House of Representatives

Second Reading Speech

Dr LEIGH (Fenner - Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Assistant Minister for Employment)

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Australian government has a strong commitment to reduce excessive and unnecessary regulation and administrative costs for businesses.

This bill will deliver significant deregulation benefits for businesses who engage in the manufacture, importation and distribution of fuel and alcohol.

The measures in this bill, together with amendments to subordinate legislation, implement the remaining elements of the 'Streamlining the administration of fuel and alcohol excise package'.

A first tranche of measures from this package were legislated as part of Treasury Laws Amendment (Refining and Improving our Tax System) Act 2023 and took effect on 1 July 2023.

Those measures have improved reporting arrangements for small businesses by aligning the excise and customs reporting with other indirect taxes, and they support innovation in the beer industry by allowing the small-scale sale of 'growlers' from licensed hospitality venues without attracting excise duty and licence obligations.

This bill implements the remaining measures of the deregulation package.

This bill will remove unnecessary regulatory touch points by ensuring that businesses dealing with dutiable alcohol or fuel will no longer need to renew their excise or customs warehouse licences which permit the storage of excise-equivalent goods (customs EEG warehouse).

In addition, the bill will provide an immediate and ongoing cash saving for those businesses by removing fees and charges associated with excise and customs EEG warehouse licences.

The licensing process will also be simplified. Businesses with multiple manufacturing or warehousing sites around Australia will now be able to apply to consolidate each of their excise and customs EEG warehouse licences into corresponding single 'entity-level' licences. This will allow business to easily apply to add or remove sites from their licence without the need of going through the full onerous licence application process.

A new arrangement that allows freer movement of dutiable goods between licensed sites will be provided. Approved businesses will no longer need to seek regulator permission each time they wish to move or supply their excisable goods to and from other excise licensed businesses or excise-equivalent goods to and from other customs EEG warehouses.

This bill will also make it easier and timelier for businesses to access information they need, allowing businesses to readily identify licensed entities without having to contact regulators and wait for a reply. This will be achieved by the creation of a new online public register of all excise and customs licensees that manufacture, store and warehouse fuel or alcohol products.

Finally, this bill will remove unnecessary administrative burdens for onshore oil producers by removing the requirement that they hold excise licences, unless the relevant production threshold is exceeded.

The government is committed to removing unnecessary administrative and compliance burdens for businesses, reducing costs and helping keep prices lower.

This bill complements the continued support the government currently provides to local brewers and distillers who receive an automatic full remission of any excise duty they would otherwise have paid on the alcohol they produce up to a cap of $350,000 each financial year.

Full details of the measures are contained in the explanatory memorandum.

Debate adjourned.