Angus Taylor has defended his hot mic comments attacking the Australian public service, while hinting at further targets for cuts if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We need more investment by private enterprise if we're going to see rising productivity, that is central to our plan to fix the economy and to protect our way of life," Mr Taylor told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
"If we're going to see more investment, what we need is regulation that encourages competitiveness, productivity ... And that's across all regulators, whether it's the the ATO or ASIC or APRA, you name it. They need to be more investment friendly. That's how we're going to fix our economy."
Speaking alongside opposition health and aged care spokeswoman Anne Ruston and ACT Liberal Senate candidate Nick Tyrrell, Mr Taylor said bureaucratic red tape under Labor was "completely failing Australians, and Australians are angry".
"We need to see streamlining of regulation in this country to make it easier to invest," he said.
The Canberra Times revealed Mr Taylor's leaked comments at a closed-door Liberal National Party small business forum in Brisbane two weeks ago, when he told potential donors: "Wasteful bureaucracy has to go."
"I've been fighting it all my frigging life, and I hate it with a passion," he was recorded saying in response to an audience question about red tape.
"We have agencies across government right now that do not serve the Australian people the way they should. They serve themselves."
Senator Ruston declined to say whether agencies in her portfolio - like the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC), Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) - should be abolished.
But she said Labor "puts process and paperwork ahead of people" and was "over-regulating aged care, creating layers of red tape, regulation, reporting requirements and compliance processes that are making the system harder to navigate and more expensive to deliver".
"I will always put outcomes for vulnerable older Australians first."
She pointed to comments by former Inspector-General of Aged Care Natalie Siegel-Brown who recently told the ABC that "the way aged care reform is being implemented is causing harm" and said older Australians who needed a $50 pair of crutches were waiting three months to receive a pair that cost $1800.
A government spokesperson said Labor had put the aged care system on "a stronger, safer and more sustainable footing" and would "continue to build on our changes as they bed down" with $47 billion to be spent this financial year.
"A decade under the Liberals and a Royal Commission into aged care showed how much the Liberals really care about older Australians and that record speaks for itself," the spokesperson said.
"Unlike the Coalition, the Albanese Government hasn't shied away from the challenges we face in aged care and we know there's much more to do as our population continues to age."
Former Liberal MLA Giulia Jones, the chief operating officer of the Villaggio Sant' Antonio aged care facility where Mr Taylor's joint press conference was held, said there were a lot of requirements to meet but that she could see the need for regulation to keep older Australians safe.
In his leaked remarks about the bureaucracy, Mr Taylor named the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) and Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), saying "all these acronyms ... The lot of them."
He later posted on social media that his position was "not a secret".
But on Thursday, Mr Taylor softened his rhetoric a little.
"I think there are magnificent public servants in this city, and I also think they want to see our country succeed," he said.
"I want to enable them to be able to do their job to ensure that we have a strong economy and a great country again that we can all be very proud of."
This masthead had asked for more detail of the Coalition's broad intention to slash agencies, asking what other regulators might be on the list.
Mr Taylor said comments at the LNP event had been in line with his budget reply speech in May, when he vowed to end "big government," undo the Albanese government's housing changes, abolish the Housing Australia Future Fund and "Labor's climate bureaucracy", including the Net Zero Economy Authority.
