Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, that is right—like a knight in shining armour, we come to the rescue and provide the assistance to government members that is not being provided by their own side. I will come back to the second reading amendment in a moment and will continue with some general remarks first.

There are issues in front of us which are not part of this set of bills but are part of the government policies that have been tied up with the rhetoric of repeal day and which cause real harm. The future of financial advice reforms cause real harm. Those reforms, originally advanced in government by Senator Sinodinos, were passed to the Minister for Finance and have now been put on the backburner until after the people of Western Australia have voted. I am not surprised that the government have done that, but it is a cynical and a shallow tactic to, in the first instance, claim that removing consumer protection for people's retirement savings is important in a red-tape context, but, secondly, to think that they can get away with just parking the issue, as they have with the Commission of Audit, until after the people of Western Australia have voted.

There is another bill which is not before us in this section, which deals with the impact on charities and the abolition of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission—a commission that provides a one-stop shop that people often refer to when they ask: what is a way of making sure that we can remove red tape? The government's proposal here is that the way to remove red tape is to get rid of the one-stop shop—the exact opposite of what they will argue in a whole lot of other areas. It shows that they are willing to remove transparency for charities under the guise of red tape removal. Similarly the stripping away of the wage protection for cleaners as part of revoking the fair work principles in the Commonwealth Cleaning Services Guidelines has been caught up in the rhetoric and the language of this, notwithstanding that it is not in the bills before us today. For those opposite it is a real message. When they talk of removing red tape, they are either talking about a pile of legislation which has no impact on anyone at all or they are talking about the impacts such as removing consumer protection, removing transparency and cutting wages. That is why they want to ramp up the rhetoric and talk about the bonfire, so that they can smuggle under the smoke as many issues as possible to hurt people. The record we had in government of removing regulation never had attached to it the fanfare we have seen from those opposite. If their test is removal of regulations, we need to compare the nearly six years we were in office. Take legislation like today's as the test, where the government are clearing 9,000 regulations that do not matter; we repealed 16,794 spent and redundant acts, regulations and legislative instruments from the statute book

I do not put that forward as a proud boast or as something that made a massive difference, because it did not, just like today's bills do not. The clearing of regulations that are already redundant does not make a big difference. It is a good thing to do. It is not worth anyone getting excited about opposing and it is not worth anyone getting excited about pretending that here is a test of being an impressive government. This is not. This is something that is routine.

If they really think that changing the rules on mules and bullocks in the Australian Defence Force is what small business is asking for, then it is an example of how far away from reality this government is. The government that launched the most bizarre distraction into knighthoods and dame titles yesterday, the government that thinks that one of the big issues to talk about is bigotry and the government that thinks the way to deal with red tape is to get rid of the regulations that are not having an impact on anyone at all and put them in a big bonfire and ramp up the rhetoric is a government that is horrifically out of touch.

We had a greater deregulatory agenda that was aimed at reducing costs for business in complying with regulation that actually did make a difference—the seamless national economy—and the benefits from those reforms were significant. Those opposite, in particular the member for Kooyong, should note that this is what regulatory reform is about. The COAG Reform Council reported in its final report on the seamless national economy in early February 2014 that the completion of most of the reforms had happened by the end of 2013 and that meant cost savings to Australian businesses worth billions of dollars per year. The Productivity Commission estimated that completion of just 17 of the seamless national economy reforms was estimated to lower business costs by $4 billion a year. The Productivity Commission also estimated that full implementation of the seamless national economy reforms would increase GDP by improving productivity by $6 billion per year.

There were other reforms instituted by the previous Labor government that demonstrated our commitment to the deregulatory agenda. I remember as agriculture minister that one of the first things I did was make sure that wheat growers in Australia could export and sell their wheat to whoever they chose. That was something that was not available under the Howard government. Under the Howard government if you wanted your wheat exported, you could go to only one business, the AWB. That was the only place available to export bulk wheat. That was an appalling situation. So we removed what was a very real form of red tape. A proportion of those opposite, I acknowledge, voted with us on that. They were never able to do it in government. We came through in government and did it. For the entirety of the Howard years a proportion of them sat on their hands on the deregulation of wheat exports. The protectionists opposite, who have now returned to the government benches, lost the day, as they should have. Once again, since then we have seen on some issues, including foreign investment decisions, that the protectionists have managed to get a new level of power and authority in the coalition government that certainly did not happen when we were in office.

Other reforms instituted by the previous Labor government demonstrated our commitment to the deregulatory agenda, including better regulation ministerial partnerships, which the former Minister for Finance and Deregulation established with various ministers to help eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens. These partnerships were making tangible differences. For example, the partnership that resulted in the length of disclosure documents for financial products, such as superannuation, being reduced to a few pages made it easier for consumers to get information and less costly for business to produce. Those opposite should take note of this one. You do not have to see removing red tape and removing consumer protection as things that need to work in lock step. You can have regulatory reform where you improve the quality of information for consumers and make compliance easier for business. Another partnership resulted in the assessment process for new medical devices and procedures being changed so that patients could access new health technology sooner. We instituted policy measures that are making a difference to lowering business costs and improving productivity. These are tangible measures that are having an affect on the Australian economy.

Let me take you back to last Wednesday when the Prime Minister made his statement on deregulation. The Prime Minister stated that the first repeal day—that is today—would accomplish a number of things. However, when you look at the legislative program, there would appear to be a few things missing. The Prime Minister said the first repeal day will abolish the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. That is not in front of us today. They have gagged debate—

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