http://australianpolitics.com Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:23:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth AustralianPolitics.com no Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://australianpolitics.com/category/australian-constitution/federalism http://australianpolitics.com/2008/10/02/coag-meets-in-shadow-of-financial-crisis-2.html http://australianpolitics.com/2008/10/02/coag-meets-in-shadow-of-financial-crisis-2.html#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:04:29 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=207 http://australianpolitics.com/2008/10/02/coag-meets-in-shadow-of-financial-crisis-2.html/feed 0 Anna Bligh,COAG,Colin Barnett,infrastructure,John Brumby,Kevin Rudd,Nathan Rees The Council of Australian Governments met in Perth today. It was the first meeting since the election of the Rudd Government which included a Liberal Premier, Colin Barnett, from Western Australia. - A statement issued after the meeting said: “COAG ag... The Council of Australian Governments met in Perth today. It was the first meeting since the election of the Rudd Government which included a Liberal Premier, Colin Barnett, from Western Australia. A statement issued after the meeting said: “COAG agreed that the present unprecedented upheaval in global financial markets and renewed international scrutiny of their regulation underlines the importance of pressing forward with the COAG reform agenda to enhance the productive capacity and flexibility of the Australian economy. Building on its agreement in July 2008, COAG endorsed an implementation plan to strengthen the Australian financial services and credit regulation framework.” Listen to the Prime Minister, Premiers’ and Chief Ministers’ press conference: LISTEN Download the COAG Communique This is the transcript of the COAG press conference. RUDD: The Council of Australian Governments meets at a time of global financial crisis. And it's times like this that a crisis affects all Governments, Commonwealth, the States, Territories. And therefore it's time when all Governments must cooperate in Australia's national economic interest. I am pleased to report today that the Governments of this Australian Federation have done just that - cooperating in practical areas such as how do we advance our regulatory arrangements in Australia to make it easier for businesses to function. How do we bring about uniform areas of national credit regulation at a time when regulation of credit markets is under particular national and international scrutiny? And also working together on how we build the nation through infrastructure projects for the future? The Council of Australian Governments today has agreed to implement a plan for the regulation of remaining areas of consumer credit. This follows COAG's decision that the Commonwealth would assume responsibility for the regulation of mortgages, mortgage broking, margin lending and all remaining areas of consumer credit such as payday lending and financial counselling services. The implementation plan that we have adopted is a timeline for the transfer of these responsibilities to the Commonwealth by June 2009. This is a major reform in an area which has been crying out for reform for a long, long time and necessary at times like this. Secondly, the Council of Australian Governments has also debated today the need for infrastructure reform and to engage in a program of nation building for the future. On infrastructure reform one of the challenges that we have faced in the past is the absence of nationally consistent private public partnership guidelines for the nation. COAG agreed today that we will have as a nation such nationally consistent guidelines and we have agreed that those guidelines will be adopted by year's end. Furthermore on the question of our nation's infrastructure needs for the future, we discussed the role of Infrastructure Australia, the role of the Building Australia Fund which were announced in the Commonwealth's most recent Budget. Earlier the Council of Australian Governments has agreed that by year's end Infrastructure Australia would conclude its audit of Australia's infrastructure needs and that its first COAG meeting of next year, that is March next year, that COAG would then examine in infrastructure priority list for the nation. What the Commonwealth has decided to do is to have infrastructure Australia provide an early report on both of these matters - that is the infrastructure assessment of the nation, the audit, as well as infrastructure priorities - and for this now to be done by year's end. This program of work has been advanced. We believe this is important because of the outstanding infrastructure needs of the nation, both in our cities and in our rural and regional areas and we intend to get on with the job. This Government, the Australian Government has for the first time in many, AustralianPolitics.com no http://australianpolitics.com/2006/10/28/bca-federalism-report.html http://australianpolitics.com/2006/10/28/bca-federalism-report.html#comments Sat, 28 Oct 2006 12:40:14 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/2006/10/28/bca-federalism-report.shtml http://australianpolitics.com/2006/10/28/bca-federalism-report.html/feed 0 http://australianpolitics.com/1999/12/16/howard-gambles-on-co-operative-federalism.html http://australianpolitics.com/1999/12/16/howard-gambles-on-co-operative-federalism.html#comments Thu, 16 Dec 1999 06:52:00 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=3446 http://australianpolitics.com/1999/12/16/howard-gambles-on-co-operative-federalism.html/feed 0 http://australianpolitics.com/1999/04/09/howard-costello-premiers-conference.html http://australianpolitics.com/1999/04/09/howard-costello-premiers-conference.html#comments Fri, 09 Apr 1999 12:31:48 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/1999/04/09/howard-costello-premiers-conference.shtml http://australianpolitics.com/1999/04/09/howard-costello-premiers-conference.html/feed 0 http://australianpolitics.com/1999/04/09/1999-agreement-on-commonwealth-state-financial-arrangements.html http://australianpolitics.com/1999/04/09/1999-agreement-on-commonwealth-state-financial-arrangements.html#comments Fri, 09 Apr 1999 12:24:22 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/1999/04/09/1999-agreement-on-commonwealth-state-financial-arrangements.shtml http://australianpolitics.com/1999/04/09/1999-agreement-on-commonwealth-state-financial-arrangements.html/feed 0