Deregulation Taskforce was formed in December 2011 to cut red tape and reduce the regulatory burden to businesses by at least $1 billion a year. The Productivity Commission has estimated the rewards for red-tape reduction to be worth $12 billion extra in GDP.

Labor promised a one-in one-out approach to regulation in 2007 yet, instead, it has delivered 16,173 new regulations and repealed only 79. I have not done the calculation to what that means but, clearly, there has been a dramatic failure from the idea of having one in one out. This has resulted in increased regulation for small businesses and has hindered productivity, investment and growth. It is clear from these statistics that only the coalition is interested in assisting small businesses and it will devise ways to reduce the time and cost of compliance for business.

I look forward to the recommendations that the deregulation task force will report on by 1 July 2012 and how these findings will shape coalition policy and provide relief for small-business owners. This bill will support an efficient consultation process for all delegated legislation and will create a comprehensible, clear and fair framework for businesses operating within Australia. Red-tape reduction is a vitally important role for this parliament to play. The truth is that over the years this parliament has contributed greatly, on both sides of politics, to an increasingly complex regulatory burden for small, medium and large businesses. This bill goes some way to sensibly addressing some of these issues, but as a parliament we have a lot further to go.

I thought that the government's one-in one-out promise in 2007 was highly laudable. If they had achieved anything remotely near it they would have done a good thing, but when you are talking about 16,000 regulations enacted as opposed to 79 repealed then clearly that has been a monstrous and enormous failure. To have made that commitment and then not even come close to living up to it is a great shame. We are very serious about reducing red tape within the coalition. The red-tape reduction task force is being led by Senator Sinodinos who, people will know, is somebody with enormous public policy experience in Australia. He is deadly serious about tackling this burden and I commend his vision for creating a climate in which businesses can reap some of the benefits from not having to spend all their time in compliance with government legislation.

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