Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs and Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy. How is the government responding to the COAG Reform Council’s progress report released today and the need for further reforms to business regulations?

Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Link to 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.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What are they?

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

I am fascinated to hear the shadow Treasurer saying: ‘What are they? What are the 27 areas of regulatory reform?’ He has never heard of them. He has never heard of economic reform in this country and never heard of deregulation—and I will have more to say about that in a moment.

I thank the COAG Reform Council and the states and territories for their important work on these reforms. At least one-third of the reforms are approaching completion by the middle of the year, which is just 1½ years into a five-year agreement.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What are they?

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

The shadow Treasurer asks what the 27 reforms are, and I can say that they include 10 hot spots identified—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

wait for it, brother—by COAG under the previous coalition government. Those 10 regulatory hot spots were identified by COAG under the previous coalition government. And what did the Business Council of Australia have to say on progress by the coalition on these 10 hot spots? It said: ‘Eighteen months ago COAG released a plan to tackle 10 business regulation hot spots.’ It was referring to 2007. ‘Clearly they were so hot they burnt a hole in the piece of paper and we haven’t seen them since.’ That is an indictment of you, the coalition, for lack of progress on these 10 important regulatory reforms. Indeed, the Business Council of Australia further described the period covered by the previous coalition government as one of ‘the creeping reregulation of business’.

Now that they are in opposition, the coalition have sought to thwart perhaps the most important of these reforms, and of course I refer to a national system of occupational health and safety, for which the coalition opposed in the Senate the facilitating legislation not once, not twice but three times, such is their lack of commitment to economic reform in this country. I call on the Leader of the Opposition to rethink his strategy of opposing Rudd government reforms for the sake of opposition and to support the Rudd government’s economic reform program.

It is already well known that the opposition leader is a big risk to the Australian economy and so too is his sidekick, Senator Barnaby Joyce. Senator Barnaby Joyce wanders around Australia with a briefcase full of new regulations. He has the Birdsville amendment, the Blacktown amendment, the Richmond amendment and the Breakfast Creek amendment—amendments named after just about every pub in Australia. We know Senator Joyce will go, but what will remain is the opposition leader’s poor judgment—his poor judgment in appointing Senator Joyce.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order on the question of relevance. I would ask him to answer the question. Go through the 10 hot spots.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister is responding to the question, but the minister will come to his conclusion.

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

It is revealing, is it not, that the shadow Treasurer, a member of the previous government, does not even know the 10 regulatory hot spots that they failed to deliver on? Senator Joyce will go, but the opposition leader’s poor judgment will remain. The Rudd government is building a stronger economy for the future by supporting jobs and small businesses today.