Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2026
Ms CLUTTERHAM (Sturt) (10:50): I rise today to speak in support of the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2026. Regulatory reform has a broad meaning. It includes changes that improve regulatory quality by enhancing the performance, cost-effectiveness or legal quality of regulations and regulated government formalities.
It might involve revision of a single regulation, the scrapping and rebuilding of an entire regulatory regime and its institutions, or the improvement of processes for making regulations and managing reform. This bill delivers regulatory reform with four themes that have efficiency and effectiveness at their heart. Firstly, schedule 1 of the bill contains amendments to support a 'tell us once' approach to government service delivery.
Schedule 2 sets out amendments to improve or maintain access to government services. Schedule 3 is directed at amendments to reduce regulatory burdens, and schedule 4 is directed at amendments to increase government efficiency and improve productivity. Effective regulation is a powerful tool for addressing challenges that are big or small.
We know that this is crucial, now more than ever, for tackling things like climate change, online gambling and social media, and for unlocking the benefits of the artificial intelligence technological transition whilst managing the risks. From a reform perspective, the AI challenge in particular is difficult, because government needs to support and encourage innovation and embrace new technologies without paralysing business at the same time as it ensures appropriate oversight and regulation.
Having good processes for developing, implementing and reviewing regulation is vital to ensuring regulatory policies achieve policy goals that maximise benefits for the Australian people and minimise costs for all. Poorly designed digital regulations can both stifle regulation and fail to protect consumers. An action on environmental reforms, for example, can be compromised by overly complex regulations or regulations that are not aligned with the contemporary policy goal that is desired.
So policies have to work to their fullest capabilities and be implemented following consultation and due process—ideally, working backwards from the desired outcome. What do we need to do? How can we best achieve it?
How can we ensure regulation is fit for purpose by striking the balance between protecting the Australian people and letting business get on with it in a fair environment that rewards innovation and risk taking? This is an important balance because it results in good regulation when it is struck, and good regulation helps economies succeed by setting a framework where there is alignment between business practices and societal values and goals.
Good regulation also helps businesses and individuals embark on short-, medium- and long-term operational planning. Because regulation is, first and foremost, a tool of government, it can only be most successful where there is trust in public institutions. Businesses and citizens will not be inclined to follow the rules if they don't have trust in public institutions.
This is always an ongoing challenge, given fiscal pressures and the current political climate that demands urgent yet perfect action—that works perfectly for everyone all the time. This is not realistic, but it underscores the need to have clear and transparent processes, pursuant to which policy is made, which are followed consistently. A decision, regulation, policy or piece of reform may not please everyone all of the time, but, if that decision, regulation, policy or reform can be justified on the basis of solid, transparent and broad-reaching policy processes, then trust can remain even if the reaction to the outcome is mixed.
An approach to regulation that is results oriented with a clear outcome is what is needed to maintain trust in government and in public institutions. Governments came unstuck during the COVID-19 pandemic because they could not clearly communicate the outcome that the plethora of regulations and rules that faced the Australian people were designed to achieve. The policy and decision-making process was not sufficiently transparent, meaning trust was lost and the regulations that were being implemented came across as heavy handed or as regulation for the sake of it.
Regulation and reform 'for the sake of it' is damaging and pointless. Regulation and reform must be anchored in a clearly defined policy outcome. Well-designed, transparent and effectively enforced rules resulting from transparent policy development illustrate the benefits of government, ultimately enhancing stability and prosperity.
The federal government's 2025 Economic Reform Roundtable is one example of policy development. It had three themes: making the Australian economy more productive; building resilience in the face of global uncertainty; and strengthening the budget and making it more sustainable Another example of broad stakeholder consultation in policy development is that, on 4 July 2025, the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance asked Commonwealth regulators to suggest simple and useful ways to improve productivity, with a focus on how businesses could better invest, grow and use new products and services, and a focus on cutting rules that were not needed.
Around 400 responses were received, with six areas of consistent feedback emerging, including regulatory simplification, making approvals and processes faster and easier to follow; the improvement of rules, guidance and forms; the enabling of digital and data capability, meaning the application of AI and other digital solutions to work more efficiently and support innovation and growth; better engagement by working closely with stakeholders through co-design, better consultation and stronger feedback loops; improved transparency and performance, involving the sharing of work plans and the use of tools to measure and report on performance; and promoting greater collaboration through aligning registers and standards and reducing barriers to sharing data between agencies.
