Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ryan for finishing early. I want to say quite a number of things about this piece of legislation. I am aware that there are many others who would like to debate this particular bill but unfortunately, because of the guillotine imposed by the Labor Party, with the support of their political allies the Greens, we are constrained to a very short period of time to debate this important bill.

In relation to the Competition and Consumer Amendment Bill, I say: one down, 19,899 to go. Madam Deputy President, you will recall that the Labor Party promised some time ago that for every new regulation they introduced they would repeal one. We know that since the Labor Party have been in power they have introduced some 21,000 new or amended regulations. I will just repeat that: since the Labor Party have been in power, they have introduced 21,000 new or amended regulations which small business and business generally have to comply with. No wonder the cost of doing business has gone up so much in Australia. No wonder Australian manufacturing businesses are closing down daily and exporting the manufacturing jobs that used to be in Australia to China, India and other places. It is all because the Labor Party continue to impose costs like the carbon tax and the mining tax on small business. They have imposed on small business, as I said, 21,000 new or amended regulations since they have been in power.

Perhaps I will digress here. Why would anyone, particularly me, believe any promise the Labor Party made after the most famous misstatement of all time—'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' Perhaps that statement has turned out to be true, because Ms Gillard is no longer leading a government that clearly has introduced the carbon tax. It will be interesting to see what Mr Rudd does in relation to the commitment never to introduce a carbon tax that was made by the Australian Labor Party before the last election.

But I digress. Getting back to their promise that for every regulation they introduced they would repeal one, I might say that they have not repealed 21,000, although to their credit they have repealed 1,100. That is why I say of this piece of legislation, 'One down and a mere 19,899 to go,' if the Labor Party are to discharge the promise they made to repeal one regulation for every one they introduced. Having said that, I congratulate the Gillard government for reducing at least one piece of regulation with this bill.

As my colleague Senator Ryan has very clearly explained, this is a regulation about pricing in restaurants and cafes. It has taken over 12 months of consultation to get to this day. Three state governments have had to agree. It has been through a tortuous path just to get here. And you wonder why Australia is going down the gurgler. You wonder why Australian jobs are going overseas. It is because the Gillard, and before that the Rudd, Labor government just imposed taxes, costs and regulation on business, so that it is no longer possible for Australians to have a manufacturing industry or, indeed, many industries at all.

This process, which we hope will be finished today, will at least address the issue of the way in which you can advertise the weekend surcharge on a restaurant menu or on a board outside a restaurant or cafe. I am sure that those listening to this debate will not believe that we have had to go through this tortuous process just do that. But that is what happens when you have Labor governments. They are interested only in telling everybody how they should act. They do not believe that people are capable of making their own decisions. Labor governments always think that they know better; Big Brother in Canberra knows better than individuals. They will tell you what you can do with your life and your business.

This regulation is simply another impost on small business. The Liberal Party and the National Party are the parties of small business. Why? Because we recognise that they are the engine room of our economy. We also recognise that it is business—small business, medium business—that creates jobs in Australia. It is not governments that create jobs, unless they create artificial jobs in the bureaucracy—and heaven knows that they have done that. I forget the actual figure, but I think that since the Labor Party have been in power we have employed—what is it?—22,000 additional public servants. I take it back—