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

He is out of his seat when he is interjecting, which is just silly. Repealing legislation which has no impact is not something we are going to vote against. It is not something to get all excited about and say, 'How dare they do that?' We did similar things. What we did not do was the fanfare, pretending that this will make a scrap of difference to business, because it will not. All this is is cleaning and vacuuming the spare room. You have got to do it from time to time. It is a reasonable thing to do. But it is not something where you can pretend that somehow this makes you the friend of business.

The legislation repeals an amendment to the Flags Act 1953 which amended the size of the Commonwealth star on the Australian flag from three-eighths of the width of the flag to three-tenths of the width of the flag. As the size change was made into law, the amendment act is redundant. It does not matter whether the amendment act is there or not. You want to get rid of it? Not a problem, but I want to know which small business out there is going to say, 'The red-tape burden is lifted for me because I was checking and was not sure what the size of the Federation star on the flag was, and I was confused that the amendment act was still there on the books.'

The Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2014) Bill 2014 amends or repeals legislation almost all of which has no consequence at all. I challenge those opposite, when they are referring in their speeches to the difference this will make to small business, to refer to one section of the bill—just one. I reckon what is going to happen for those opposite today is that they will give a general red-tape speech. They will give a general speech about regulations being bad. They will give an example of too much legislation and things like that. But I reckon they will not be able to make a single link in their speeches between a single word within the legislation that is before the parliament and there being a difference for business. Maybe they will prove me wrong. Maybe there are small businesses in the mule and bullock trade that have been anxiously waiting for this to be clarified on the statute books. But I reckon we are about to see a day of speeches where no-one opposite can draw a single link in their speeches to a single act that is being repealed through these items of legislation that are before us today.

Here is a classic one. In the finance portfolio every year we have appropriation bills go through. The appropriation bills that went through in 2010-11 and 2011-12 are going to be repealed. What does an appropriation bill do? It has parliament voting for money to be transferred across. In 2010-11 and 2011-12 the appropriation bills were carried and the money was transferred across. They are now repealing those acts. Well, the money has been transferred. It makes no difference at all. There is no small business in the country, no business in the country and no government department in the country where this will make any difference at all, but today they are being repealed. If it were just being done in the way these items were dealt with in the previous government, where it was a standard clean-up, then no-one would have any argument. But to hold this up as being a serious example of economic reform is one of the strangest, most creative arguments I have heard in this place.

In the social services portfolio the legislation repeals 12 housing assistance acts that related to the provision of financial assistance to the states and territories. The acts were all made redundant in 2009, when payments to the states and territories became governed by the Federal Financial Relations Act. So they get repealed. So what? If those opposite want to deal with red tape, to provide clean air for, or to remove restrictions on, business, then maybe they should consider today's legislation having something to do with business—and not their shorthand for business legislation, where it is all about removing consumer protection; those issues are not in the bills before us right now.

In the employment portfolio the legislation repeals an act that established the Construction Industry Development Agency. Maybe we are going to hear passionate speeches about why the Construction Industry Development Agency has to go, notwithstanding that it went in 1995. But they are going to repeal the act and somehow that is meant to be making a difference.

Those opposite are going to be giving very, very short speeches, I am told. That is probably merciful. That is probably being kind to the parliament and the public. It is also being particularly kind to those sitting opposite who have to speak on this. We have hundreds of pages of legislation before us, none of which are particularly objectionable, from what we have seen. We will make sure, in the ordinary Senate inquiry process, that there is a Senate check on these issues, but nothing that we have worked through at the moment contains anything offensive. But the reason that we have not been able to find anything offensive in there at the moment is that, on these particular bills, we have not been able to find anything. There is nothing there. There is absolutely nothing before us that makes a difference to anyone in the world. It does not make a difference to anyone in the world.

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