Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small Business. Minister, how is the government reducing red tape for Australian businesses, and how will this help the many small business owners in my electorate of Ryan?

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Ryan for a great question, and the great work she does for 14,500 small businesses operating in her electorate. We know, as she knows—as we hope most of this House would know—that small business is groaning under the regulatory burden introduced by the previous government. As many as 21,000 new or amended regulations were introduced by Labor in just six years, and we know small business does the heavy lifting in creating jobs and economic opportunities. They do not expect to be the heavy lifters of regulation, red-tape, and compliance burdens in this economy.

We went to the election with a commitment to remove a billion dollars worth of red tape out of the economy, a billion dollars—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Oxley will desist—

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

that will free up the burden that gums up the economy with excessive and unnecessary red-tape. We have tried, we have good form on this.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Oxley will desist or leave.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have fantastic form on this. We have tried for years to lift the pay-clerk burden off employers under the government's paid parental leave scheme. We have tried, but it has been voted down twice by Labor. They said it was so important to impose this burden, for which there was no policy justification at all—just cost and compliance burdens for those left to administer it. Then in the dying days of the election campaign, what did Labor realise? That the pay-clerk burden is completely unjustified. They came out looking for a small business policy, could come up with no ideas of their own, and despite having voted against this measure twice when they were in government, they suddenly promised they would follow the coalition. We tested that resolve. We put forward a measure to end the pay-clerk burden, to save the business community $44 million, and guess what happened? Labor went back to type. They forgot about their election promises, they forgot about the red-tape compliance burden, they voted against $44 million of compliance cost savings that would have resulted from relieving the business community of the pay-clerk burden.

We will persevere Member for Ryan. Please reassure your electorate that we will persevere. We know that small business does the heavy lifting in creating jobs, economic opportunity and prosperity in this country. We know that under Labor our position on government regulation, when compared by the World Economic Forum, saw Australia fall from 68th to 128th—hardly the kind of performance record you want. We want to turn that around. The government is committed to doing it—lifting this red-tape burden of the PPL pay-clerk is part of that.

For those opposite, if you want to see how we are going, check out a great website. It is www.cuttingredtape.gov.au, for those businesses that are dealing with needless, pointless, expensive red tape. Contribute to this work. We are committed to lifting a billion dollars of red tape and putting the enterprise back into our economy. We will persevere in getting this PPL pay-clerk lifted off as a red-tape burden on our economy.