Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Let me start by saying to the member for Swan, who is a thoroughly decent fellow, that a good place to start on this motion would be with some reality, some truth and some facts. This might help those members opposite who continue to just regurgitate the same old tired lines—which are just not true.

In 2013, I did an examination of the number of annual interactions with government by jurisdiction. Some would call this red tape. What I found was that local government was responsible for 25,234 of those interactions. The states were 2,641 and the Commonwealth was responsible for about 382. This may surprise the government, who identify the federal government as being largely responsible for all excessive red tape, all regulation and all burdens. I would say that they are just as responsible as anyone else. None of us like red tape, but we should not take advantage of that without acknowledging that many pieces of regulation are designed to protect people—be it in food, on roads or in other places—to enhance our lives, to protect and enhance small business, or to level the playing field.

What this motion does highlight is the importance of continuing to work through the Coalition of Australian Governments, COAG, with the states and local government to keep a focus on removing unnecessary regulation and duplication across jurisdictions—which is exactly what Labor did in government. We did this through our Seamless National Economy reforms, the first 17 of which reduced business costs by an estimated $4 billion per year.

I say to those opposite that their claims are in no way a true reflection of the regulatory environment in which small business operates. It is misleading to suggest that regulation has a direct and negative impact on small business or a particular sector. In fact, in many cases it is the exact opposite. Of the so-called 21,000 pieces, for example, 3,400 of these were air worthiness certificates to keep us safe in the air. What should we do about those? Should we get rid of those? I should also point out that of the 21,000, 4,200 of those were tax concession orders to help small business. They wanted these 4,200; small business wanted them. Labor repealed 16,794 acts and legislative instruments when in government as a part of the ordinary routine business of government. We did not have bonfires and set whole libraries on fire and burn the books just because we thought there might be a few people who might enjoy a burning of the books; we just did our job.

This government cite some interesting examples in their Cutting Red Tape glossy brochure, such red-tape cutting examples as Commercialisation Australia. They cut Commercialisation Australia and called that a red-tape reduction, so small business have nowhere to go when they want to commercialise. Investing in Experience—my God, we have to get rid of that through red-tape reduction. That is what the Liberal-National Party did, the Tony Abbott government. They got rid of the National Workforce Development Fund, another red-tape cut. The textile, clothing and footwear Building Innovation Capacity program—how is that a red-tape cut and saving? And it goes on and on with all of these great small business programs around innovation, productivity.

If the member for Swan wants to learn something about productivity and economic growth, he should maybe have a look at why these programs were put in place in the first instance because then he would have a better understanding of why a Labor government put them in place—that is, to address the very concerns that he highlights. But what will happen under the Liberal government? Getting rid of these innovation programs, the mechanisms of productivity and growth and helping small businesses, means small businesses will not thank you because small businesses are finding it very, very difficult. Every survey and report that I can find says business confidence in this country is at its lowest ever. Small businesses are hurting. Talk to any retailer on high street and low street, and every other street you can find, and you will see. This is a trumped up, worthless motion based on completely irresponsible government behaviour.

They are just trotting out the old regurgitated line of 21,000—21,000 widgets, 21,000 things that happen—but the real problem here is if you are serious about the economy and productivity and growth and innovation, then you back it and you support. If you are serious about small businesses, you give them tax concession on the things they invest in—people, assets. You invest in them and they co-invest and the economy grows. This simplistic, idiotic regurgitation of red-tape bonfires does nothing for small business or the economy. (Time expired)

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