Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister outline the matters being considered by the Council of Australian Governments next week and what the traditional Commonwealth approach to COAG has been?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government, as it embraces the challenges for the next six months of the year, is dealing with the underlying challenge of long-term tax reform. That is why we have commissioned the Henry commission of inquiry. Coming out of the 2020 Summit was a call for this nation, for the first time in a quarter of a century, to undertake a root and branch analysis of the tax system, the income support system and the retirement income system. This is a major item of economic reform. Secondly, we are also looking at the great economic reform task of business deregulation. That is the task in which the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy is currently engaged; I referred to it yesterday in answer to a question in the House. Again the call from the 2020 Summit was: how in this place do we go about creating a seamless national economy, a seamless national market, as an important element of microeconomic reform?

Beyond that, we will also, in the next six months, be dealing with the great reform challenge that is climate change and in particular the emissions-trading scheme. This is a comprehensive piece of reform. It is complex. It involves not just our international negotiations through the Kyoto and post-Kyoto process; it involves the negotiation here, domestically, of an appropriate responsible emissions trading scheme for the future. That is the right course of action and we believe that is the responsible reform oriented course of action in which any properly-minded government of this country would proceed.

Beyond these areas of reform, there is another third basket of reform in which we are collectively engaged—that is, the reform of the federation itself. If there is one thing which we as members on this side of the House have heard from our constituents over a long period of time it is this: will you bring an end to the blame game between Canberra and the states? Will you bring an end to the blame game so that real progress can be achieved in health, in hospitals, in schools, in universities, in our TAFE colleges, in vocational education and training, in water and in our management of the natural and national resources of our country and, furthermore, will you bring an end to the blame game when it comes to Indigenous affairs? Housing—the list goes on.

These are important matters which affect the daily lives of working Australians across our nation. You can either have an approach that it is best to preserve this old, tired, worn-out political script which says, ‘I don’t want to act on this nationally; it’s all too hard. Instead, I want to blame somebody else—a state government here, a territory government there or a local government there,’ or have the approach adopted by this government, which says, ‘Let us as a nation work together. Let us as a nation pull in the one direction. Let us as a nation act on the big challenges in health reform, in education reform, in climate change, in infrastructure, in business regulation, in competition reform, in housing and in Indigenous affairs.’ These reforms affect the lives of so many Australians.

That is the work program which we have established for the Council of Australian Governments. This Council of Australian Governments, in the course of a 12-month period, will be meeting on five occasions. We met within two weeks of the government forming office last year. We met again in March. There is a meeting coming up early in July. We will meet again in September-October and again in November. On the agenda we are dealing with the critical future of the Australian healthcare agreement. We are dealing also with the future of education, including vocational education and training. We are also dealing with critical decisions which will affect housing, homelessness and, on top of that, what we do with the future of Indigenous affairs.

This is an important area of incomplete microeconomic reform for the nation. I would say to those opposite that this is where the real action lies for so many Australians, waiting for governments at last to cooperate with each other and to address and deal with in a sustainable, long-term fashion these huge challenges facing our people, as opposed to simply playing short-term, opportunistic politics.

On the question of the construction of public finances, we have had this ramshackle system of payments between the Commonwealth and the states, between some 90 specific purpose payments, each with their own implementation machinery, each involving waste and duplication. Instead, this government is committed to the comprehensive reform of the payment system between Canberra and the states when it comes to the future of specific purpose payments.

There is a large program of reform to be undertaken through COAG. It affects the lives of working Australians. I would commend those opposite to, rather than permanently disappear down the sink hole of opportunistic politics which has a 12-hour news cycle, instead lift their eyes to the nation’s long-term needs, lift their eyes instead to the challenges on climate change, lift their eyes instead to the challenges of long-term tax reform, lift their eyes to the long-term challenges of microeconomic reform and lift their eyes to the challenge of fixing the federation.

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.