Finally, recommendations included targeted reforms directed at making changes in specific sectors that support innovation and efficiency whilst maintaining public trust. One of the responses that was received was from the Regulator Leadership Cohort, which is made up of the heads of 22 Commonwealth regulators. The cohort identified that information sharing to enable a 'tell us once' model of connected service delivery and regulation was necessary.
It identified that many businesses and individuals were still being required to supply the same information to multiple regulators and that reusing information already held by government would plainly result in lower compliance costs and faster, more consistent regulatory decisions. Then, in January 2026, the Australian Industry Group said: Mounting regulatory burdens are adding to cost pressures at a time when business can least afford it.
No amount of tech investment can compensate for poorly designed regulation … The message from industry leaders is clear. Regulatory reform is essential if we are to deliver the higher investment levels needed to drive a return to productivity and robust growth. Schedule 1 of this bill, therefore, is directed at the 'tell us once' approach.
In doing so, it is also directed at reducing compliance costs. Australia's privacy laws and other legislative frameworks already contain important information-sharing restrictions which are vital to protecting the privacy of Australians. But settings that are too restrictive can affect the efficiency and quality of the services Australians receive when they are in need.
Current legislation is too restrictive and includes unnecessarily narrow information-sharing provisions that prevent or complicate government agencies sharing information to provide services across different programs. Repeatedly having to provide the same information, tell the same story or go over the same factual history is not only annoying; it can be stressful and cause delay to the access of essential government services.
Services Australia, which runs many programs that Australians rely on, is an agency that is particularly encumbered by the restrictive information-sharing settings. Under the amendments in schedule 1 of this bill, Services Australia will have a wider set of circumstances where it's able to share information within the agency for the purposes of administering certain programs like Centrelink, Medicare and child support.
This information might include name, address, bank account details, relationship status, partner details, childcare details, children's details or information about a person's circumstances or vulnerabilities. In short, schedule 1 of the bill simplifies the arrangements for sharing information between Centrelink, Medicare and child support programs so that Services Australia can provide an improved customer experience and Australians can get the support that they need.
Schedule 4 is directed at improving government efficiency and improving productivity. When individuals and businesses have to spend disproportionate amounts of time navigating regulation, it's a downward drag on productivity. The same issues are faced by Commonwealth agencies; when time is spent on layered or overly bureaucratic tasks that do not achieve proportionate outcomes, time and costs are wasted.
By amending certain regulatory provisions, schedule 4 seeks to free up time and resources away from compliance and bureaucracy and redirect them into more productive measures. An important example in this bill are the amendments to the Commonwealth's regulation of critical fuels to enable more targeted responses to shortages. This is timely and contemporary regulation, because it goes without saying that Australia's economy and economic growth depend on a consistent and reliable supply of critical fuels.
Legislation currently provides several mechanisms to support the Commonwealth to ensure this reliable supply, including through the minimum stockholding obligation, which was recently raised to 50 days. Schedule 4 does two important things in this respect. Firstly, it amends the minimum stockholding obligation for fuel importers and refiners to provide the relevant minister with additional tools to manage critical fuel shortages and to ensure Australia is not hampered by temporary fuel shortages.
Secondly, it facilitates information gathering to enable the Commonwealth to monitor and regulate fuel security, with the result that fuel related products critical to Australia's trucking industry—diesel exhaust fluid and technical-grade urea—will be brought within mandatory reporting requirements, and information about Australia's fuel markets and stocks will be able to be collected by the Commonwealth where there is a threat to Australia's national fuel security.
Our economy, our businesses, our primary producers, our critical emergency services and Australian citizens depend on reliable supplies of fuel. These amendments are designed to identify and eliminate potential challenges, disruptions and shortfalls in supply. Consistent regulatory reform is essential, as is the consistent testing and measuring of regulatory settings to identify areas for improvement, to ensure things are fit for purpose and to ensure regulation is efficient.
This is most successful when the testing and measuring are done in consultation with key stakeholders who actually operate within the regulatory environment. The 'tell us once' aspect of this bill, part of a suite of measures the government has introduced and will continue to introduce on this theme, came about following sustained consultation with regulators and industry through the productivity roundtable.
This bill is an example of targeted regulatory reform, following solid policy development underpinned by stakeholder consultation. I commend the bill to the chamber.