Council of Australian Governments’ Meeting 20 December 2007 agrees on reform agenda

The first Council of Australian Governments (COAG) under the Rudd Labor Government was held on 20th December in Melbourne.

COAG identified seven areas for its 2008 work agenda:

• health and ageing;
• the productivity agenda – including education, skills, training and early childhood;
• climate change and water;
• infrastructure;
• business regulation and competition;
• housing; and
• Indigenous reform.

COAG agreed to begin changing the nature of Commonwealth-State funding arrangements by agreeing to focus more on outputs and outcomes, underpinned by a commitment from the Commonwealth Government to provide incentive payments to drive reforms.

To drive reforms, COAG agreed that it would meet four times in 2008.

At its March meeting next year, each of the working groups will provide COAG with its Commonwealth-State implementation plans for the major Commonwealth election commitments.

In the area of business regulation, it was agreed that plans identifying a first tranche of new regulatory reform initiatives would be delivered to the March 2008 meeting. Priority areas for further or new action could include OH&S, payroll tax administration, building codes, trade and professional recognition, simplified accounting methods for the hospitality sector and BAS simplification.