Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

All these measures demonstrate our seriousness about reducing red tape and making it easier for people to go about their lives.

But this is just the start, not the finish. Every department and agency is conducting a comprehensive audit of the costs it puts on individuals and entities so that it can put a dollar figure on the cost of compliance and reporting and start reducing it every year. Every department and agency will be required to contribute towards the $1 billion a year, every year, in red tape cost savings that the government is committed to deliver. The Productivity Commission is finalising the indicators that will make red tape reduction easier to judge.

Not only will deregulation become a standing item on the COAG agenda but there will be less red tape withinCOAG, with the number of ministerial councils dropping from 22 to eight. The reviews that the government has in train into competition policy, workplace law, and the financial system—all have a deregulatory focus. The white papers that the government plans—into tax and into the federation—are both intended to reduce overlap and complexity. We are carefully considering the former government's changes to coastal shipping and its changes to trucking rates to ensure that they make doing business easier, not harder.

For too long, governments have acted as if the Australian people work for them. People do not work for government; government should work for people. It is government's job to serve the people; not people's job to serve the government. In simple terms, we work for you. And we are working for you today by creating the biggest bonfire of regulations in our country's history.

Our mission is not bigger government; it is bigger citizens with more opportunities. To the Australian people, I say: this is about saving you money, saving you time, and trusting your common sense to make more choices about your life. I am proud of the progress that the government has made to date—but it is only the start of what is to come.

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