Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

There was a giant printing press, thank you very much, Minister. We have actually made significant changes. The competitiveness paper which was released just a couple of weeks ago had a landmark change. That landmark change was that we will now accept into Australia product systems and services where they have been approved already by trusted international jurisdictions. And the regulators in this country, whether it is the APVMA, whether it is NICNAS or whether it is the TGA, will only add an extra layer of regulation when there is a proven need to do so.

We had the CEO of Cochlear, Chris Roberts, come out publicly and say this will make a major difference to the operation of his business. The member for Longman, from his own electorate, brought the wonderful example of a company that produces cricket balls and footballs made out of leather. They need to bring in a leather measuring and cutting machine from Italy but then they have to pay $3,000 for that machine to be accredited. Why is that the case? If it has been approved in Italy and Europe is a trusted international jurisdiction, there has to be a very good reason why it cannot automatically be brought into the Australian system. Why does an importer from Europe of commercial cooking equipment that goes to the hospitality and tourism sectors and to the aged care sector have to pay $12,000 per machine to get it accredited in Australia? It is just an extra layer of cost which is then passed on to the consumer.

We have come up with a system and with new processes to bed down this new deregulation agenda. Ministers now have established deregulation units. Ministers have now appointed ministerial advisory committees to advise them on the key areas to cut regulation. We have changed the KPIs for senior public servants to align their best interests with our best interests and the public's best interests—namely, cutting red tape. We have assigned two days of the parliamentary timetable to just cutting red tape. We have set ourselves a target of a billion dollars a year as a net target. It is a big target. We are now $2.1 billion—a number that the member for Watson hates to hear.

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