MEDIA RELEASE: REPEAL DAY: ALL SPIN, NO SUBSTANCE

The Government’s so called Repeal Day charade has been uncovered as all spin and no substance.

Only $1.8 million, or less than 0.1 per cent, of the total $2.33 billion savings claimed by the Government, are contained in the three Bills introduced as part of Spring Repeal Day.

Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke said the pathetic figure showed the Parliamentary Secretary responsible was running a cheap sideshow to distract from the Government’s disastrous Budget.

“The savings figures claimed by the Government from its so called Repeal Day are a joke,” Mr Burke said.

“The Government’s so called Repeal Days are a cheap trick to distract from a Government in chaos.”

The Government found a trick it thought fooled people the first time and is repeating it. Savings claimed in the first Repeal Day include:

-      $210,000 for repealing redundant and outdated regulations, and

-      $350,000 for updating grammar and spelling in some legislation.

Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan even called one savings measure scrapping motorbike safety regulations “a load of crap” and the person responsible “brain dead”.

More than $107 million in the savings measures claimed by the Government from the Autumn Repeal Day, but contained in separate legislation, are yet to pass the Parliament.

“There’s a fair bit of hyperbole here and Australians can’t trust any of the figures coming out of this Government,” Mr Burke said.

“Joe Hockey doubled the budget deficit and now he’s trying to claw his way out of his own black hole.”  

Labor had always taken a sensible approach to reducing red tape, but this Government’s approach is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

“Labor abolished more than 16,000 acts and legislative instruments while in government,” Mr Burke said.

“Labor lowered business costs by $4 billion each year with improvements to productivity, increasing GDP by around $6 billion per-year as part of its Seamless National Economy reforms.”

Before the election the Coalition promised “All cabinet submissions that have a major regulatory impact will now be subject to a regulatory impact statement”  The Coalition’s Policy to Boost Productivity and Reduce Regulation

After the election this promise was ditched the moment a deal with the crossbench was on the table.     

“We’ve seen with the Future of Financial Advice reforms how quickly regulatory impact statements were abandoned when a deal with the crossbench was on the table,” Mr Burke said.