Ralph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the 47th Parliament draws to a close, many in this place will be tempted to congratulate themselves on how much legislation they have passed. If passing new laws was a measure of success, then this parliament has been an absolutely banger, hasn't it? This Senate has passed around 300 new bills in the past 2½ years. But do we really think that the Australian public will be excited to learn that we have created a new law almost every three days? Do we really imagine that mums and dads are thrilled that we have added yet more statutes to the books, tied them up in even more regulation and increased the size of the bureaucracy? How can we still claim to be the lucky country when people are overtaxed and overgoverned? And do they need to be? Are Australians so inept that every aspect of their lives must be overseen by the state? My wish for the next parliament is that we will congratulate ourselves on passing fewer laws and passing fewer regulations affecting the lives of ordinary Australians.

In 1991, the late Kerry Packer rightly suggested: 'If you want to pass a new law, why don't you only do it when you've repealed an old one?' Isn't that so simple? Doesn't it make sense? My dream, like Kerry Packer's, is for the next parliament to remove more laws than what we pass and leave Australians freer and less regulated than ever before. That would be a wonderful achievement that we could all actually be proud of and that all Australians would genuinely congratulate us on—in short, less government and much, much, much more freedom.