Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this bill, the Regulatory Powers (Standardisation Reform) Bill 2020. When it comes to legislation, it doesn't get much better than this. I'll give a general warning to anybody who may be watching or listening to this: you should probably pull over to the side of the road, lest you fall asleep. There's the general warning!

This is not what you would call the most exciting piece of legislation, but it's an important piece of legislation nonetheless, and I don't want to diminish it. There are some very important aspects of this. The Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act provides for a standard suite of provisions in relation to monitoring and investigation powers as well as enforcement provisions through the use of civil penalties, infringement notices, enforceable undertakings and injunctions. These provisions are designed to simplify and streamline regulatory powers across the Commonwealth statute book, and they represent best-practice legislation. The Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act commenced on 1 October 2014. It only has effect where Commonwealth acts are drafted or amended to trigger its provisions. This standardisation project is the second of its kind. It follows the Regulatory Powers (Standardisation Reform) Act 2017, which amended 15 Commonwealth acts to repeal existing provisions providing for regulatory regimes in those acts and instead trigger the standard provisions of the regulatory powers act. It's all very fascinating.

The bill amends the following Commonwealth acts to trigger the standard provisions: the Defence Force Discipline Act, the Education Services for Overseas Students Act, the Fisheries Management Act, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act, the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act and the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act. Some of these acts contain existing regulatory regimes. This bill replaces these with the standard provisions to align the acts' regulatory regimes with the standard provisions. I note that the member for Berowra has come into the chamber. He also wants a piece of the action, to talk about this extremely important piece of legislation. The bill provides additional powers for current regulatory regimes in some acts to ensure that they are robust and align with best practice. The bill also provides some regulatory powers to acts which do not currently contain regulatory regimes but require regulatory powers to ensure a robust compliance and enforcement scheme. Modifications to the standard powers are included where necessary for effective regulation in the context of each act. The bill also makes minor amendments to the regulatory powers act to ensure that the regulatory requirements and underlying penalty and offence provisions of acts that trigger the regulatory powers act can be effectively enforced.

I want to talk a little bit about the specific acts that this bill impacts upon. The Fisheries Management Act is a very, very important piece of legislation. It's very important for my constituents and for the commercial fishers in Fisher. It's not a particularly well-known fact that the good seat of Fisher, on the glorious Sunshine Coast, is home to the largest commercial fishing fleet on the eastern seaboard of Australia for tuna and prawns. We have some absolutely fantastic local businesses in Fisher, like Walker Seafoods, which operates out of Mooloolaba. At the end of the day, what this government is all about is deregulation and making life simpler for small businesses. I get very excited when I can point to legislation—the member for Berowra is going to throw me off track here—which makes life easier for the businesses in my electorate and reduces the legislative burden upon them. This bill will do just that. The commercial fishers in the seat of Fisher, operating out of the Mooloolaba harbour, are all extremely hardworking men and women. They employ hundreds of locals. It's a tough gig to be a commercial fisherperson. I've spent a lot of time working with people at the wharf. The good people of Fisher working as fishers out of Mooloolaba will directly benefit from this revolutionary piece of legislation.

We often talk about how this place can be very hostile and about the politics of the day. I want to do a bit of a shout-out to those opposite. I'm hoping that the shadow minister at the table will look at me because I'm going to say something nice. The Tobacco Plain Packaging Act—introduced when Nicola Roxon, I think, was Attorney-General at the time—was a world-leading piece of legislation, which, as we all know, removed the branding from cigarette packets. I think that was a world first and it has made a fairly significant impact, particularly on young people's smoking rates. We all know that for many years, on both sides of politics, we have not allowed cigarette advertising on television and in newspapers. To go off on a tangent for one moment, it's my fervent hope, desire and wish that we follow the same approach to gambling as we have with cigarettes. But that's for another day.

The other act that I want to go to in relation to this bill is the Defence Force Discipline Act. The good seat of Fisher, and probably the Sunshine Coast more particularly, is home to around about 15,000 veterans. If you are going to discharge from the ADF, there's no better place to discharge to than the glorious Sunshine Coast. We have one of the largest veteran populations on the Sunshine Coast. The Defence Force Discipline Act is a very, very important piece of legislation which administers discipline to members of the ADF. Speaking of the ADF, I was very saddened to see today that the Victorian state government has cancelled Anzac Day marches. It's okay for the Victorian state government to have the Australian Open and for them to allow all sorts of demonstrations on the streets of Melbourne, but, for some absolutely bizarre reason, the Victorian state government have come out today and said that they will not allow marches on Anzac Day. Member for Berowra, you're perhaps a lot smarter than me. When you come up to the microphone, you might be able to tell us why you think that might be. I don't understand why it would be.

See this speech in context