Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

the Government, as part of its changes to the health system, is proposing to fundamentally alter the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Reform of Commonwealth-State Financial Relations (1999 GST Agreement) with the clear opposition of at least one state – Western Australia, and

(ii)

clause 44 of the 1999 GST Agreement states: ‘All questions arising in the Ministerial Council will be determined by unanimous agreement unless otherwise specified in this Agreement’; and

(b)

orders that there be laid on the table by 5 pm on Thursday 18 November 2010, any advice (including legal advice and advice from the Solicitor General or the Australian Government Solicitor) to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet or the Department of the Treasury, or advice from these departments to their respective Ministers, concerning the need for unanimous agreement to vary the GST Agreement.

Question put.