Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Oxley for his question and the fine work he does as Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services. Today the COAG Reform Council released its progress report on COAG’s National Partnership Agreement to Deliver a Seamless National Economy. This follows the release last week of an OECD report—the Prime Minister has it in his hand but I also have the quote—which concluded:

Australia represents in many ways a “role model” for OECD countries in its proactive approach to regulatory reform.

That is great; that is an endorsement of the reform program of the Rudd government.

A COAG working group which is co-chaired by my colleague the Minister for Finance and Deregulation and me has been working hard on COAG’s ambitious reform agenda, which covers no less than 27 different areas of business regulation. The COAG Reform Council’s assessment relates the progress up to 30 September last year, and I am pleased to announce that COAG has already agreed on a response to the report that was released today, with the Prime Minister, the premiers and the chief ministers adopting our working group’s recommendations within just four working days. Thank you, Prime Minister, thank you to the premiers and thank you to the chief ministers.

COAG, I can announce, is implementing all of the COAG Reform Council’s recommendations, and that is testimony to the commitment of the Commonwealth, the states and the territories to working together to advance this vitally important microeconomic reform.

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