Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable senator from Western Australia for her question and for her interest in promoting jobs in Australia. Removing red tape and reducing barriers to entry leads to a stronger economy and a strong economy leads to jobs and growth for all Australians. In this term of government we will be building on our initiatives in the first term, where we reduced red tape by at least $1 billion a year by tackling unnecessary regulation and by particularly looking at the compliance and the paperwork burden. But in this term we are lifting our sights and looking more broadly at measures that promote productivity, reduce barriers to growth and, importantly, also promote competition. So we have a three-part strategy. The first part, announced by the Treasurer, is the Harper review competition policy, which is now the subject of discussion with the states. There will be a Commonwealth-state agreement around promoting productivity and growth at the state level in particular, and the possibility of competition payments, along the lines of the Hilmer review, in order to encourage higher competition and more growth.

Complementary to that, there will be the Business Simplification Initiative, which will be a national initiative that will also involve the states and territories. At the Business Council of Australia annual dinner the Prime Minister announced that we had struck a landmark agreement with all state and territory governments for this initiative, which will address the complexity of dealing with the three levels of government in Australia. It will reduce the complexity of regulation for business and make dealing with government at all levels easier. We are now working with the states and territories to identify priority areas for regulatory reform. Already, a number of priorities have been identified. In Queensland they have identified agriculture, manufacturing and hospitality. In Western Australia, quicker and more streamlined ecotourism approvals— (Time expired)