You know there's an election coming on when...there are a lot of new laws to digest

Commonwealth Parliament is now in recess until 7 August 2007 but it's clear that Bills had to be introduced in the last session to have a chance of being passed and implemented before the election due later this year.

Looking at the Bills List (pdf) there are Bills which implement Budget measures (eg the tax changes), government policy changes (eg the Work Choices Safety Net), government responses to Inquiries (the International Trade Integrity Bill) and some which represent the culmination of a long period of consultation and negotiation (eg the Simpler Regulatory System package, the Trade Practices Act small business protection changes). Other Bills (such as Access Card) have had to be amended and will likely wait for the next term to be re-introduced.

For businesses, absorbing the effect of all of these new laws at the same time is time consuming and distracting. Perhaps a 4 year electoral cycle would lead to fewer "last minute rushes".