Angus Taylor is owed an apology.
Some coverage of his time in public life — including, to our shame, in Crikey — may have allowed the public to draw the conclusion, once or twice, that Taylor suffered some limitations as a policy formulator, or as an orator, or an administrator, a social media poster, or, in general, as a contributor to the public square.
Well, today there is egg on our face. He’s only gone and come up with the most innovative policy pitch in Australian history:
” … today, I’ve announced a Taylor-Canavan government will slash red tape by 25% in our first term. This will save Australian businesses, large and small, $40 billion a year … Fixing the economy and cleaning up Labor’s mess starts with backing Australian business.”
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I mean, that’s inspiring. No-one likes red tape, and getting rid of it would save SO much money. Why has no-one ever thought of simply cutting red tape?
That said, genius is never without precedent. Taylor may have been influenced by some other policy innovators when putting this particular announcement together.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers, for example, may think Taylor has had a glance at his homework. Ahead of May’s budget this year, Chalmers noted that “one of the best ways to address the long-term productivity challenge that we inherited in our economy is to reduce red tape where we can and make it easier for business to grow, and that will be a feature of the budget.”
That said, maybe Chalmers was actually stealing inspiration from Taylor, given that, in January 2025 when Taylor was shadow treasurer under the leadership of Peter Dutton, he promised to “cut red tape for small businesses by introducing a capped tax deduction of $20,000 for business-related meal and entertainment expenses”.
Dutton’s predecessor in the Liberal leadership, Scott Morrison, promised that his government was “cutting red tape, $300 million worth for small business” in November 2018. Although that must have hit some snags, because by July 2019, Morrison was once again promising to overhaul red tape to “provoke the much needed ‘animal spirits’ in our economy”. Again, there were obviously some more kinks that needed to be worked out with the policy, because in April 2021, there was still, according to Morrison, a need for sweeping reductions in red tape — this time enough to save business $430 million.
But surely there can be no greater influence on Taylor’s priorities than former prime minister Tony Abbott.
When he was opposition leader, Abbott committed (several times) to establish a deregulation taskforce, “tasked with talking to the businesses of Australia to find example after example of intrusive and burdensome regulation, intrusive and unnecessary compliance costs”.
“The Productivity Commission has recently estimated that red tape reduction could add $12 billion a year to Australia’s GDP,” Abbott argued in December 2011.
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And when Abbott swept to office, he delivered a “bonfire of regulations” in March 2014, slashing an incredible 1,100 acts of parliament, which he promised would cut $700 million from business costs. Just look at this list of red tape, compiled at the time by our politics editor Bernard Keane, that had been garrotting Australian business:
“Like a logger with a chainsaw heading into forest too long locked up by mad greenies, [the Abbott government] has started felling the tall timber of regulatory tyranny.
So, under the Amending Acts 1901 to 1969 Repeal Bill 2014 the lights have been turned off for the Lighthouses Acts — all six of them, starting from 1916. It’s last drinks for the Distillation Acts — all 11 of them. Time’s been called on the nine Spirits Acts, right back to 1915. There’s no more room for the 25 War Services Homes Acts after the Great War and World War II (and, sadly, the War Services Estate Acts as the period after the relevant conflict lengthens). The Defence Act 1911 — one of 32 Defence Acts being repealed — which regulates how long a senior cadet drills for, is now being drummed out.
We’re amazed, after such a liberating blaze, that there’s any red tape left for Taylor to reduce.
