Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2015) Bill 2015, which continues to deliver this government's deregulation agenda. Cutting red tape is essential to building a stronger and more prosperous economy. The Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2015) Bill 2015, along with the Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 2) 2015 and the Amending Acts 1980 to 1989 Repeal Bill 2015, further cleans up the Commonwealth's statute books by repealing acts and amending unnecessary and outdated provisions. To date, the government has delivered a total deregulatory saving of $2.45 billion.

In 2014 the government introduced legislation to repeal over 10,000 legislative instruments and 1,800 acts of parliament. As of 31 December 2014, as a result of deregulatory measures introduced by the government, approximately $1.5 billion in reforms have been implemented, and approximately $820 million worth of deregulatory measures identified in 2014 are in the process of being implemented. The implementation of some of these measures has been delayed by the parliament, while others are being implemented in association with the states and territories and will be enacted in due course. Through our actions, Australia's businesses, organisations, families and individuals are spending less time dealing with overburdensome regulation. For the first time in our history the federal government has completed a thorough and accurate stocktake of all federal regulation. We continue to identify and assess the cost of government regulation and have already implemented the means to ensure that we continue to reduce unnecessary and unviable regulation. For example, deregulation units have been established in all departmental portfolios utilising existing resources. These units are tasked with reducing red tape across all Commonwealth departments and agencies. We are also working closely with the states and territories to reduce red tape across all levels of government.

For the first time a federal government has, with a high degree of accuracy, publicly reported to parliament a downturn in the total amount and cost of federal regulation. Our goal in government is to make life easier for Australians. This means making life easier for businesses to invest and create more jobs. Individuals and families also benefit from our deregulation agenda. For individuals and Australian families it means less time in queues, less time filling out forms and less time searching for information.

Under Labor, Commonwealth regulation was costing Australians approximately $65 billion annually, an astounding 4.2 per cent of GDP. Australians were promised by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that Labor would have a 'one regulation in, one regulation out' approach to legislation. Instead, we were burdened by an avalanche of new regulations. In fact, in just 5½ years 21,000 additional regulations were introduced by the previous Labor government. This equates to 10 regulations for every day Labor were last in government.

Under the former Labor government, legislative changes, including the mining tax, the National Broadband Network, Future of Financial Advice legislation and changes to the Fair Work Act, all escaped detailed regulatory impact scrutiny following exemptions granted by then Prime Ministers Rudd and Gillard. Unfortunately, Labor's commitment to ramping up the regulatory burden was felt by every Australian. Shamefully the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness index ranked Australia 128th, out of 148 countries, for burden of government regulation. Australia also placed second last in a 2012 ranking of productivity growth by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Fortunately, this government has fulfilled its commitment to cut $1 billion in red and green tape every year. In fact, as we stand here today the government has delivered $2.45 billion worth of deregulatory savings. This is more than double our $1 billion annual target that we promised to deliver. When we held our first ever regulation repeal day, on 26 March 2014, Labor dismissed it as a joke and still continue to do so. I take this opportunity to reinforce to members opposite the success of our repeal days and the benefits realised as a result of our actions. We announced measures on our first repeal day that when fully implemented would result in gross savings in excess of $700 million in reduced compliance costs. By our second repeal day, on 29 October 2014, the government had announced measures that when fully implemented would result in net savings in excess of $2.1 billion in reduced compliance costs. Today, on our third repeal day, we can announce that our measures when fully implemented will result in net savings in excess of $2.45 billion in reduced compliance costs.

No matter how you look at these figures they cannot be dismissed as trivial. Sadly, Labor tries to do exactly that. They dismiss the facts because regulation is in their DNA and they cannot shake their addiction to increasing red and green tape at every opportunity. This is particularly damaging for small business. All members of this parliament say that they support small businesses and are committed to job growth. History, however, tells us a different story.

Labor's legacy was 200,000 more Australians unemployed as a result of their term in government. As a result of the former Labor government's actions we saw 519,000 jobs lost across the small business sector. The small business share of private sector employment fell from 53 per cent to 43 per cent, resulting in the loss of 3,000 small businesses under the former government. In regions such as the Central Coast small business collectively is our largest employer. Therefore, it is essential that the environment in which they conduct their business is free from unnecessary regulatory burden. More so, it is vital that businesses are able to grow and deliver more jobs.

The government's annual deregulation report of 2014 states:

Significant progress is being made to help free up the time spent by small businesses in meeting red tape requirements and to alleviate some of the barriers to growth prospects confronting the sector.

