On Tuesday I wrote here, I wrote about the values vacuity of Prime Minister Morrison and his Government.  Then, yesterday, just as a well-oiled spin machine should, the government’s great fiscal conservative hope, the Hon Ben Morton, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet, announced the Government’s Deregulation Agenda Removing Business Red Tape and Lifting Regulator Performance.

Like a Yes, Minister re-run, Morton announced that the government needed to spend money to save money.  More precisely:

The key elements of the Government’s investment of around $120 million in Deregulation measures are: reducing the regulatory burden for businesses interacting with government; making it easier for businesses to get people into jobs; and building foundations for future reforms.

The Morrison Government is seriously planning to spend $120 million to reduce regulation.  You could not make this stuff up.  And if you tried, you would be sued by the writers of Yes, Minister for infringement of intellectual property rights.

Unfortunately, unlike the BBC television show, this is not a comedy.  One of the big deregulatory projects proposed is a new “Regulator Performance Guide” which will:

[R]educe duplication through removing the requirement to produce a separate regulator performance report.

Yep.  Deregulation for the Morrison Government is a reduction in the number of reports the Government is going to produce. 

But all is fine because:

[A]s part of Australia’s Deregulation Agenda to support economic recovery and growth, the Australian Government is refreshing how it sets out its expectations for regulator performance and reporting.

All aboard.  Hop onto the express train to economic suicide. 

Stephen Spartacus blogs at Sparty’s Cast, where a version of this piece also appears.