He's the man who was touted as the heir-apparent to West Australian Premier Colin Barnett, just two short years after entering the State Parliament.
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But in mid-2012, Christian Porter announced he was quitting as state Treasurer and Attorney-General to contest the federal seat of Pearce at the 2013 election.
Some commentators have already tipped him as a future prime minister. But after winning his seat in September 2013, Mr Porter has mostly stayed out of the limelight, making the case internally for his state in key areas such as GST reform.
In December 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott promoted him to serve as his parliamentary secretary, charged with taking over the government's cutting red tape agenda.
Three months later, Mr Porter will on Wednesday introduce the federal government's third omnibus red tape repeal day bill, which will aim to cut another $1 billion in what the government says is unnecessary regulation and compliance burdens.
The first bill, introduced in March 2014, has cut an estimated $2.45 billion in red tape according to government estimates. The second one, introduced last October, has stalled after an obstructive Senate attempted to amend the bill but will be sent back to the upper house, Mr Porter said.
He described the cuts to red tape as a "deregulatory diet" for the Australian economy.
"We are measuring every single calorie of regulation that is going in and every single calorie of legislation that is being burned off and we are aiming to be a $1 billion lighter each year," Mr Porter said.
"We have overshot our $1 billion target in year one, which the annual report will show … the process is probably gets a bit more grinding in year two but it is definitely achievable."
Examples of red tape that will be cut in the latest bill include:
- an $17.7 million cut to compliance costs for airlines by allowing passengers to use their mobile phones on take-off and landing
- an $8.3 million saving for truckers after a requirement for duplicate splash guards was cut
- a $6.2 million saving from simpler identity checks to purchase a mobile phone
- a $48.5 million saving from improving the tax office website, making it simpler for Australians to find the information they need
As for the shift from state politics to the Federal Parliament, Mr Porter said the biggest change he had noticed thus far was the sheer scale of things.
"The quantums are much larger, the WA state budget was $31-$32 billion. That's the same size as the defence budget. So sometimes even modest policy reforms can have a very significant multiplier effect in the economy," he said.
"The parliament is largely similar, it's just the scale, most Westminster parliaments are the same," though Mr Porter added a rider. "The West Australian lower house is the only blue lower house in the country [all other lower house chambers are green] - and that's because when it was built there was an excess of blue carpet in the state."
In Canberra, the blue carpet is reserved for the ministerial wing - the same wing many have tipped Mr Porter to be walking before too long.
