"I took my kids to a little park up the road and there's a pizza shop there and we met up with another family … [there were] two tables outside [with] three chairs on one table, four on the other," Mr Hockey said in Canberra. "I went to put the two tables together and the owner of the pizza shop came out and said 'I'm sorry Mr Hockey, you're not allowed to do that, the council regulation prevents you putting the two tables together'." "There were eight of us, so I went inside to get another chair and they said, 'Sorry Mr Hockey, they've said you can only have seven chairs [outside], not eight'." Mr Hockey said that's when he "exploded." "I actually tracked down the mayor, it was 6 o'clock on a Friday night, and I think the whole suburb heard the conversation," he said.

"I want you to know that the Treasurer of Australia feels the same pain you do … that's what I'm trying to say," he said in comments aimed at small business owners. It comes after Prime Minister Tony Abbott issued a call to arms this week for big and small businesses, urging them to help make the case for urgent economic reform of the federation. A Deloitte Access Economics report, released in Canberra on Wednesday, shows Australian businesses are seriously struggling to meet compliance costs. It found the combined cost of administering and complying with public and private sector bureaucracy is costing Australia $250 billion a year. But surprisingly, it also found the cost of complying with self-imposed rules by the private sector is "double" that associated with government regulations.

"The self-imposed rules of the private sector cost $155 billion a year: $21 billion to develop and administer, and a stunning $134 billion a year in compliance costs," the report says. Mr Hockey said big businesses needed to realise that if they are struggling with regulatory compliance costs then they should remember that many of those costs are self-inflicted. The Treasurer also said the Coalition government was determined to introduce more flexibility to the economy in a range of areas, including the workplace, as well as repealing public sector red tape. He said making "just a small saving" in the estimated quarter of a billion dollars in annual public and private sector compliance costs would "make a big difference, and I encourage everyone to focus on that." "Deregulation is crucial, reduction in red tape … there are three areas where government is focused on deregulation," Mr Hockey said.

"First we want to make interaction by individuals and businesses less complex, less costly and more time-efficient," he said, pointing to the introduction of the MyGov website, to which 5 million Australians had now signed up. The second step was the two annual repeal days each year, which had already cut $2.1 billion in so-called red tape, regulation and compliance costs. "And the third area is deregulation, to boost investment," Mr Hockey said. Loading "Free trade agreements are helping do that, two have been signed. I'm more than hopeful we can nail a third FTA agreement with China by the end of this year."