Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Many members speak about how rewarding it is to help constituents who are struggling with some issue of government administration: managing an NDIS plan, resolving a dispute over Centrelink payments or ensuring that passports and visas are processed. It is deeply rewarding to be able to help people and solve a problem that is causing them stress and strain, but I find it also deeply frustrating. It is frustrating that our government has so many issues and so few opportunities for resolution that constituents have to come to their local MP to be the hero. It's frustrating that government agencies aren't responsive to these issues or accountable to their shortcomings, and it's frustrating when these agencies create special workarounds, like hotlines for MPs, rather than fixing the underlying problem so that every person who applies to them can get the answer that that they need in the time frame that is reasonable.

Good government isn't just about leaders being honest, public money being used soundly and donations being transparent. It's also about agencies. It's about the mechanisms of government being responsive to the people they serve and accountable when they fall short of expectations and about having a pursuit of excellence to make sure that Australians get the services they deserve.

The ACCC is a prime example. When it comes to competition complaints, they're supposed to complete an initial investigation within three months. Their performance target is to do that 60 per cent of the time, which seems a relatively low bar, but last financial year only 34 per cent of those investigations were completed on time. Their performance in the previous year wasn't much better. In-depth investigations are supposed to be completed in 12 months. Their target is to do that 70 per cent of the time, but they only managed to do that for 42 per cent of complaints. So we have a regulator with seemingly lenient targets who is nonetheless failing to meet this. If the targets are wrong, let's talk about this, but these are their own targets and they're consistently failing on them.

What is the government's response? As far as I can tell, there's no additional resourcing, there's no internal process change and there are no executives leaving for underperformance or, really, focused on this performance. Instead, I feel the government is taking the easy way out, by creating a workaround—a special pathway for certain consumer groups to make complaints that will supposedly be fast tracked. It's a pretty underwhelming response and one that I think lacks genuine accountability.

ACCC underperformance isn't just a passing frustration. These complaints are often made by small businesses who have experienced some sort of misconduct and don't have other practical forms of recourse. I talked earlier about the ACCC's performance guidelines, three months and 12 months being some of the guidelines. If you're a business and this issue of competition is fundamentally affecting your business's chance of survival, you don't have three months, six months or 12 months to get that sorted out and hope that you'll get a response, because the issue ahead of you might be absolutely fundamental. And what are your other recourses? You can go to the Federal Court, which is in itself expensive and slow. An example shared with me was a franchisor who was mistreated and sought to sue the franchisee. The franchisee then sought a court order that required the small business to show that it could pay $1 million worth of costs if it lost. The action was discontinued, justice was denied and the misconduct lives on. Frankly, I don't think this piece of legislation does anything to address this and I don't think there's an agenda to address these fundamental issues.

There are 1½ million people who own a small business in Australia. Many experience misconduct, but the majority don't take it to the ACCC because they don't have the confidence it will lead to a useful resolution. This is one reason why small businesses feel disconnected from and not supported by this government—and by previous governments. I do believe that many businesses welcomed the change of government, particularly in relation to climate action and having a stronger and more stable investment framework for climate action. They were hoping for reforms. But at this stage I don't think the government has a proper agenda to make this place the best place in the world to grow and start a business. And if it doesn't have that agenda, then it isn't looking after the long-term prosperity of this nation. This is a government that in various instances has piled on additional regulation but hasn't done the other side of the work, which would be to ease the regulatory burden—or at least to make sure that government services are there to support businesses when they need support.

Let's look at industrial relations. Businesses were working; they turned up to the Jobs and Skills Summit to try and work with government, unions another players to come up with priorities that would fit needs across the community and to provide a pathway to higher pay for workers; more security and opportunities for casuals; and to better support those experiencing domestic violence. But I don't think the government came to the other side by engaging with business to find solutions that worked for them. Instead, the government proposed sweeping reforms that were going to be costly to implement, difficult to administer and wouldn't provide long-term growth in wages or conditions. Frankly, if you talk to small business owners about the conditions in the legislation they're just not across them, because they're complex and it's not their day job. But, again, the government doesn't have the perspective on how to make this workable in the real world.

I don't think the government has offered trade-offs, or said: 'We'll ask you to do something and it will be difficult on this side. But let us give you something that's actually going to make a real difference on the other side.' I'd say that awards are a prime example of this, and I've had this conversation time and time again with the minister for industrial relations. The awards are complex, unworkable instruments that create confusion and division. A young person can't pick up the retail award, which I think goes to over 70 pages, to work out how much they should be paid. Why not? It should be a fundamental requirement that it's understandable for someone who isn't an employment lawyer. But that doesn't happen. Award simplification could make a huge difference, enabling productivity gains, wage gains and job creation. It could help avoid the wage theft issues which have plagued so many businesses across the country. And while we're absolutely appalled by those people who seek to deliberately underpay their workers, it's absolutely ironic to see government agencies—or agencies under government, such as universities, the ABC and the government's own Department of Employment and Workplace Relations—being caught underpaying their own wages because of the complexity of the awards. It is written in black and white and it is a problem, but the government isn't doing this because it doesn't have an agenda for how to make it easier for businesses to run and build businesses in this country.

