Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to rise and speak on this omnibus bill. As at the government's third repeal day, we have made decisions designed to decrease the $65 billion regulatory cost burden by a massive $2.5 billion. To date, we have implemented $1.57 billion in red-tape savings, with another $800 million in the pipeline. What we are seeing now is that Australia has the most precise, comprehensive and transparent program to reverse the growing costs of red tape on the Australian economy.

The coalition government has now very proudly repealed more than 10,300 legislative instruments and introduced legislation to repeal over 2,700 acts of parliament. The coalition set itself a target to reduce the regulatory burden by $1 billion a year. Not only did we exceed that net target by more than double in our first year, but we are now on our way to meeting a fresh, new $1 billion target for 2015.

For the first time in Australian history, a Commonwealth government has undertaken a thorough and accurate stock take of all federal regulatory costs and is consistently measuring and reducing the cost of Commonwealth government red tape on Australian businesses, organisations, families and individuals. In the last year of the former Labor government, Commonwealth regulation was costing Australians approximately $65 billion per year, and that is a remarkable 4.2 per cent of GDP. Now, for the first time, a Commonwealth government has, with a very high degree of accuracy, publicly reported to parliament a downturn in the total amount and cost of federal regulation.

As we have heard in some of the contributions before the parliament today, some of the key measures in the autumn 2015 repeal day include implementing additional functionality for myGov users to allow customers to update their details in one place using the myGov Tell Us Once service. That will help users obtain secure and convenient access to online services with a single account and one set of credentials. I know that in the past that has been very frustrating for users, so that will really streamline things considerably and make a real difference. Identity checks will be made simpler and easier for retailers and consumers when consumers purchase new prepaid mobile phones. That is an annual compliance saving of $6.2 million.

These red-tape savings have done things like lift restrictions on using personal electronic devices so travellers can use their PEDs during all phases of flights. That is a saving of $17.7 million. There has been an improvement to the ATO website so that six million Australians can find relevant information more quickly. That saving, and that time saving, has produced an annual compliance saving of $48.5 million. It will also now be easier to implement monthly PAYG payments for certain businesses. Businesses choosing this method of payment will only need to calculate their actual instalment income on a quarterly basis. That produces an annual compliance saving of $2.7 billion.

The 457 visa program has been reformed, streamlining the processing of sponsorship nomination and visa applications to reduce the time and cost to businesses. We have also removed the requirement for heavy vehicle operators of the B-double truck combinations registered under the Federal Interstate Registration Scheme to fit additional spray suppression devices, giving annual compliance savings of $8.3 million.

In many cases, these are very specific changes to the regulatory burden on particular businesses or industry sectors, but they are very important to those sectors. When I talk to small businesses in my electorate of Corangamite—and, very proudly, there are about 11,800 small businesses operating in Corangamite—it is not enough to say we need to fix the red-tape burden. Businesses need to specify, with a lot of detail, what the red-tape burden is and what we as a government need to do. We understand the problem, but what is the solution? What we are seeing is a government that addresses the problem, but also specifically looks at the solution.

I should add that 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. That gives annual compliance savings of $2.7 million. We all know how frustrating it can be on a call centre line. Perhaps my worst frustration is dealing with the Telstra call centre. When I ran a small business it was perhaps my biggest frustration and it still drives me nuts when I have to ring Telstra. So anything that we as a government can do to streamline these processes and minimise the time that people are waiting on phone calls produces a direct benefit to those particular businesses.

The coalition's goal is to make life easier for Australians, to make it easier for businesses to invest and to create more jobs. Those are our focuses: innovation, jobs growth, opportunity. In my electorate of Corangamite, we have a very strong focus on the smart jobs of the future. It was with absolute pride—and I spoke about this in the Federation Chamber this morning—that last week I helped open the Carbon Revolution factory, which is an absolute hub of innovation, assisted by the member for Sturt, the new Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Christopher Pyne. It is a great example of what our government is doing to drive jobs growth in our region through the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund. In our region, as with all other parts of Australia, we know how important it is to drive those jobs and opportunities.

Fifteen million dollars of the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund, while announced by the previous government, has been delivered by our government. It has created in excess of 700 jobs. Very disappointingly, the state Labor government committed $7.5 million to that fund. Daniel Andrews and state Labor have reneged on the promise to commit that money to the fund. That is a terrible and appalling decision by state Labor. It is another terrible broken promise which has a direct impact on jobs in our region. Again, I call on Daniel Andrews and state Labor to commit and keep the promise to deliver $7.5 million into the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund. I see that the likes of the member for Corio are completely silent, not saying a word about this terrible broken promise which has a direct impact on jobs. That money is critical for our region and Daniel Andrews cannot walk away from that commitment; he cannot walk away from that promise. We are just about to announce the next round of funding under the GRIIF, as it is called, which will deliver more jobs for many businesses across our region, but, of course, another $7.5 million would make an enormous difference.

