Labor’s red tape from cradle to grave

Despite its claims to be cutting red tape, the Labor Party since coming to office has churned out more than 5,900 pages of additional new laws for Victorians to obey.

Analysis by the Victorian Opposition shows that over the nine years since January 2000, the Bracks and Brumby governments have enacted more than 12,000 pages of new laws, but have repealed fewer than 6,100 pages of old laws.

The result has been thousands more pages of new laws now applying to Victorians from cradle to grave, starting with the 585 pages of the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005, and ending with the 115 pages of the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act 2003.

In between, Victorians are being required to understand and obey a constantly growing volume of laws covering almost every aspect of life, from taxes and fines to health and education.

The biggest door-stopper of all is the Gambling Regulation Act 2003, which weighs in at 908 pages and is 182 pages longer than the pre-2000 laws it replaced.

Second prize goes to Attorney-General Rob Hulls for the 589 pages long Legal Profession Practice Act 2004, a solid 182 pages longer than the Legal Practice Act 1996 which it replaced.

Other heavy volumes include the 444 page Education and Training Reform Act 2006 and the 263 page Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. Yet to hit the statute book is the 316 page Criminal Procedure Bill 2008 still waiting to be considered by Parliament.

“Rob Hulls boasts that the government is simplifying legislation and reducing the regulatory burden, but instead the government has enacted almost twice as many pages of new legislation as it has repealed old legislation,” Shadow Attorney-General Robert Clark said today.

“This increase in red tape does not even include the myriad of new rules imposed by means of regulations, Codes of Practice, Orders in Council and amendments to existing laws.

“New laws may have worthy goals, but the sheer volume of new law is imposing a heavy burden on businesses, on professionals and on ordinary Victorians. In the current difficult economic times, the last thing Victorians need is wordy and complex new rules that take them away from keeping businesses open and saving much needed jobs.

“As the state’s chief law officer, Rob Hulls needs to put a lot more effort into ensuring that new legislation is carefully designed to avoid imposing unnecessary new burdens and to avoid overlap, repetition and needless rewording of existing law,” Mr Clark said.