Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I suppose I should make a concession for the member for Perth because she was not in this place in 2007 when Kevin Rudd proudly boasted that we would have a one-in one-out regulation policy. But, as we have just heard from the member for Braddon, what the Labor Party delivered instead was a policy of 'one Prime Minister in, one Prime Minister out'—in fact they repeated that. But let's get to the core of this subject.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

The member for Perth can keep going. I remind her that not only was their policy of one-in one-out almost never observed, but we ended up with almost 21,000 additional regulations—not 21, not 210, not 2,100 but 21,000 pieces of additional regulation. I grew up at the feet of my parents operating small businesses, operating agricultural enterprises. Before I had the privilege of coming to this place, I operated a small legal practice in partnership with my wife where, from time to time, I would be called upon to fill out the necessary and requisite paperwork. I always found it curious that on forms—for example, the business activity statement—there was a box that asked how long it took you to fill the form out. I used to take great pride in filling out that box with the words 'too long' because whenever I was filling out that document and others like it I was being taken away from the very important and profitable work of billing for my time.

But we can keep talking about that or we can move forward. What we are doing by moving forward—as the member for Braddon correctly pointed out—is remodelling the culture of this place. It is important that we do that. It is important that we acknowledge every decision we make in this place that adds a regulatory burden to those who are creating wealth. Nobody in this place— and I am sure the member for Perth would agree with me—creates wealth. Disappointingly, we spend public funds. The smaller government can be, the happier this little bee-stung baby will be! But the reality is that we do not create wealth.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

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