Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I understand that, yes. The member asks a good question. He is quite right that some of those repeals involved what Fred Hilmer, the father of competition policy, has referred to as 'ghost acts'. And doubtless Labor changed typographical errors. We on this side of the House are not objecting to typographical errors—I am not standing before the House today arguing that typos should remain on the statute books. I am merely pointing out that the benefit of this to our constituents is zero—that no constituents' lives will be made better off by changing the spelling of 'email', just as no constituents' lives will be made better off by changes in the regulations governing mules and bullocks in the defence forces. No constituent of the Minister for Health and no constituent of mine will be made better off by ensuring that states cannot have their own navies.

These are uncontroversial things to do, and let us not pretend that they are reform. Real reform means making hard decisions. What we see from this government is smoke and mirrors. The smoke involves the bonfire of ghost acts; the mirrors involve the government attempting to deflect attention from the fact that its changes to the future of financial advice laws and its scrapping of the charities commission are opposed by all the relevant interest groups. FoFA is the classic: the government achieved the unique configuration of having its changes opposed not only by the consumer groups but also the financial planning association. You have to really stuff up in order to get that configuration.

The government has pressed the 'pause' button on their anti-consumer changes to financial advice legislation. What I encourage them to do is to press the 'stop' button, take the Betamax video out of the machine and throw it onto the bonfire. The other mirror is the attempt to distract Australians' attention from the repeal of the charities commission. The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission is supported by four in five charities. When asked in a survey, 'Would you like charities regulations returned to the Australian Taxation Office?' only six per cent of charities said they want this to happen. Charities as diverse as the Hillsong Church, the RSPCA, Lifeline, SANE Australia, the Myer Foundation and ACOSS have argued that the government should change its policy on getting rid of the charities commission.

So there are important things at stake in the government's so-called repeal day. The fact is that the important things will make Australians worse off, and the unimportant things will not affect Australians' lives one whit. What you will not hear from those opposite is the statistic quoted by PolitiFact that, under the Howard government, the volume of regulations—372 a year—was higher than the volume of regulations under Labor, with around 300 regulations a year. So, when those opposite claim to be the party that does not bring in red tape, that in fact flies in the face of what happened under the Howard years, when the volume of regulations was more rapid than it was under Labor.

We need to look not at the number of regulations but at the quality of regulations. When those opposite rail against air service directives—which they effectively have been doing—and they rail against tariff concession orders requested by business—as, again, they have effectively been doing—then they are making Australians worse off. And when they change the spelling of 'email' they are having no effect on Australians' lives. Serious reform requires hard public policy work—working with the states rather than attacking the states. It requires—indeed, as the minister at the table has said—one-stop shops. That is why it is so extraordinary that when Labor had set up the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission—a one-stop shop for the charities sector—the coalition wants to come in and destroy it. The minister is in favour of one-stop shops, as am I. But the minister wants to get rid of a one-stop shop for the charities sector—a one-stop shop that would reduce state and territory duplication of reporting requirements. Certainly South Australia and the ACT have indicated a willingness to cede their powers to the Commonwealth government. If the minister at the table seeks to make further interventions, I am certainly happy to take those as well.

Government members interjecting—

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