Very recently, the national $14 million Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre was announced for Geelong. That will be established at Waurn Ponds, in the wonderful Deakin University industry precinct. That is going to be a game-changer for driving innovation and smart jobs in the advanced manufacturing sector, with a very strong focus on future fibres. The work that we are doing as a city on the future of carbon fibre, underpinned by Carbon Nexus and Carbon Revolution, is quite extraordinary.

I should also add that, as part of our government's drive for jobs growth, opportunity and innovation, we have very strong focus on investing in infrastructure. Across the region that I proudly represent, we are rolling out the NBN to some 40,000 premises right across the Golden Plains, the Surf Coast and the Colac-Otway region—a region that was forgotten by the previous government. The big challenge is the NBN rollout in Geelong. I am advocating very hard to be new Minister for Communications, Senator Mitch Fifield, that this rollout must be expedited in Geelong. We are getting on with the business of rolling out that infrastructure. For country communities, no program better demonstrates our commitment than our mobile phone base station program to fix mobile black spots across the country. Now $160 million has been committed. There will be 10 new mobile base stations across Corangamite. That will make an enormous difference in places like Kawarren, Gellibrand and Dereel—right across the areas affected by bushfire risk. We know how important communications are with bushfire being such a high risk throughout the Otway region and many other parts along the Surf Coast and throughout Victoria.

We are very proudly duplicating the Princes Highway between Waurn Ponds and Colac. We are upgrading the Great Ocean Road in partnership with the Victorian government. There is a $50 million commitment, with $25 million committed by our government and $25 million committed by the previous Liberal government. This is the road that federal Labor forgot. This is the road that they campaigned against. They saw no value in investing in the Great Ocean Road. That is federal Labor for you. But this project is vital for our region. It is an iconic road—the centrepiece of more than $2 million of economic activity in our region, and we are very proud about what that is doing in Lorne and Anglesea and down at Separation Creek and Wye River.

I am also proud to have launched a local campaign to duplicate the rail track between the South Geelong and Waurn Ponds stations. This is a very important project for our region. We have seen the regional rail link, and about $1.5 billion towards the regional rail link was actually delivered by our government—of course, it was started by the previous Labor government. But there are big problems with the regional rail link. The new timetables have forgotten country communities, particularly Colac. The new timetable no longer allows people living in Colac to get to work on time, if they are working in Melbourne, and it is even a struggle if they are working in Geelong. So we have seen the new Polwarth candidate, Richard Riordan, commit to six additional services coming to and from Colac—six extra services per week, which is fantastic. Labor cares so much about this issue that they have not even run a candidate in Polwarth. They have completely forgotten the Polwarth electorate and the Colac Otway region. It is terrific to see that Richard Riordan, the Polwarth candidate, has tackled this issue head on, and, under the leadership of Matthew Guy, the opposition leader, has addressed what is a critical issue.

I was very proud to take Warren Truss, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, to see this very important project. It will mean a very big difference for people commuting from Marshall and from Waurn Ponds, and right along the railway to Colac. The single line really inhibits the number of passenger train services that can operate each day. Before 8 o'clock there are some 13 services from Geelong, but from Waurn Ponds and Marshall there are about half that number. Not only are we delivering this important infrastructure to help drive jobs growth and to help small businesses, but we are also fighting for new infrastructure. That is very important.

The other critical jobs growth opportunity, not just for your region but for Australia is our free trade agreements with China, South Korea and Japan, particularly for farmers and for agriculture. I have to say that it is with great disappointment that we are seeing a reckless and irresponsible campaign against the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. If this agreement is not ratified and the enabling legislation is not passed quickly in this parliament, agriculture will miss out on two rounds of tariff cuts and $300 million in revenue to the agriculture sector. This is an incredibly important initiative and economic reform for Corangamite, for farmers, for agriculture and for the whole of Australia.

It is my great pleasure to speak on the omnibus bill. It is my great pleasure to support the government in its very strong efforts and achievements in cutting the regulatory burden on small business. It is my great pleasure, as the member for Corangamite, to continue my fight for jobs, for infrastructure investment and for the environment.

See this speech in context