'The biggest bonfire of regulations in our country’s history' is described by opposition as 'cleaning and vacuuming the spare room'

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Tony Abbott had stoked expectations of "the biggest bonfire of regulations in our country’s history". But the prime minister’s widely trumpeted “repeal day” led to the passage of legislation worth just $13m in compliance savings to business.

The government devoted most of Wednesday to lower-house debate about redundant laws, as part of its push to remove red tape and ease the pressure on businesses.

But opposition MPs ridiculed the worth of the changes, which included the removal of the hyphen from "e-mail" in existing legislation and the abolition of a 1909 act requiring owners of mules and bullocks to hand over their animals for defence purposes.

Abbott told parliament the government had outlined a broad package of changes that would saving businesses and the people of Australia “$720m a year”.

“One of the things that most people abhor is the time spent filling out forms, because time spent filling out forms costs money and it prevents people from getting on with their lives,” he said during question time.

“That is why today is red tape 'repeal day'. That is why the government will scrap some 10,000 unnecessary and redundant regulations and acts of parliament. That is why we will take 50,000 pages off the statute books.”

Labor denounced the prime minister's first repeal day as "smoke and mirrors" because the largest portions of the $720m target were not part of Wednesday’s parliamentary debate.

The three bills debated and passed by the lower house on Wednesday would ease business compliance burdens by $13m, according to government documentation about the red tape push.

Dozens of MPs rose to debate the Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2014) Bill, which outlined changes in 10 portfolios, much of it related to the telecommunications sector.

The bill also removes certification requirements under the Aged Care Act 1997 which "replicates state, territory and local government building regulations".

Further, the Amending Acts 1901 to 1969 Repeal Bill will result in the repeal of more than 1000 old acts, the explanatory notes stated, and will "not substantially alter existing arrangements or make any change to the substance of the law".

The Statute Law Revision Bill corrects technical and spelling errors in existing acts.

Labor supported the three bills. The leader of opposition business, Tony Burke, likened the bills to "cleaning and vacuuming the spare room" – a necessary housekeeping task that was not deserving of excessive praise.

Burke said one of the bills to be repealed, the Defence Act 1909, required "the owner of any vehicle, horse, mule, bullock, boat, or vessel, or of any goods, required for naval or military purposes" to furnish it upon request.

"Maybe there are small businesses in the mule and bullock trade who have been anxiously waiting for this to be clarified on the statute books," Burke said.

Wednesday's parliamentary debate came a week after the government presented a series of bills to parliament. Some of those bills – including changes to Labor's financial advice protection laws, the abolition of the national charity regulator, and the scrapping of a national security law watchdog – were not part of the debate.

Government MPs said it was simply the first of numerous repeal days, with further deregulation to come.

The parliamentary secretary overseeing repeal day, Josh Frydenberg, said the legislation debated on Wednesday would deliver “many millions of dollars” in compliance savings but the overall deregulatory effort was worth $720m.

Frydenberg said the government would be “upholding freedom, encouraging personal responsibility and ensuring that the nanny state lives no longer in Australia”.

The leader of government business, Christopher Pyne, likened repeal day to a “school carnival”.

“We are very excited on this side of the house on the prospect of sweeping away many of these regulations, much of the red tape that is strangling business and communities, repealing bills that are not necessary,” Pyne said.

The Queensland Liberal National MP Jane Prentice said: "The Abbott government understands that small government is good government.”

But the deputy leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, warned the government's deregulation push contained "land mines" such as wage cuts of up to 25% for government-contracted cleaners.

The government is revoking the Commonwealth cleaning services guidelines from 1 July this year, but that was not part of legislation debated on Wednesday. The former Labor government introduced guidelines that outlined minimum hourly rates of pay for Australian government cleaning services contracts.