Today the Government introduced legislation and tabled documents to repeal over 10,000 unnecessary and counter-productive pieces of legislation and regulations.

More than 50,000 pages of unnecessary and costly legislation and regulations that are a dead weight on Australian businesses, community groups and households will be removed. This will reduce red tape across the economy by more than $700 million a year, every year. We are committed to cutting red tape costs by $1 billion a year to improve our nation’s competitiveness, help to create more jobs and lower household costs. It will be easier for small businesses to do business with Government. There will be a simplified process for tendering for contracts below $200,000, standardized terms and conditions and user-friendly online templates. We are making it easier for small businesses to be paid with the introduction of a new policy; credit and debit cards will become the Government’s preferred payment option for purchases under $20,000. National businesses will be allowed to operate under one workers’ compensation scheme right around our nation rather than have to operate in up to eight. Businesses will no longer be required to administer the former government’s paid parental leave scheme. Importers of agricultural chemicals and veterinary medicines (such as pet worm tablets, household weed killers or agricultural fertilisers) will no longer need to re-register well established products over and over, when the products haven’t changed. We’re reducing the paperwork for Australians seeking to do business in our region with a streamlined accreditation process for the APEC Business Travel Card. A new one-stop-shop for offshore petroleum environmental approvals (NOPSEMA) will streamline approval of projects that include offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas activities in Commonwealth waters. Repealing the Carbon Tax and the Mining Tax will not only reduce cost of living pressures and help create jobs, but will also save nearly $100 million in compliance costs. Common sense changes will be made to Labor’s recent “Future of Financial Advice” laws to reduce the compliance costs for small businesses, financial advisers, and the broader financial services industry, whilst maintaining the quality of advice for consumers. Other examples of the red tape reforms include:

• The film industry will be able to make minor modifications to films (e.g. turning 2D into 3D, then DVD and Blu-ray) without going through the classification process every time.
• Job service providers will no longer have to retain cabinets full of paper files and will now be able to keep records electronically.
• Slow moving machinery – like concrete mixers or “wacker packers” (used to compact soil) will no longer need to be registered as “motor vehicles” under the Personal Property Securities register.
• Universities will no longer be required to submit extensive (and duplicated) survey data on the size, use, management and maintenance of their lecture theatres, laboratories, offices and other facilities each year.
• Charities will no longer be subjected to as much duplication with their paperwork.
• Aged care providers and Disability Employment Service Providers will be spared many thousands of hours of paperwork.

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.