Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. Will the minister outline to the House how the government's approach to cutting red tape and unnecessary regulation will benefit the telecommunications and media sectors?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The telecommunications and media sectors are, of course, among the most innovative parts of our economy—innovation at an accelerating pace—but they are also the most regulated. Over the years governments have imposed red tape and regulations on the telco and media sectors and the broadcasting sector and then, as technologies have changed, have tended to add more regulation rather than pruning back that which was already there. The previous minister for communications, and I am obviously not referring to the member for Grayndler, who was minister for communications during what he often describes as the 'short golden age' of just a few weeks—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before that all too brief golden era, we of course had Senator Conroy as the minister for communications. Senator Conroy not only imposed substantial additional red tape on the telecommunications sector but also said that he was so powerful that the telecommunications executives would be obliged, if he were to direct them, to wear red underpants on their head as a condition of getting an audience.

A government member interjecting—

It is a horrible prospect, isn't it? Imagine telecommunications executives with red tapes around their ankles and red underpants on their heads—sort of a Conroybian meets Shades of grey, really. It is a horrible dystopian prospect.

We are reducing red tape in a very practical way. I can say that at the end of the first repeal day we removed more 1,000 pages of unnecessary regulation in my portfolio, which is expected to save the communications sector at least $50 million a year. The overall red tape savings for the portfolio for our second round of repeals is approximately $18 million. The aggregate page reduction for this year to date is 3,480 pages.

I will give some examples of the changes. Firstly, we are amending the Do Not Call Register to ensure that, when you put your number on the Do Not Call Register—which of course millions of Australians have done—it will be on the Do Not Call Register forever, indefinitely. At the moment it is only there for eight years. That is a very practical change. We are also allowing homeowners and businesses to decide whether they actually want the bulky battery back-up system installed in their homes as part of the National Broadband Network rollout. That clearly reduces costs and inconvenience both to the NBN Co and consumers. The key issue is this: the Abbott government is genuine about deregulation.