Page 3555 - Week 11 - Thursday, 23 October 2014
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outdoor dining application to be accompanied by a professionally drawn site plan, which can be very expensive and, indeed, prohibitive for some small or micro businesses.
The bill and subsequent government amendments introduce amendments to the Registration of Deeds Act 1957. I understand that current requirements mean there is a duplication of verification of certificates by way of the requirement for witnessing already being embedded in other legislation such as the Powers of Attorney Act. Comments have been made about this both in the minister’s introductory remarks and in the explanatory statement so I will not speak further about it.
This bill removes unnecessary regulation and some duplication of government requirements. These are all relatively minor amendments, yet they are all requirements that are time consuming for business operators as well as the government so their removal is a positive thing to be doing. On that basis the Greens will be supporting the bill.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (11.35): I will speak very briefly in my capacity as the shadow minister for small business. Red tape has become over a number of years a term beaten around by all sides of politics about what they are doing to make business easier. But we never actually discuss or look at what red tape is and what it means. The businesses I doorknock and visit on a regular basis—the hundreds I have seen in the last 12 months—describe red tape as the things that take their focus away from what they do best, the things that prevent them from running their business.
When you look at this bill and what red tape it seeks to reduce and where the benefit is going to be delivered, it is clear that most of the red tape being removed from legislation will make life easier for government rather than for business. The impact of the red tape that is being reduced in extending the period for which you can hold a licence or the number of permits you need to show will not even be noticed on the ground by a small business in the territory.
Will this bill result in savings for a business other than the small changes made around outdoor cafe furniture? No. Will it allow a business to have the freedom to employ an additional person? No. Will it allow them to operate more freely in the market that they currently operate in? No. That clearly highlights that this red tape reduction bill and this government’s aim at trying to reduce red tape are clearly political spin rather than delivering any firm action in making it easier to own or operate a small business in this territory.
It is about time there was a real commitment to and a real focus on getting out of the way of small businesses particularly and making some meaningful changes to our legislative framework that will encourage employment, encourage investment and reduce the operating costs that are all too often a burden for businesses in this city.
As I have already said, the opposition will be supporting this bill, and any attempt to reduce red tape should be encouraged. But I think the kind of encouragement the Treasury and the government are giving through this bill is on par with simply just being involved. It is certainly not commendable on its merits over and above anything
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