Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was a bit harsh. There is a great movie I watched once with Mel Gibson in it. It was called What Women Want. Now we certainly have not got enough time today to explore that, but I ask the question today: what do businesses want? What they want is for government to get out of their way. It is a pretty simple response. They want government to get out of their way. They absolutely want government to break the ongoing increase of regulation and compliance. They want to see government stop breaking their backs with regulation and compliance. They want to be efficient. They want to see regulation and compliance issues addressed and removed. The previous speaker made a very good speech—it was quite entertaining actually—but whatever way he wants to spin it, and he can spin it all he wants, whatever way he wants to try and play out his response to this motion today, businesses are not buying what he is selling over there. They know that the Labor Party is absolutely synonymous with more regulation, more compliance, and more red tape. They know that, and you know they know that. The fact of the matter is that we are getting on with the job of cutting red tape, because that is what is important.

The key reforms that we are pursuing as a part of this government are quite simple, really, when you bring it all down. They are that we want to minimise and simplify interaction with government. We want to get out of their way. They are working hard enough in their businesses. They have got enough work to do trying to actually pay the bills, keep on top of sales and keep on top of human resource issues. They just want us out of their way.

The second key reform theme of the regulation and compliance reduction is reducing regulatory obligations and reporting. Why is it that they have to fill in a form for local government, and then, two days later, a form turns up from the state government and a couple of weeks later another form turns up from a department of the federal government? We want to reduce the regulatory obligations and reporting mechanisms that are currently in place. It is not hard to do; you just need a commitment to do it. Labor will say, 'Well, we had a commitment to do it,' but what was their record? Do not look at what they say; look at what they do. Kevin Rudd, elected Prime Minister, said it was going to be one in, one out. One regulation or one act in and one out. He got confused. I have said this before. He was confused. He thought they said one Prime Minister in and one Prime Minister out. That is what he said. He got confused, which was not hard for Kevvy. The fact of the matter is, the Prime Minister of the day, Kevin Rudd, said, 'We are going to take the scissors to red tape, compliance and regulation.' The scissors got lost, but guess who found them? The current Leader of the Opposition found the scissors, and they ended up in the back of two Prime Ministers, and it was certainly 'one Prime Minister in, one Prime Minister out.'

But I digress; the third key reform area is to fuel economic growth. You do not fuel economic growth by getting in the way of business, overloading them and breaking their back with reporting and compliance issues. We want to get on top of that.

The fourth key reform in the area of regulation and red-tape reduction, is common-sense reforms. Let us put the common-sense reform test and filter everything we do through that. That is what this government is doing. All ministers are committed to doing this, because they have been instructed to do so from the very top. Our Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, wants to see this as something that is not just talked about but in fact enacted by every minister of every department.

Getting out of the road of business is the most important thing that I think government can do. Yes, we need to stimulate the economy by the way in which we work with the levers that we have available to us as a government. But at the end of the day, the last thing they want to see is us intervening in their lives, continually putting our footprint in their front door, continually sending them another form to fill in, another fee to pay. They are over it and they want us to break the back of that environment in which they try and do business. This is an important matter that has been raised by the honourable member, and whilst we may have a little argy-bargy and a little bit of theatre and some humour in this, it is a very serious matter. Our approach to regulation is one of a very positive nature. (Time expired)

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