House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-05-06 Daily Xml

Contents

Red Tape Reduction Steering Committee

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:02): Does the minister's answer to that question, saying that the government has done a large amount of work on removing red tape and so the steering committee to reduce red tape has been disbanded, mean that the minister and the government are satisfied that the amount of red tape that remains is appropriate?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (15:02): I know that those opposite don't follow closely our work, but I refer the honourable member to the 10 economic priorities for South Australia; one of them is making South Australia the best place to do business. One of the initiatives there is the Simpler Regulation Unit. Just to give you one example of the work we have been doing in this space is the 90-day project in relation to the tuna industry, which will be a guide to future work. It was an analysis, together with the tuna industry, of a range of regulations that were essentially applied to them and what was—

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order, sir: I believe the Premier is debating. I didn't ask about the work that has been done. I was asking whether the government believes there is no more work to be done.

The SPEAKER: I will listen carefully to what the Premier has to say.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Just to join it up, sir, so the members understand, it was actually that work which informs what will be the future work program, which is about—

Ms Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, you can laugh. If you ask the tuna industry, they are very grateful for the streamlining of the way in which we administer the regulations. The insight that—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: This is the hard work of policy development, not the glib one-liners that come from those opposite. It's actually all about hard work, but those opposite wouldn’t know hard work if it hit them in the face. What is it—10 o'clock, get a café latte, read the paper and then work out what you're going to ask us? 'Oh, it's hard bloody work.'

Mr PISONI: Point of order: I believe that the Premier is drifting away from the substance of the question.

The SPEAKER: I am shocked that I find myself having to uphold that point of order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: The insight that we had about that wasn't the regulation itself. It was actually the time of year that the work was done to ask them to answer the questions and the fact that it was done in sequence—not at the same time, so not in parallel. When you are able to do that and collapse it, it wasn't actually the fact of the regulation, which is the exercise you get when you do a desktop analysis of looking at how you streamline the works. It was actually how it was administered that was a powerful as—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No: in fact, there is much work to be done. That is why we established the Simpler Regulation Unit.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I know those opposite think this is mirthful but we have the Coordinator-General, Jim Hallion, who is learning a lot about what is—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's right, the work rate of the average opposition frontbencher, two days a week, on a good week. Can I say there is much work to be done here for us to achieve our objectives. The Simpler Regulation Unit will lead our work in this area. The guide will be the sort of work we have done in the tuna industry. We are serious about this being the best place to do business anywhere in this country.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey promised that he would be good. Member for Davenport.