Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources) Share this | Hansard source

As I said, significant progress has been made by the Ministerial Council on Energy in reforming Australia’s energy markets and, in particular, the establishment of the new national governance arrangements, which will get rid of a raft of inefficient state based legislation. Secondly, the Ministerial Council on Energy has already released its response to the Productivity Commission review. That response contains key policy decisions, which will be incorporated in the new national gas law and national gas rules. The Ministerial Council on Energy has announced that it intends to release an exposure draft of that legislation at the end of July. Following public consultation, the bills will be introduced into the South Australian parliament in late October or early November. I inform the House that the government looks forward to bilateral support for these important reforms.

This government demonstrated its ongoing commitment to micro-economic reform through its support for a new national reform agenda announced by COAG in February this year. As the member for Batman is well aware, these reforms are a cooperative effort with the states. If the member is so concerned with the rate of their progress, he would do well to raise these concerns with his state colleagues, considering they hold power in all states of Australia. For these reasons, the government opposes the amendment moved by the member for Batman.

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