Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition) Share this | Hansard source

I do not plan to take a great deal of the chamber's time but I have to respond to some of the comments from Senator Bishop. Senator Bishop, I put to you that I was not being in my polemical form when I spoke earlier. I can do that but that was not characteristic of the way I was speaking. You read out a statement by the Auditor-General, saying it was essentially 'very unlikely' . That provides no comfort. The Auditor-General has incredible autonomy. The office has independence for good reason. That statement that it was 'very unlikely' that they would look into a small business simply does not provide the security for the many businesses that I had, I thought, outlined earlier in quite a quite a reasonable fashion in this chamber, rather than a polemic fashion.

The point is the threat of the audit can be in itself a disincentive for small businesses to participate in these arrangements. I suggest that there is a lack of understanding of the appropriate role of a government agency in the government's point of view on this. If I am a contractor to a state government agency that may be indirectly in receipt of Commonwealth money, I probably already have compliance burdens. You want to impose on top of that a potential compliance burden with the Auditor-General. I put to you that the responsibility is with the contracting agency. That is why we are in public life—one of the reasons for managing public funds responsibly. This, I fear, is a diversion from the real challenge, which is making sure we design, run and implement our programs appropriately.

So, Senator Bishop, rather than being polemic, as you suggested, they are genuine concerns on this side. I do not think that the government understands the burden of every additional regulatory piece of red tape it throws on a small or medium business. The lack of understanding is exemplified by the comments you made, Senator Bishop. This is going to be an additional regulatory burden—yet another one. It is going to scare small businesses and I fear that we may find an innocent business that is audited one day. Quite frankly, there is a lack of understanding by the Auditor-General and the government about the impact an audit that clears someone completely still has on a person's business and, potentially, their life. That statement from the Auditor-General read out by Senator Bishop is comforting but I put it to you that it is only temporary because the very autonomy in this act means it is just that—it is as worthless as the Malaysia deal; it is not legally binding.