The government does talk a big talk when it comes to growth, business investment and productivity, but in many areas the walk just doesn't match the talk. I want to call the government out. There are some areas where I feel the government has moved forward, including some of the migration reform to make it simpler. Some of the work they're doing in trade is also important, as is investment in education. Those are really important in driving productivity, and I want to give credit where credit's due. There is also the work on competition. All those things can help drive productivity, but they are not enough, and the government is missing in action on some of the most important drivers of productivity, including tax reform and industrial relations reform, through a productivity lens but also just in the fundamentals of how to make it easier to start and grow a business in Australia. I don't think the government is making enough effort for the thousands of businesses struggling with interest rate rises, surging input costs and the labour shortage.

In fairness to the government, I don't think the previous government was doing a much better job. I feel there's a movement across this place to have a go at business and to take pot shots. I, like anybody in this country, believe that business needs to behave in an ethical manner and look after its customers, its suppliers and its people. But I think there's this rhetoric at the moment where it's easy to blame business but government is not on side in terms of actually making a difference to make it easier for business.

I have two questions and two challenges that I want to put to the government of the day but also to the whole parliament. I think we need two different visions in this country to the ones that we have. Firstly, we need a vision for what it takes for Australia to be the best place to build and grow a business, because, if we don't have that, our prosperity is not assured. Secondly, I want a vision of a government which is genuinely there to serve the community and has an attitude of accountability for its service.

Let me start with the first point. We talk a lot about productivity in this place. Why do we talk about it? Because productivity growth is the only sustainable source of wage growth that we have, so, if we're not growing productivity, we will not grow real wages. Many people in this place, I think, treat business as if it is constantly doing the wrong thing. If we do not have a business sector that is growing and thriving, we cannot pay for any of the public services that people are passionate about. Australia's prosperity—and we are an incredibly prosperous country—is built on the success of our businesses, but that prosperity is not assured into the future. I am concerned about our falling foreign investment rates. I am concerned about our productivity lagging. I am concerned about the fact that we're not investing in research and development as we should be to stay on the curve. I'm concerned when I talk to small and growing businesses in this country who tell me that government is the hardest customer to deal with and that they do not get backing even at the procurement end. At the same time, government is constantly imposing barriers and obligations on them without having an agenda to make their lives easier. So the vision I am seeking is that this country be the best place to start and grow businesses and the most attractive place for other countries to invest, because we should be trying to attract foreign capital. If we do this well, we have the greatest opportunity to provide wonderful jobs, growth and prosperity of the kinds that underline this country and have built the success of this country to date.

The second vision I am seeking from this government and have sought from previous governments and that I believe this House should be focused on is how to make government truly accountable, truly serving the community and adopting an attitude of service—one that is engaged with those it serves and responsive to their concerns and challenges. When I look across the country and say, 'Where do we have this?' I see this in Service NSW, which is one of the best government agencies in the country if not the world, because it is run with the customer, who is the citizen, in mind. It has identified what the customer, who is the citizen, is looking for from government services, and it does its best. It adapts the best from the private sector and from around the world to provide excellence in service. It is accountable to its performance metrics, and that is absolutely critical. Its mission is to provide excellent service and quality at optimal cost. Anyone who has dealt with Service NSW will know that it truly delivers on its mission and understand why it is so highly regarded.

I was speaking yesterday to Richard White, who is the founder of WiseTech, one of the great Australian tech stories and an incredibly successful company. We were talking about government services, and he said, 'Service NSW have been transformational.' So we know we can do it. We know that we can provide government services that truly exceed expectations, but we do not pursue it across enough areas. The ACCC is one of those areas. I feel like we need to make sure that the ACCC knows that its job is to be responsive to the citizens and small businesses that rely on its work, to make sure that they get justice in terms of the issues that affect them.

I believe that good government is about genuinely dealing with the problems that people and businesses are facing. It's about being accountable and responsive. I am supporting this bill, not because I particularly love this workaround—and I see this particularly as a workaround; I'm supporting this bill because it will help consumers and businesses. But I think that this is actually a symptom of the problems in government and the lack of accountability, rather than anything that should be applauded. We need to rethink this so that everybody who has an issue with the ACCC can get justice and at least a response, rather than just those people who get a fast-tracked workaround to the problems the agency has.

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