Barnaby Joyce, IPA call for tax and red tape deal to help bushfire areas recover

Barnaby Joyce and the Institute of Public Affairs have called for ‘special economic zones’ in bushfire-ravaged regions.

Barnaby Joyce says special economic zones should also exempt residents from payroll tax and stamp duty. Picture: AAP

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and the free-market Institute of Public Affairs have called on governments to create “special economic zones” in bushfire-­ravaged regions to help them rejuvenate, including exemptions from payroll tax, stamp duty and environmental regulations.

IPA chief executive John Roskam has urged a “complete overhaul” of ­native vegetation laws that impair property owners’ ability to clear land and defend against fires, saying almost 20 per cent of Australia’s landmass was subject to conservation and ­environmental restrictions.

“This red tape should be done away with to assist with bushfire recovery; the focus has to be protecting people, not just trees,” he told The Australian.

Mr Joyce, deputy prime minister and infrastructure minister in the Turnbull government, said special economic zones should also exempt residents from payroll tax and stamp duty, and regulations that restricted the ­construction of firebreaks with bulldozers.

“The declaration of a national parks without the budgeted funds in forward estimates to manage it shouldn’t be allowed,” he said.

Scott Morrison has announced plans for a royal commission into bushfires that have burned more than 10 million hectares throughout NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. “A major lesson from the 2009 Victorian bushfires is that a major barrier to the economic and social recovery of affected communities was red tape,” Mr Roskam said.

“In the wake of those Victorian fires, which destroyed even more homes than have been lost in the last month, homeowners were left waiting for permission from local and state governments to rebuild houses which had been lost five years earlier.”

Former Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin, appointed to lead the new ­National Bushfire Recovery Agency, has also suggested red tape could delay recovery.

Mr Joyce advocated greater use of controlled burn-offs in winter. “It’d be better to have a bad winter fire than a disastrous summer one,” he said. He also suggested “stream­lining firearms licences for single-shot weapons without a magazine to destroy stock”.

The federal government has received an avalanche of criticism over its level of preparedness for the fires, which began in September and intensified significantly in the weeks around Christmas. “Hazard reduction and fuel loads are clearly the primary issue,” Mr Roskam said. “The approach across all levels of government in this country in relation to the management of public land is that it should all be but locked up from human use.”

The IPA also released results of a survey that shows almost 60 per cent of Australians thought the economy had “too much red tape”, while 64 per cent believed “unelected bureaucrats had too much control over our lives”.