SMALL BUSINESS DEREGULATION TASK FORCE
The Government understands that small business is the engine room of the economy and the main source of jobs growth.
It is well known that compliance costs for some taxes can be as high as ten per cent of total revenue collected, compared wvith two per cent overseas.
Labor was content to allow small business to drown in a sea of aperwork and excessive compliance costs.
The energies of small business people have been diverted from expanding business and providing young Australians with real job opportunities.
I have pleasure in announcing that Charlie Bell, the Managing Director of McDonald's will head the Government's Small Business Deregulation Task Force.
Mr Bell, aged 35, worked his way up the McDonald's ladder and has first-hand experience through McDonald's franchising system of the needs and challenges of small business.
The other members of the Task Force include practicing small business people as well as legal and accounting experts from the private sector and a senior government official with extensive experience of government operations and regulatory policy. The composition of the Task Force wvill ensure that small business priorities axe fully reflected in the work of the Task Force and the Government's future deregulation program. The Task Force will have six months to report on revenue neutral measures which can reduce the burden of paper wvork and compliance costs on small business by fifty per cent during our first term.
The Task Force will examine the impact on small business of a range of government regulatory and statistical requirements, as well as the costs of complying with various Commonwealth taxes. The impact of State/ local regulatory and compliance reqtirements and existing regulation reform exercises will also be assessed.
As a downpayment on the work of the Task Force, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has guaranteed to reduce the cost to small business of completing statistical returns by 20 per cent and in doing so to minimise the number of occasions small businesses are involved in more than one ABS collection. This is a significant initiative which will not
undermine the quality of national economic statistics and the ABS will pay an active role in the work of the Task Force.
The establishment of the Task Force fulfils another key plank of the Coalition's small business platform at the last election.
The terms of reference and details of Task Force members are attached. (see PDF for full biographies)
2 May 1996
Small Business Deregulation Task Force Membership
Chairman
Mr Charlie Bell
Managing Director, McDonalds
Members
Mr Greg Taylor
Secretary
Department of Industry, Science and Tourism, Canberra ( ACT)
Ms Clare Grose
Lawyer Freehill Hollingdale and Page, Sydney ( NSW)
Mr Simon Hegarty
Accountant, KPMG, Launceston ( Tas)
Mr Mark Kuperholz
Owner/ Managing Director
Everco Wiring Systems, Melbourne ( Vic)
Mr Roger du Blet
Principal Reduct Pty Ltd, Brisbane ( Qld)