Government’s plan to tear out 50,000 pages of regulations gets strong industry backing, but care providers are critics

THINK of it as Christmas for the Liberal party. The PM is celebrating ‘repeal day’ next week - but not everyone is happy about it.

PM Tony Abbott in Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber in Parliament Hou

Tony Abbott’s promise to rip up 50,000 pages of regulation to liberate private citizens from bureaucracy has hit an obstacle.

Most major charities don’t want to be liberated.

And sections of the finance industry don’t want their obligations watered down by the Government’s red tape offensive because it could lead to financial advisers taking action not in their clients’ interests.

The Prime Minister today took to Parliament as soon as possible to promote next week’s ‘repeal day’ which Mr Abbott said would scrap more than 9,500 unnecessary or counterproductive regulations and 1,000 redundant acts of Parliament.

“More than 50,000 pages will disappear from the statute books. Removing just these will save individuals and organisations more than $700 million a year, every year,’’ he told Parliament.

Day one will see repeal of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission, which was set up by Labor with the aim of seeing charities have genuine credentials and efficient management.

Mr Abbott said the repeal was needed because “people serving our community don’t deserve a new level of scrutiny”.

But the executive director of Anglicare Australia, Kasy Chambers, today said the move showed the Government was “Not working in partnership with the sector”.

Anglicare is one of several large care providers opposing the repeal.

“As an independent regulator, the ACNC is already ensuring greater transparency and accountability, and reducing red tape. It has the support of the vast majority of organisations in the sector, as shown in the signatories of the Community Council of Australia open letter today.” Ms Chambers said.

“The repeal of the ACNC will simply recreate more bureaucracy, lessen protection for the public and add unnecessarily to the workload of community service providers. It will also create uncertainty as there is no clear replacement. Uncertainty is the biggest enemy of efficiency, as big business tells us.”

Repeal Day also would see removal of the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor because, Mr Abbott said, “all relevant legislation has already been reviewed and the former government ignored all the Monitor’s recommendations”.

The Government’s regulation Spring clean was strongly backed by employer groups, with the Master Builders calling it “another important signal that the Government is open for business in following through on its election commitment to slash the burden of over regulation and associated compliance costs”.

Master Builders’ CEO Wilhelm Harnisch said: “But it should only mark the start of the process. The building industry doesn’t want Red Tape Repeal Day to be the one shot in the locker for abolishing over regulation.”