The Commonwealth Government is getting on with the job of cutting red tape and regulation.
Today, the Government introduces legislation to repeal nearly 1,000 unnecessary pieces of legislation and regulations and 7,210 pages of legislation and regulation.
Before the election, we promised to cut red tape costs by $1 billion each year.
With today’s Spring Repeal Day, the Government has more than doubled that target.
The repeal measures announced today will save individuals, businesses and the not-for-profit sector over $2.1 billion in compliance costs.
Cutting red tape matters.
Too much regulation hurts productivity, deters investment and innovation, and cost jobs.
In 2014, Australia ranked 124 out of 148 countries for ‘burden of government regulation’ in the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index. Plainly, this is not good enough.
The Productivity Commission has estimated that regulation compliance costs could amount to as much as four per cent of Australia’s GDP.
Stakeholders from across the economy have been conveying a consistent message to the Government that there needs to be an urgent and significant reduction in regulation to improve Australia’s productivity and competitiveness.
Some examples of red tape reforms include:
- Savings of $88 million per year in compliance costs by having access to a centralised, online point of access for Government services including the Australian Tax Office, Medicare and Centrelink. So far, five million Australians have created their MyGov account.
- The Australian Tax Office’s new online tax return service, MyTax, will save over 1.4 million taxpayers $160 million a year in compliance costs by pre-populating tax returns.
- A one-stop-shop for environmental approvals will save the community $426 million each year and provide an estimated economic gain of $120 billion over the next 12 years.
- An estimated 447,000 small businesses will benefit from a reduced tax compliance burden with administrative changes to GST and PAYG reporting. Further, businesses with no GST payable will no longer be required to lodge a business activity statement saving small businesses more than $67 million each year in compliance costs.
- The Government’s repeal of the Carbon Tax and the Mining Tax has not only reduced cost of living pressures and helped create jobs, but it has also saved families and businesses in reduced compliance costs.
Across every portfolio and every sector of the economy, cutting red tape creates jobs, boosts productivity and promotes investment.
The Government will continue to designate two parliamentary sitting days each year as repeal days to repeal costly and unnecessary legislation and regulation.
Cutting red tape is at the heart of this Government’s mission: to build a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia.
22 October 2014