Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I find it quite amusing that the member for Blair came to us today and said that Labor have done a great job with deregulation and taking out so many regulations. If that was the case, why have we got so many industry associations and so many businesses that come and speak to me and to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and say, 'We need to change this: we need to get rid of the compliance here and reduce the red tape there'? If they did their job properly, we would not be here today.

What are we doing? We are making some really significant changes in so many areas and it is important to our country because the reduction of not only red tape but also compliance costs will make it easier for businesses and easier for government departments. I have been working with the parliamentary secretary, as many of us have over the year, to address these blockages and get some real results. So whether I speak to those associated with the health industry or the freight and logistics councils at a national level, they say to me, 'Yes, we're talking to Josh, yes, he's moving on this and making some real inroads.' That is why we are here today to announce some of these important changes.

In my state at a local level I have been talking to many industry associations such as resources and energy, the freight council, restaurant and catering, aged care, building and construction and local government. All of them say that there are areas of red tape and compliance that we need to do better with. That is what we have done.

On energy and resources, I want to talk about the environmental approvals. We have two of the key players here. The Minister for the Environment has done very well working with the South Australian Labor government. I do not often have reason to give credit to the South Australian Labor government—the member for Makin might be interested in this as well—but they have done well to sign a bilateral agreement to streamline environmental assessments as part of the Commonwealth government's one-stop shop reform. As we know, these new agreements create a single environmental assessment process and, in particular, they remove the duplication of federal, state and territory planning, which adds to time and costs for environmental approvals. Importantly, they save around $420 million a year.

We have even got a former Labor minister, Martin Ferguson, who sees the wisdom in this policy who says it is a priority to implement. We hope all will get on board with this important initiative so that it can progress important projects such as job creation projects in my home state, including many in the mining sector, that require approvals at the environmental and planning stage. We have seen delays happen at Olympic Dam with BHP Billiton. This has been an issue in the past and we need to get our head around it and make some changes, as we have proposed, going forward. We had two-and-a-half years after the initial release for public consultation of the environmental approvals to when it was actually approved. This is the type of situation we need to prevent.

On key areas of importance for my state in terms of defence: the Defence Materiel Organisation will benefit from e-tendering project facilities to facilitate the electronic communication of tender requirements—$2.6 million in compliance costs saved. The Australian Standard for Defence Contracting templates is another important initiative that will reduce between five to 10 days of work for industry—another $1 million of compliance costs removed. I mentioned resources and energy before. The non-defence use of the Woomera prohibited area has been put through and it is an important initiative to simplify the process by which mining and resources businesses gain access to this area by introducing standard permit arrangements.

In terms of small business, as outlined in the 2014 autumn repeal day we have got a helpline to assist small business owners with advice on employee wages and workplace laws. I know from my wife's experience and others who talk to me in small business that these changes in laws and the information they need in some of these more technical areas are sometimes beyond them. So that is where this helpline is of great importance.

Finally, I just want to refer to a couple of other things affecting other sectors of our economy. One is the financial reporting for the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, so that they submit the same financial reports on their annual information statements, and the other is ATO's new online tax service, myTax. Generally across government there are a whole lot of different initiatives in terms of online point of access for government services that are important changes. Local clubs and organisations who are limited by guarantee with less than $1 million in revenue no longer require an auditor. This was previously required through audited financial reports. Again, these are important changes. Today Deloitte released a report showing the impact of red tape—costing $27 billion to administer.

We need to keep chipping away, keep making inroads and keep getting results. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Josh Frydenberg; the Prime Minister, who is driving this as well; and ministers, like the environment minister who is here, are doing a great job of getting results and helping businesses and government organisations for a better society.

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