Senate Economics Legislation Committee, , 5:30:15 to 5:36:18
Analysis of the schedule and prioritization for broader government regulatory reform packages totaling over ten billion dollars.
Topics: Government spending, Efficiency dividend
Speakers: James Kelly, Senator Kerrynne Liddle, Michael Quinlivan, Hon Katy Gallagher, Unknown Speaker
So in terms of those 14 items that make up that 780 million figure, who is actually responsible for ensuring the delivery of those 14 measures? Is it you?
So I well, I would say I think it's correct to say 13 of the 14 are responsibility markets group working through ministers to deliver them. As Mr. Quinn Levin said, we are progressing them all, and we've been working on them, and some of them are recently gone out for exposure draft processes with a view to making them in the you know in the year future.
Okay. So I'll start with this. The draft regulations for raising monetary thresholds are out for consultation at the moment. This was announced months ago, and a lot of businesses were keen to see that happen. What took so long to get the materials drafted and out for consultation.
Treasury is working through the policy details and the legislative drafting as appropriate, these things do take time and they're not.
So what happens next? Is that what happens next? Is that after the consultation is finished?
So the consultation period, I think I believe it ends next week. Uh following that, subject to the feedback that the that we received for that process, the regulations will be the government will have the option to make the regulations and then there's a um there is a disallowance period that the parliament um has the opportunity to consider those uh and they are due to start one July next
Okay.
So it's for July for lodgements uh that would apply from that period, yeah.
So if the Treasurer's what you're saying is if the Treasurer were to approve the regulations in the current form, the time frame would be July next year.
Yeah, for the yeah. It'll apply for the it won't apply for the financial year just passed.
So how would those changes be communicated to stakeholders and the public we can take on notice exactly
the process for that? Uh I think it'll follow the usual arrangements where um communication by the um to the regulated entities about what their reporting requirements are and who might meet the thresholds to to continue to disclose.
Right. Has the Treasurer set a timetable for when he would like to achieve this full regulatory saving for the financial sector?
Um Senator make all these measures that ultimately fit within the constraints of an overall legislative programme. The government needs to choose how they prioritize and take things forward, and it is subject as we go to consultation and feedback with people about um uh uh the the details of them. So it's it's it's not a case of there is a simple we're going to do these things by these dates. It is something we are working with the office, the treasure the ministers and offices and the ministers to progress them as fast as we can, um but not with a view of just doing them all in one day because that would probably delay them.
Right. The CPA Australia has been saying that there's actually billions of dollars in additional red tape that is uh impacting businesses. Um where does this sit in the priority of list of things that you have to get done? Given businesses are hurting now.
Yeah, so Senator Um you have been focusing your questions on this package of 780 million dollars relating to the uh financial regulations. There's a broader set of work being done by our regulators coming out of the round table where they committed to 52 things. More than half of them have actually already been done. And I think 13 or close to you know, most a lot of the rest were actually done by the end of the financial year. Then there's a broader package that the government announced with a view to reducing regulatory costs in the budget by a total of 10.2 billion, of which the 780 million was just a part. And so we can talk you through those, and some a lot of those have been done or are well progressed as well.
Yeah. Okay. and perhaps Minister, um given uh regulatory reform sits within your portfolio responsibilities. Is there a particular time frame you would like to see these measures implemented in?
Uh so uh we discussed this at length yesterday in um finance committee. Uh so uh all of those areas are underway. Uh some of them require agreement from the states and territories, so it's difficult to put a time frame on it, but this is uh being a core feature of our budget. Uh the uh regulatory reform processes are part of our productivity agenda, so it is an important part of the work that uh myself and other ministers are doing, including the treasurer and his team.
But just Senator should give some examples so of that 10.2 billion um parts of the one one of the big items related to the PBC reforms, a lot of there's a lot of that that's actually already been implemented and other bits in progress, simplifying the tax system with the 415 million dollar savings. Uh those measures have been implemented. Uh bolishing additional usance tariffs, that measure has been has been done. Um so if you look at that broader list, you can actually see things that have been delivered and uh are relevant to businesses today.