Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I remind the Prime Minister that businesses like Kerr's Hire in Geelong are currently burdened with registering short-term hire leases, a process that is costly and unnecessary. How will the government's $720 million red tape repeal day help Kerr's Hire and all small businesses across the nation?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question and I understand her interest. I also understand Kerr's Hire's concerns because, under the rules as they stand, many short-term leases have to be registered—this means more form filling, more time wasting and more unnecessary expense. Red tape repeal day will fix this, as it will tackle many other instances of redundant and unnecessary regulation. No-one likes filling in forms—it costs time, it costs money and it costs jobs. That is why red tape repeal day is so important. I can advise the House that red tape repeal day will involve the attempt to scrap about 1,000 redundant acts of parliament, it will seek to remove almost 10,000 unnecessary or counterproductive regulations—it will seek to take 50,000 pages off the statute book—and it will deliver $720 million in red tape cost reductions this year and every year.

This is good news for the businesses, the consumers and the workers of our country. It is at the heart of this government's agenda to build a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia. And don't we need to get red tape down! Under the former government Australia's world competitiveness ranking slipped six places in just four years to 21. Under the former government, our burden of government regulation ranking sunk to No. 128 in the world—we are behind Romania but don't worry, we are still better than Angola. Under the former government, our productivity growth ranking slipped to second-last in the world—the only country we beat when it came to productivity growth was Botswana. This government will tackle the red tape which is suffocating Australian businesses by lighting the biggest bonfire of regulation in our history.