Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I am talking about the subject at hand—that is, communications and media—and it's extraordinary, because it's an amendment to it. If you have to protect the government in relation to that, that's your business, Deputy Speaker. Item 11 of the bill makes the monumental step of inserting a hyphen into the phrase 'full time' in the Fair Work Act—to make 'full-time employee'. I'm sure Australians are desperate for this reform! We have the situation where there is insecure work and a lack of employment opportunities, and the government is not even protecting penalty rates. There are 1.8 million Australians either unemployed or underemployed, and the government is adding a hyphen to a phrase in the Fair Work Act. That's fine, but they should be fighting to protect penalty rates, can I say. But that's the best they can do.

Item 16 of the bill continues the war on hyphens, and in subsection 64(3) of My Health Records Act 2012 removes a hyphen from a phrase. It's actually moving the hyphen from one word to another. That's what the government is doing. This is the government of the Medicare freeze, and that's what they can do about health care—take a hyphen from one word and put it in another. It's an amazing piece of legislative change, when we have the situation in my home state of Queensland, unbelievably, that the cost of visiting a GP has gone up 11 per cent—meaning an increase of $7.70 for each visit for Queenslanders. Amazing, in the circumstances!

Items 22 to 26 of the bill amend the Work Health and Safety Act to remove incorrect cross-references to state and territory work health and safety laws. Forget about the fact that the government's done absolutely nothing to make workplaces safe for mums and dads who head off to work each day; forget about the ill-conceived attacks we see each day on the union movement during question time. I'm sure workers can rest easy now that a few inconsequential lines in the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 will be scrapped!

Item 1, schedule 3, of the bill repeals the redundant section 122A of the Defence Act. I'm sure that's a great relief to the people of the RAAF Base Amberley in my electorate! Let's not forget for a minute the fact that those men and women who serve at the military base in Ipswich have to endure the Cunningham Highway, which this government has failed to upgrade for four years.

The member for Warringah, the former Prime Minister, rolled out the grand plan for this type of bill that's before the chamber today, the red tape repeal day. Honestly, this government should do much better. This government really hasn't learnt much. But I appreciate the fact that we're here. When legislation came before the parliament, it was a sham and offered very little in terms of deregulatory savings, as this bill does very little in terms of deregulatory savings. We accept that, but it's the hollow rhetoric that I'm so upset about. I am pleased that on 4 February 2016 the Turnbull government announced it would scrap the twice-yearly red tape repeal days and that we're dealing with this stuff in the Federation Chamber. They ditched the US Tea Party rhetoric—I'm pleased about that, and I'm pleased they've done this. It's all about making sure the redundant, obsolete provisions in legislation are fixed—and where there's a semicolon that's right and the spelling is wrong that that is fixed. Legislative certainly is important for businesses and for those who deal with legislation. But don't rest your whole government on it. Don't waste whole days on it.

In conclusion, this is an example of how ineffectual this government is. We won't stand in the way of this legislation—one of their better pieces of legislation, and I commend them for it. It's non-controversial. It's a simple housekeeping measure. We think this is good legislation. We should never forget that legislation is important for the Australian economy. We can't let down Australians. Australians deserve better. I commend the government for doing the right thing and not making much of it. Thank you very much.

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