Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always a pleasure to follow the member for Hume and his fulsome coverage of the many issues that this country is facing under those opposite. I'm pleased to stand in this chamber and support the package of measures in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Modernising Business Communications and Other Measures) Bill 2022, given that it is a piece of legislation and a piece of work that largely was put in place by the former coalition government. As the member for Hume has rightly touched on, it focuses on the need to reduce red tape and regulation and the cost of doing business.

Looking at that particular aspect and going through a list of some of the red tape that currently exists across our economy, independent research has shown that the cost of red tape in our economy is some $176 billion a year. What could we do with $176 billion freed up from regulation and red tape, or even a portion of that? It would allow our business community to grow and prosper and develop and maybe develop new ideas. People might take the chance and the opportunity to open a new business, to employ more Australians, on a full-time or a part-time basis, or whatever works for those employees. When I talk to small businesses across my electorate—and the member for Hume touched on this very well in his contribution—red tape is one of the biggest issues they talk to me about consistently.

The reason small to medium business talk to me about red tape and regulation is that we have a one-size-fits-all regulatory model, which doesn't reflect differences and different sizes of business. If you're a large, multinational business, you have HR department, a legal department and a whole variety of departments that can manage the red tape challenge that faces our economy. If you're a small business, such as a local café, a local mechanic shop, a local manufacturer or any number of small businesses across my electorate, you don't have all of those resources. The owners of the business are that resource. They have to work out how they spread their time across dealing with the red tape issues and, more importantly, growing their business, serving their customers, developing new products and developing new ideas. We know that it is actually the small to medium businesses in this country that are the drivers of innovation and new ideas in our economy. Many of our large businesses now are no more than big bureaucracies. They're a private sector version of the bureaucracy. It's where ideas don't get developed, because they no longer wish to take the risk that maybe they once did to grow their business to that size.

Let's have a look at some of these figures. APRA pointed out in a recent issues paper that modernising prudential regulations is important because there are currently 140 different prudential standards and practice guides. As the member for Hume touched on, the Basel framework that affects our financial services sector has gone from 300 pages before the global financial crisis to more than 1,600 pages today. The Corporations Act has almost doubled in size since 2001 and now contains some 14,500 internal cross-references. The Law Reform Commission pointed out that the consolidated legislative framework for Australia's financial services sector runs at over 43,000 pages. These figures should scare everyone in this chamber. Somewhere along the line, somebody in some business has got to understand and be across these regulations and this challenge of meeting this red tape burden.

Let's have a look at some of these figures. APRA pointed out in a recent issues paper that modernising prudential regulations is important because there are currently 140 different prudential standards and practice guides. As the member for Hume touched on, the Basel framework that affects our financial services sector has gone from 300 pages before the global financial crisis to more than 1,600 pages today. The Corporations Act has almost doubled in size since 2001 and now contains some 14,500 internal cross-references. The Law Reform Commission pointed out that the consolidated legislative framework for Australia's financial services sector runs at over 43,000 pages. These figures should scare everyone in this chamber. Somewhere along the line, somebody in some business has got to understand and be across these regulations and this challenge of meeting this red tape burden. Of course, we will always require a level of regulation to ensure that our economy functions properly and that businesses and people do the right things, but we need to ensure that that regulation is fit for purpose for a modern, 21st-century economy, and I think it's fair to say that that's probably not the case.

In addition, this bill also introduces some other schedules that make amendments to give effect to the ability to communicate for meetings and other matters in a more broadbrush manner using the technology that's available today rather than the narrow list of ways that are currently in place. Schedule 2 introduces amendments to implement the recommendations of the ALRC review. Schedule 3 rationalises a number of ASIC instruments. That's an important step. We know that ASIC does some really good work. In my time on the corporations and financial services committee, where we had ASIC in front of us regularly, we had some very good discussions about the range of work they were doing on a wide variety of matters. But, with any of that work, sometimes, somewhere along the way, you can get captured in your focus on what you're doing and maybe not look outside the box for solutions or not look for the solutions necessary to make things simpler and more streamlined. So that is a good measure. As always, making minor and technical amendments along the way is an important piece of governing.

This bill revives a bill that was put into this place by the previous government. I'm pleased to see that the government is taking this on board and proceeding with this legislation because, if we can free up our regulatory environment and ensure that it is fit for purpose not only for big business but also for our small to medium-sized businesses—which are the predominant type of business across my electorate of Forde—it will make those businesses more profitable, more efficient and more able to focus on their day-to-day needs in terms of servicing their customers, developing new products and building and growing our economic wealth.

It is in our small to medium-sized businesses, across this country, where our wealth and economic activity is generated. We hear stories all the time about big mining companies, big banks and our big institutions, but it's the small to medium-sized businesses that are the majority employers in this nation. As I said earlier, it's where much of our innovation and new ideas are developed, grown and built. It is this part of the economy that will benefit most from this red tape reduction. I hope, that through this legislation and, hopefully, much more to come to continue this process, we will see our regulatory environment become fit for purpose for the 21st century, so that everybody in our economy benefits—most importantly, the Australian people. I commend the bill to the House.

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