Login
ISCOVER
Brokers have largely welcomed Tony Abbott’s crackdown on red tape, even though some feel comfortable with their level of government paperwork.
The prime minister announced that parliament would scrap more than 9,000 regulations on March 26 as part of a campaign to cut $1 billion every year in red and green tape costs.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Positive Lending Solutions director Tom Caesar said dealing with government paperwork was a “never ending saga” for the Adelaide firm.
“We’ve got two directors, and one of the directors spends about half his time on payroll. It would be nice if it was less cluttered,” he told The Adviser.
Mr Caesar was also critical of the current Business Activity Statement (BAS) system. “We’re happy to do it quarterly, but make the process a bit smoother – the system to submit BAS is a mess.”
FirstPoint Mortgages director Troy Phillips said he supported industry regulation, but thought it should be streamlined and simplified.
“A reduction in red tape would be fantastic as long as it's compliant with ASIC and the ACCC and they’re part of the process. As a small business, you need to know you’re doing the right thing,” he said.
Mr Phillips also called for uniform credit applications for home loans and personal loans.
Reducing red tape would allow FirstPoint to transfer resources from back-office functions to customer-facing roles, he said.
Chris Yap from AAA Mortgage Solutions said his business would benefit from a reduction in red tape.
“Definitely you’ve got to be on top of the paperwork because it all adds up and it does take a bit of time,” he told The Adviser.
However, Direct Deal Finance owner Mark Goedecke said he was comfortable with the level of government paperwork that his Brisbane firm had to handle.
“I can see what they’re trying to do and I support it. But I don’t know if it impacts as much on us in the broking industry as on others,” he said.
Paradime Home Finance owner Ian Jervis also had few complaints and said there was little that the government could feasibly do to ease his workload.
Mr Jervis said one regulatory amendment he would make would be to change credit licence renewals from an annual obligation to something that had to be done very three years.
