Federal Budget 2026: Red tape slashing moves set to save businesses $10 billion

Jim Chalmers has pledged to save businesses thousands of hours and billions of dollars when dealing with governments under a productivity-boosting set of measures in Tuesday’s Budget.

But the Treasurer has explicitly ruled out adopting the cashflow tax proposed by the Productivity Commission, which was widely opposed by businesses.

Tradies will no longer have to pay up to $1600 to read Australian standards, small businesses will save an estimated 376,000 hours on tax returns with a permanent $20,000 instant asset write-off, and a “tell us once” rule will save everyone from having to repeatedly give the same information to different parts of government.

Clearer consultation requirements for offshore resources projects are aimed at giving potential investors greater certainty that projects will proceed.

Dr Chalmers is also making moves to further streamline the process of giving the tick to foreign investments to speed up approvals, on top of the changes to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act that come into effect from July.

The lengthy list of measures also includes moves to make it easier for companies operating in different States through harmonising payroll tax, retail tenancy rules and product standards for key agricultural and veterinary chemical products.

Heavy vehicle reforms will be sped up and expanded with a view to encouraging more businesses to use zero emissions trucks and other heavy vehicles.

All up, the productivity package — a year in the making — is expected to slash $10.2 billion in red tape costs while boosting GDP by $13 billion a year.

It means the Government will now be pushing ahead with 13 of the 17 areas for reform identified by the Productivity Commission in its “five pillars” reports on how to lift a productivity rate that has been sluggish for years.

Dr Chalmers sees productivity as core to the work he’s doing to make Australia’s economy more resilient and robust.

“Remember that we put productivity front and centre the day after the election. I rolled into the (ABC) studio in Ultimo and spoke to David Speers about how productivity wasn’t just going to be the core of the work that I did as treasurer, but the work that the government did more broadly,” he told The West in a pre-Budget interview.

“A lot of work has gone into the longer-term reform ambitions in this Budget.

“It’s all about getting compliance costs down and cutting red tape, making it easier and faster to build, and making Australia a more attractive place to invest.”