Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

The Treasury Laws Amendment (2023 Law Improvement Package No. 1) Bill 2023 is a six-schedule Treasury omnibus bill, and the coalition will be supporting this bill. The compliance burden and complexity of the Corporations Act and financial services framework is an issue that is consistently raised by stakeholders. Red tape is a growing challenge for business. However, support for passage of this bill is no substitute for a government that is refusing to take responsibility for high inflation, rising mortgage payments, rising prices at the check-out and rising energy bills, to name just a few pressures faced by ordinary Australians. These challenges faced by Australians are not at all addressed in this bill. Instead, we have a government that doesn't have a plan and doesn't have the priorities to fix the problems that are facing Australians today.

Schedules 1, 2 and 3 of the bill make amendments to implement recommendations made by the Australian Law Reform Commission in interim reports A and B of its review of the legislative frameworks for the corporations and financial services regulations. These measures are designed to make a number of technical amendments and corrections to simplify the law and improve its navigability, as recommended by the ALRC. The changes seek to create a single glossary of defined terms in the Corporations Act, repeal redundant provisions, correct errors, improve clarity and unfreeze the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 so that the current version applies to the Corporations Act and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act. Schedule 4 makes amendments to the Insurance Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1991, the Life Insurance Act 1995 and the Insurance Act 1973. These acts are the enabling acts of certain legislative instruments regulating the insurance industry, and they are due to sunset 1 October this year. This schedule will update certain provisions in order to reflect more modern practices. Schedule 5 transfers longstanding and accepted matters currently contained in three Australian Securities and Investments Commission-made legislative instruments to the Corporations Act and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. Schedule 6 amends various laws in the Treasury portfolio to ensure that those laws operate in accordance with policy intent. It makes minor changes to improve administrative outcomes and remedies unintentional consequences, as well as correcting technical and drafting defects.

The coalition supports measures that reduce red tape for business and always will. Independent research has estimated that the cost of red tape to the economy is $176 billion annually. Red tape's cost to the economy is more than just a direct cost. It includes businesses never started, jobs never created and ambitions never fulfilled due to bureaucratic interference. This project is no small task, with Treasury portfolio laws covering over 50 acts that contain thousands and thousands of provisions spanning corporations law, taxation, competition, consumer policy and financial sector deregulation. This needs to be the beginning—not the end—of reducing red tape and supporting deregulation.

Sadly, while this bill has many features that we can support, it doesn't make up for Labor's broken promises on tax, on franking credits, on superannuation taxes and, particularly, on taxing unrealised capital gains. Many small business will be captured under Labor's super changes and unrealised capital gains taxes. Many charities will lose out from Labor's broken promise on franking credits. Labor's broken promise on superannuation taxes means that, with soaring cost-of-living pressures, Australians will be worse off. It's not just a broken promise; it undermines confidence in our superannuation system. Superannuation, please remember, is your money; it's not the government's money. It's your money to deliver quality of life in retirement. It's not a piggy bank for governments to tax and spend. Despite promising no changes to superannuation before the election, the Prime Minister is proposing to double super taxes on one in 10 Australians by the time they retire. He's proposing to stop companies from offering franking credits to Australian investors, to superannuation funds and to charities. The Prime Minister is proposing to tax unrealised capital gains in super, meaning that Australian retirees will pay tax on money that they haven't even made yet. Labor was dishonest about changing superannuation. They've been dishonest about how many Australian will be affected. Despite claiming less than 80,000 Australians will be affected, independent research has shown that, by retirement age, more than 500,000 will be hit by this new tax. The government can't explain how the change will work. They can't explain how many people will be affected. The Prime Minister says it will only impact one in 200 people. How wrong he is. The Minister for Finance says it will impact one in 10. But if the government can't explain it, how can Australians understand it? Australians will be right to wonder what Australia will tax next.