No-one would dispute that regulation is essential for ensuring that the rights of employers, employees and the general public are protected. However, business regulation that is inefficient or unnecessary unfortunately imposes undue costs on businesses and individuals. The average Australian business deals with eight regulators in a given year, spends close to four per cent of their total annual expenditure on complying with regulatory requirements and spends approximately 19 hours a week on compliance related activities. This is precious time that could be better utilised growing the business and delivering more jobs. Labor either does not understand or care about the regulatory burden on Australian businesses.

Unlike the former government, we have listened to the concerns of small business operators and are addressing the regulatory burden that placed a handbrake on the Australian economy. Our goal will always be to make life easier for Australians and to make it easier for businesses to invest and create more jobs. Significant progress is being made to help free up the time spent by small businesses dealing with red tape, particularly through this government's repeal days. An estimated 447,000 small businesses will benefit from administrative changes to entry thresholds for pay-as-you-go instalments. Of these, 45,000 small businesses that have no GST reporting requirements will no longer have to lodge a business activity statement where, to date, lodgements have been made only to report PAYG instalments. The remaining 402,000 small businesses with modest or negative incomes that are required to lodge a BAS will no longer have to interact with the PAYG instalment system. We are continuing to build upon these reforms with the implementation of easier monthly pay as you go payments for certain businesses. Businesses choosing to use this new method will only need to calculate their actual instalment income on a quarterly basis. It is anticipated that this will deliver annual compliance savings of $2.7 million.

Other measures in this bill to support Australian businesses include the reform of the 457 visa program by streamlining the processing of sponsorship, nomination and visa applications. Additionally we are increasing the sponsorship approval period from 12 to 18 months for start-up businesses and we are providing greater flexibility in relation to English language testing and skill requirements. This will deliver forecasted annual compliance savings of $29.9 million.

We are also improving the Australian Tax Office website so that Australian taxpayers can access information including compliance obligations in a timely manner. It is estimated that this will deliver an annual compliance saving of $48.5 million as a result of more people understanding their compliance obligations. In total, through the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes, changes to pay as you go and expanded private sector access to the government's document verification service, we have delivered a combined net saving of $194.4 million for Australian businesses.

Our regulation repeal days are just as important to Australian individuals, students and families as they are to Australian businesses. Measures for individuals contained within this bill include: implementing additional functionality for myGov users, which will allow customers to update their details in one place by using the myGov Tell Us Once service, which will enable secure and convenient access to online services with a single account and one set of credentials; and making identity checks easier for retailers and consumers when purchasing a new prepaid mobile phone. Such initiatives will contribute to approximately $29.3 million of annual compliance savings. This builds upon our previous achievement including the myTax initiative, which has reduced the amount of information. There are 1.4 million users required to supply information to the Australian Taxation Office when completing their eTax forms each year. This single measure will result in a net red tape saving of $426.3 million.

We have also made it easier for individuals to access government services. Centrelink claimants are able to check the status of their claims online, reducing the need for direct follow-up interventions by phone or in person to a Centrelink service centre. These changes will also benefit students, who will be able to upload their course selection and study percentage online, ensuring they can make changes in their own time with minimal disruption.

This bill also develops an online national assessment platform which will deliver the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy, NAPLAN, online. This is scheduled to be available from 2017 and will deliver an annual compliance forecasted saving of $9.7 million. It will also provide support to Australian farmers and the agricultural sector through the alignment of registration requirements for stock and pet food with the well understood risks associated with their ingredients and intended use.

This government understands that, in order to build a prosperous economy, we must liberate Australian businesses, community organisations, families and individuals from the burden of unnecessary compliance. We do not want to see people's time taken up with hours of unnecessary paperwork waiting in queues or searching for information when interacting with government. We are committed to working with the Australian community to ascertain how we can reduce even more red tape to help build a more productive and prosperous economy.

I would like to conclude by once again highlighting this government's achievements. As previously noted, the government has delivered a total deregulatory saving of saving of $2.45 billion. This provides: more productive businesses with the ability to generate more jobs; less time spent by families and individuals when dealing with government; greater support for students, allowing them more time to concentrate on study and work; and a stronger and more prosperous economy, where everyone is afforded opportunity to work and lead a healthy lifestyle.

This government will continue to deliver real reductions in red and green tape in order to lift the regulatory burden from Australian businesses, individuals, families and communities. And this government will continue to deliver a prosperous economy that will provide jobs. There will be high jobs and high growth, plenty of employment. After all the initiatives we have introduced in the last two years, I think it is a credit to every single person on this side of the House for everything we have achieved. We are doing a great job and I will always continue to support this government and the wonderful work we are doing. The people of Dobell finally have a decent representative and we are continuing to deliver. I will continue to deliver. I will not be bullied by unions, especially the unions who thought it was fun to vandalise my office on the weekend. They are an absolute disgrace. I stand proudly here as the member for Dobell and I will never let the unions ever take over Dobell ever again. I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context