Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, then, for your silence while that indulgence took place, Mr Deputy Speaker; it was very kind of you.

I am in continuation on this omnibus bill and was referring to changes that the government had been making, through this bill, to make life easier for constituents across Australia. One way the government will be doing this is through Centrelink. It is achieved through the Tell Us Once service, available on myGov. It allows Australians to access a single account and one set of credentials for myriad government services and agencies. This alone will deliver compliance savings of $5.4 million, but the savings in gained productivity will be immeasurably more.

Since it was elected the government has been ensuring that it does everything it can to ease the regulatory burden on the average Australian citizen. The target has been a reduction of $1 billion in red tape, annually, and we have done this in the first two years of office. It makes sure that we diminish regulatory burden where it matters most for Australians and businesses, and it will continue to be a priority of the coalition government.

In a world of instant and ubiquitous communications technology we take for granted the access to a mobile phones, but we must be aware of what they can provide when it comes to driving efficiencies. For small telecommunications retailers and customers of prepaid mobiles, identity checks have previously been cumbersome and lengthy. They have deterred customers and slowed down what should be a simple business. This bill will make work easier for small businesses and telecommunications retailers, in particular.

We are making identity checks simpler and easier. This means that when someone wants to buy a prepaid mobile phone, that process is more common sense and faster. We all know, from family experience, how often mobile-phone technology is updated and how often we need to update that technology for ourselves, our kids or our partners et cetera. Once we have been through this process it is common sense that—through the checks around it—you do not have to continually fill out huge compliance forms.

This change will provide an annual compliance saving of $6.2 million. When you think of the size of the Commonwealth budget, $6.2 million is not an enormous figure, but we have seen through these regulatory repeals that every amount you can take out of the system, whether it be $6 million, $16 million or $160 million, adds up and does its little bit. It adds up for the citizens of this nation—the people we as a government are focused on delivering better outcomes to. A minute less for them in filling out a form, which is basically what this element does, is a minute more that they get to spend doing things that are of importance to them—with friends, with children et cetera.

But more than these measures, which are drops in the ocean of the regulation that we have yet to repeal in this package, we are also lifting restrictions on using personal electronic devices so travellers can use them during all phases of flights. That use of in-flight mode will mean annual compliance savings of $17.7 million. It will also mean that the member for Isaacs will not be threatened with being ejected from the plane for refusing to turn his phone off, which will no doubt be of great comfort to him. We all know that when we jump on board a plane is usually the time text messages start coming in and phones start ringing. I am sure many fellow travellers between Melbourne and Canberra will save time and be thankful for that.

We will also be improving the ATO website so that six million Australians can find relevant information more quickly. This simple idea will create annual compliance savings of $48.5 million. When you add these compliance measures up you start to see why we have been able to deliver savings of over $1 billion annually since we brought in these repeal days. Making life simpler and making government easier to deal with not only saves money but also creates productivity. Again, this is how we will deliver in this century—by harnessing technology to create productivity.

This bill also implements an easier monthly PAYG method for certain businesses. If you were to ask any small business owner in a rural or regional community what they would rather be doing, all of them would say serving clients and customers rather than doing paperwork for the government. These businesses that choose to use this new method of PAYG will only need to calculate their instalment income on a quarterly basis. With this paperwork burden gone, there will be an annual compliance saving of $2.7 million. Many of these small changes do not add up to hefty sums, as I was saying previously, but every dollar saved can be reinvested in the community to deliver even more productivity and returns for Australians.

Other measures introduced by this bill to create productivity include reforming the 457 visa program—streamlining the processing of sponsorship, nomination and visa applications to reduce the time and cost to businesses, providing annual savings of $29.9 million. We have removed the requirement for heavy vehicle operators of B-double truck combinations registered under the Federal Interstate Registration Scheme to fit additional spray suspension devices, providing annual compliance savings of $8.3 million. Students who receive government payments are now able to change their details online at a time that best suits them, without being required to contact a call centre or attend a service centre, providing annual compliance savings of $2.7 million. Certain types of low-risk animal feed for both stock and companion animals will be excluded from the need for Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority regulatory assessment to better align the registration requirements for stock and pet food with the well-understood risks associated with their ingredients and intended use patterns. This will provide annual compliance savings of $7.8 million. And a national assessment platform which will deliver the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy, or NAPLAN, online is scheduled to be available to school staff from 2017, providing annual compliance savings of $9.7 million.

You can see, through all these measures, that this government is hell-bent on finding small, medium and large regulatory burdens so it can deal with what is occurring. This red-tape repeal day bill represents the government's continuing commitment to removing the burden of regulation from the lives of all Australians. All over Australia we are finding the remnants of a regulatory legacy, with excessive red and green tape weighing down businesses and individuals. When we came into government Commonwealth regulation was costing Australians $65 billion each and every year, which is more than the government spends on our largest welfare payment, the age pension, at $44 billion. This cost of $65 billion each year is a cost-equivalent of 4.2 per cent of our GDP to Australians and their businesses.

There is a lot more still to be done and, even though I have now given this speech across two sessions of this parliament, I re-emphasise the importance of our continuing to deregulate the economy, to unshackle the economy, to free the economy so that it can grow. We face serious challenges as a nation operating in a globalised world. We have to make sure that we can act in this globalised world in an efficient, effective and nimble manner. By reducing the regulatory burden we enable our businesses to do this. We have to ensure that we are in the top 10 when it comes to those nations that do not face a compelling regulatory burden. We are not there yet, but we as a government are determined to ensure that we will get there. This bill takes us down that path again, and I commend it to the House.

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