Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is real change. This will lead to annual savings of three-quarters of a million dollars in compliance costs for aged-care providers. Cliff says that the previous regulation on accommodation pricing created a huge workload for aged-care facilities. He said that it was more demanding than being in the hotel industry, where operators had to justify why they were charging every particular room rate. Building assessment procedures remain an ongoing issue of concern for aged-care operators. It is an overregulated system that demands reassessment of an entire facility every time a minor alteration is made to the premises.

Charities will benefit. Even today, Jan Davis, the CEO of the Tasmanian Farmers & Graziers Association, welcomed the repeal bill. She has highlighted the disproportionate burden of regulations that primary producers face every day. To give a practical example of how they will be better off, importers of agricultural chemicals—and last time I looked they are used by primary producers—and of veterinary medicines such as pet worm tablets, and of household weedkiller and agricultural fertilisers will no longer need to re-register established products that have not changed. This is a practical way of reducing costs to farmers and farm businesses.

Any rational and sensible person that has had anything to do with business or has been part of a family would agree that getting rid of unwanted and redundant legislation is a good deal. Repeal day is symbolic of the difference between ideologies. On one side are political parties who want to control us and tell us how to think and act and who want to regulate every nook and cranny of every family's life. The alternative is a party that offers a pathway to personal responsibility and is trying to move closer with this bill today.

We are doing what we said we would do. We are well on the way to reducing the red-tape burden on small business by $1 billion annually, as we committed to during the election. I commend the parliamentary secretary for his diligence and work in putting together this bill today. I commend this repeal bill to the House.

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