Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, I can confirm that. It has been made very clear that the states and territories that do not meet the provisions will not receive funding and it will be reallocated to those that do. I think that is a pretty powerful penalty mechanism. One of the officials has advised me that, to the extent that the national partnership on the Nation Building and Jobs Plan contributes to national agreements of COAG—and, in particular, the issue we have been discussing, the National Housing Affordability Agreement, is important in this context—the state performance against the objective in these agreements will be assessed by what is known as the COAG Reform Council, and the COAG Reform Council makes these reports public. That has already been agreed to. So that is another level of oversight, if you like, that has been drawn to my attention by the officials.

The COAG Reform Council is independent. It is an authority established by COAG itself, which has been given a new role to monitor and publicly report on the progress of all governments against mutually agreed objectives that are set by COAG and set out in the new federal financial framework. The COAG Reform Council will report every 12 months in respect of the performance on health care, housing, schools and vocational education, disability services and Indigenous reform. So that is another mechanism for publication of assessment and another area of scrutiny of this very important aspect of the package under consideration.