Opposition leader Tony Abbott announced this morning the Coalition’s plan to cut red tape and reduce the burden on businesses by $1 billion.
Abbott re-affirmed his promise to repeal the carbon and mining tax and generally simplify environmental regulation.
“The abolition of the carbon tax will remove thousands of pages of legislation,” Abbott said at a press conference this morning.
Abbott said business environmental regulation would be strict, but he wants there to be a “one stop shop” for environmental approvals.
“You shouldn’t have to run the gauntlet twice,” Abbott said.
The Coalition has also promised to establish a deregulation unit as part of the Department of Finance and link the bonuses of senior public servants to their success at reducing red tape.
Business confidence is beginning to rebound from recent lows, but research released this morning shows business conditions are continuing to deteriorate.
The results of the quarterly investor confidence survey from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry shows ACCI’s indexes of business conditions, sales and profitability remained near record low levels in the June quarter, with predicted improvements unlikely to materialise.
Business sales deteriorated from 48.3 to 46.9 in the June quarter, close to its all-time low of 46.6, recorded this time a year ago.
Business profits also fell in the quarter, with profits slipping 0.9 points on the index from 45 to 44.1.
National economic and investment indexes continued to recover from historic lows, but they remained “deep in negative territory”, with ratings below 50 in the negative.
Australian shares have slipped lower this morning, as the share market continues its volatile run.
The S&P/ASX200 benchmark fell 31.7 points to 4810, just after midday. The majority of sectors were down, with materials companies dropping 211 points to 8,458.6.
The Australian dollar is currently trading at US90.45 cents.
