Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am speaking directly to the bill and how dysfunctional the genesis of this was. Members on the other side of the House say, 'Speak to the bill.' I gladly go back to how poor the reasoning for the original bill was.

The extra layers of bureaucracy were brought about to create the ACNC. I remind the members on the opposite side of the House that the ACNC's core role was to go back to the states of Australia and to say to them, 'You need, as a state, to reduce the level of bureaucracy that you have. You need to reduce the levels of bureaucracy that you have in the states so that we can provide a dividend. That is our mantra. That is our charter.' That was the primary reason this organisation was established. You should never forget the reasons this was brought to the House. It was poorly thought out. It was poorly executed.

I will proudly stand here defending every volunteer in Australia who gives their time freely, whether it be at a surf lifesaving club, a rural fire brigade, Lifeline, or any other charity in Australia. This is a blight on their collective activities in trying to make Australia a better place. I believe that activities in the Year of the Volunteer, last year or the year before, showed that collectively the value of our volunteers around Australia—for the energies that they provide at local, state and federal government levels—is somewhere in the vicinity of $15 billion a year, calculated on the basis of what it would cost if we were to pay those beautiful volunteers who give their time on so many fronts.

Before we took office we said that we would oppose this. The government's position on this should come as no shock to anyone. I spoke in this House and opposed the original legislation when the then government, Labor, decided that the best way to get rid of bureaucracy was to create another level of bureaucracy. From a commercial perspective that was bizarre. It was bizarre then and it is equally perplexing to this day.

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