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

by leave—This is the government's first report on red tape and what we are doing to reduce it. Next week, the parliament will have its first ever repeal day: to abolish regulation and legislation that has outlived its usefulness or is doing more harm than good.

Cutting red tape is at the heart of this government's mission: to build a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia. Red tape is what officials wrap people in when they think that government knows best. So, cutting red tape is a sign that this government and this parliament want Australians, individually and in the community, to have more control over their own lives. It is an acknowledgement of the people, our masters.

Next week's repeal day will scrap more than 9,500 unnecessary or counterproductive regulations and 1,000 redundant acts of parliament. More than 50,000 pages will disappear from the statute books.

Added to measures already announced, repeal day initiatives will bring total red tape savings to $720 million a year every year.

The first repeal day will abolish the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission because people serving our community do not deserve a new level of scrutiny.

It will abolish the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor because all relevant legislation has already been reviewed and the former government ignored all the monitor's recommendations.

Redundant acts regulating, for instance, the 1970s conversion from imperial to metric measurement, governing state naval divisions (that became part of the Royal Australian Navy 101 years ago) and facilitating the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme (that was completed in 1974) will all go.

As a result of repeal day, films will only need to be classified once—not again and again when they are reissued in DVD, blu-ray or 3D.

As a result of repeal day, businesses will not have to re-apply to use agricultural chemicals and veterinary medicines, because one approval should be enough.

Universities will no longer have to submit capital asset management surveys in addition to other surveys which cover essentially the same thing.

And jobs agencies will no longer be required to keep paper records of every applicant which, in one agency alone, occupied 336 filing cabinets.

Businesses will no longer be required to administer the former government's paid parental leave scheme, saving them an estimated $48 million. Associated with repeal day, national businesses will be allowed to operate under one workers compensation scheme right around our nation rather than having to operate in up to eight.

Next week's repeal day will be the first of many. Under this government, there will be at least two a year, because we will make people's lives easier, not harder. It is worth recalling that the first parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia passed just 513 pages of legislation—that is just half a page of legislation per day.

Mr Champion interjecting—

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