Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This red-tape repeal bill represents this government's continuing commitment to remove the burden of regulation from the lives of all Australians. It is an absolute pleasure to stand here today to commend this bill to the House. When the government were elected, we set about the enormous task of chopping red tape, cutting red tape, hacking red tape and doing everything we could to diminish red tape to ensure that red tape no longer continued to strangle business and individuals in our nation. We have done it successfully and, as this bill shows, we are continuing to do it successfully.

All over Australia, we found the remnants of Labor's legacy, the red and green tape that was weighing down our economy, and we have systematically gone about the process of ensuring that we are eradicating it, bit by bit, piece by piece, morsel by morsel. When we came into government, Commonwealth regulation was costing Australians $65 billion each and every year. It is worth repeating: $65 billion was the cost, the deadweight cost, to our nation from Commonwealth regulation.

This is more, and it is nearly a third more, than what the government spend on our largest welfare payment, the age pension, which is $44 billion. Just think about that. Our greatest outlay on welfare is $44 billion, yet Commonwealth red tape, Commonwealth regulation, is costing our nation $65 billion. We can continue to reduce it. We can continue to free up our nation. That is billions of dollars which can go into the productive parts of our economy, which will ensure—absolutely ensure and guarantee—that we continue to grow our economy and have the money to be able to put towards those areas which we need to put it to, such as the age pension, the $44 billion we spend on our largest welfare payment.

This cost, $65 billion each year, is equivalent to 4.2 per cent of our GDP. That is not only to individuals but also to businesses, so that is quite significant: 4.2 per cent of GDP.

This government remains proud of what it is doing in this area. I think we all remember the six years of Labor. In particular, we remember the last three years, when we had a hung parliament. The then Leader of the House used to stand up on a six-monthly basis, saying how wonderful the amount of legislation which was passing through the House was. He would get up and he would proverbially boast about it, beat his chest about it, with a big smile: 'Isn't it great? We've got all this legislation going through the parliament.' Nothing was being done to see what the regulatory cost of it was. Were there proper RISs, regulatory impact statements, being done on it? Was the cost of what it did to businesses or individuals being considered? No. It became a chest-beating exercise for those opposite. It became a marker for them for how wonderfully they were doing as a government: 'Let's get all this legislation through, and let's chirp about it. Let's say how wonderful it is. Let's not consider the burden that it's creating for individuals or businesses.'

That is not the way of this government. The way of this government is to ensure that unnecessary regulation is being taken off the statute books. I remember the first repeal day that we had, where we went through and we systematically said, 'Okay, this is all the irrelevant legislation on the statute books that we need to get rid of.' We were honouring a commitment to get rid of $1 billion of red tape every year. We did that in the first year and we are doing it in the second year. Think about the dividends that that is creating for our nation.

Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Trivial!

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And we are doing this by doing the simple things. I see those opposite say that this is trivia, that this is trivial—that removing red tape and regulation is trivial. I can see now why they boasted so much when they just put legislation upon legislation upon legislation through this place and thought it was wonderful. They thought it was wonderful, just weighing down our economy. Unbelievable!

Productivity in this century is not going to be gained for businesses and individuals by applying more and more regulation, by making people work longer and harder by requiring them to do more paperwork. It is going to succeed and it is going to improve by making people work smarter and work faster. In these repeal bills, we see this writ large because here we have technology delivering the necessary productivity dividends. Here we see technology reducing the red tape and regulation. In this latest legislation, over $80 million in savings is being achieved by putting services online or making online processes simpler for all Australians.

Those opposite might consider that as trivial; we on this side do not. We on this side see this as getting government out of people's lives. We do not want government in people's lives. We want people to have the pleasure of being able to live their lives with the amount of government in their lives reduced. We are not like those opposite, who want to legislate to have government in every part of their lives. We actually want to remove government from their lives so that they can get on with doing what they want to do.

That is what this legislation is about, and that is why we have $80 million in savings by putting services online or making online processes simpler for Australians. We want to let Australians communicate with the government from home or even on their smartphones because that frees them to be able to use spare moments, where they might be twiddling their thumbs, to deal with government, rather than when they can be productive when it comes to their businesses.

The bill will implement extra power to the already successful myGov website to allow Australians to update their details online and in one place. Rather than having to visit a Centrelink or contact a government office, Australians will be able to carry out this task when they want to, any time of day or night. There will be no more dashing out during the lunch hour or stopping work for an errand. This is a simple government change to make life simpler for Australians.