Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2026
Senator CHISHOLM (Queensland—Assistant Minister for Regional Development, Assistant Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Assistant Minister for Resources and Deputy Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (19:47): I'd like to thank senators for their contributions to debate on the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2026. Every Australian and every business deals with regulation on a daily basis.
They deal with it when they start a business, when they stock a product on the shelf, when they access a critical service for a vulnerable relative and when they drive to work. Building better regulation is a national ambition, and I want to acknowledge and thank those senators who have constructively engaged with the government on this bill. Our goal for regulatory reform has been to build better regulation.
Better regulation is not simply about counting whether there are fewer or more regulations than yesterday. Indeed, inflexible or ideological targets can do as much harm as good when it comes to ensuring regulation is fit for purpose. Better regulation is about what regulation is needed to protect consumers to efficiently deliver care and service to Australians who need them and to allow businesses to do what they need to do at the lowest regulatory cost.
This is what the government's regulatory reform agenda will achieve when fully implemented. It will cut the regulatory burden by $10 billion a year, giving the economy the space it needs to invest, hire and grow. It will make it easier to do business across different Australian jurisdictions.
It will continue to progress a 'tell us once' approach to interacting with government, meaning businesses and Australians don't need to tell their story over and over to get things done. It will deliver better regulation. To sum up, this bill includes 22 measures that amend 26 acts, appeal two acts and affect the operations of 19 government agencies.
It will simplify regulation, particularly for business. This bill will implement important updates to intellectual property legislation and add valuable flexibility to the trade remedies process for importers. It will progress important changes to support gender equality in our workplaces by simplifying workplace gender equality reporting and target-setting requirements to ensure more thoughtful gender equality targets set by employers with a lower regulatory burden.
This bill will give former ADF members more choice to manage their money in retirement. It will also make various technical amendments to improve the operation of existing regulations and repeal legislation that has become redundant. I'd like to speak in more detail on the government's amendment in this place to improve the administrative working of the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort.
This measure reduces the disallowance period for CSLR special levy determinations, which are made when there is a shortfall after collection of the legislated annual levy from 15 sitting days to five sitting days. The CSLR exists to support Australians who have nowhere else to turn to, to get recourse for losses they have suffered due to financial misconduct, and the special levy is a safety net for when the set annual levy isn't enough to meet all compensation obligations.
However, ASIC is not able to collect the funds raised under this special levy until the disallowance period has expired. Fifteen sitting days is a long time on the calendar, and it is a long time to make vulnerable victims of financial misconduct, such as retirees or those facing serious illness, wait to get their much needed compensation. In practice, the time taken between the CSLR operator notifying the minister of a shortfall and the funds being made available to eligible victims can average more than eight months.
The government's amendment removes a delay in an already lengthy process and replaces it with one that is fit for purpose. Parliament will retain oversight on determinations and will be able to disallow them if it deems it appropriate to do so. The levy will not take effect until the disallowance period has passed.
Finally, this change will align the CSLR levy timeframes with those that are already applied to ASIC's industry funding levies. I'll briefly speak on the non-government amendments proposed for this bill. I want to reiterate that the amendments made by schedule 2 part 4 will not reduce procedural fairness in the Australian Human Rights Commission investigation of a complaint.
These amendments will make the complaints process a more effective and streamlined process for everyone involved. I also want to be clear that the government will not be supporting amendments to change the treatment of limited recourse borrowing arrangements for superannuation funds. The amendments would roll back changes intended to protect people's savings that the Senate debated and voted on on 25 June 2026.
Nothing has happened in the last 2½ months to justify considering this issue again. Finally, at this time, the government will not be supporting the amendments moved by the Greens to include foreign military membership as a matter that must be declared on incoming passenger cards. The nature of these cards may not give an accurate picture of this information in cases where it is needed most.
Furthermore, the likely cost required to update Border Force systems to read the new information is not proportionate to any perceived benefit of this change. In conclusion, this bill is only one small part of the government's delivery of its regulatory reform agenda. I expect that regulatory reforms omnibus bills will continue to be developed and introduced as the government identifies and develops more positive regulatory changes.
I look forward to further collaborative engagement with my senatorial colleagues when our next bill arrives. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Sterle ): The question now is that the second reading amendment moved by Senator Smith be agreed to. A division being called and as per arrangements within the Senate, we'll deal with that tomorrow.