John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science. I remind the minister that in 2013 the coalition government made a commitment to deliver $1 billion per annum in red and green tape savings for business. Will you update the House on how this commitment is assisting Australian industry, in particular, the manufacturing sector?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bennelong for his question. I know that he is particularly interested in deregulation and the impact that it is having on the economy in terms of jobs and growth. Sometimes you forget that the enormous changes that we have wrought in the area of deregulation over the last two years have had quite an impact on businesses themselves. An example came along to me recently, which I think needs to be amplified. Overall, the work of the now minister for resources, the minister for social security and the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister has delivered the repeal of 10,000 legislative instruments and 3,600 acts of parliament over the last two years, which has delivered $4½ billion of savings to business in red and green tape. It is a dramatic improvement for business across Australia. I know that the three gentlemen concerned have been relentless in driving this agenda, because it is not just good policy; it actually has an impact on the profit margins of businesses and creates jobs and growth.

Recently, I got an example of the impact it has had on businesses. Rheem Australia, the water heater manufacturing business near the member for Bennelong's electorate at Rydalmere, told me that, when the Labor government was in power from 2008 to 2013, they had 35 full-time equivalent employees moved from their research and development and innovation section across to their government regulation section to deal with a new regulation introduced by Labor every six weeks over that period. It was so ridiculous that they had 35 people moved from research and development to government regulation to deal with all the red and green tape imposed by the former government. But, because of the changes that we have brought about, in the last two years they have been able to move all those 35 full-time equivalent employees back into the research and development division of Rheem. This is extremely important. They are working on things like a $60 million expansion of the Rydalmere factory; product improvements that have enabled Rheem to extend the warranties on their electric heaters, without increasing costs; a heat solution that allows waste heat to be recovered from renewable energy sources and used to provide commercial hot water, which is being sold in Dubai. These are good-news stories about the impact of deregulation and how it has allowed businesses to improve and innovate, be creative and invest in research and development, so improving jobs and growth in the Australian economy.