Finance Minister Penny Wong says 17 of the 27 seamless national economy reforms identified in 2008 are on track to be implemented. Photo: Andrew Meares
James Massola Online political correspondent
Finance Minister Penny Wong has criticised state governments for throwing up roadblocks to key national reforms in the energy market and occupational health and safety, shrugging off federal responsibility for the slow pace of change.
Senator Wong pointed to the Victorian state government’s decision to walk away from an agreement on national OH&S laws as an obvious road block to reform.
Her comments come after outgoing COAG Reform Council chairman Paul McClintockcriticised state and federal governments for failing to effectively sell the need for smart meters to reduce power consumption ahead of Friday’s Council of Australian Governments meeting.
Prime Minister Julia Gillardannounced on Sunday she would push for the states to support a plan that would see a national roll-out of smart meters, a creation of a consumer advocate and lower reliability standards that would reduce the expensive ‘gold plating’ of power networks.
The NSW and Queensland state Coalition governments have so far rejected the push for smart meters.
Senator Wong told ABC radio on Tuesday that 17 of the 27 seamless national economy reforms identified in 2008 were on track to be implemented, according to the COAG Reform Council’s 2012 progress report.
“As I’ve said, we’ve achieved 17 out of the 27, but in some of the areas where we haven’t achieved it’s not because the federal government has walked away – it’s because the states have changed their mind,’’ she said.
“Victoria on the occupational health and safety laws is one obvious example. The Premier changed his mind and walked away from the agreement that had been set. That’s obviously for him to explain.
“We need to get political agreement across the political divide and the state and federal divide,” she said.
But the COAG Reform Council’s report found that in three areas identified as reform priorities – directors’ liabilities, the energy market and OH&S laws – the proposed national reforms were actually at risk.
Another 13 national reform priority areas, including implementing a national construction code, remote service delivery, indigenous health and water market reforms, were found to be behind schedule.
Mr McClintock said he was hopeful that Friday’s COAG meeting would deliver meaningful reform in the energy market, but added that there are a number of barriers to change.
“Year after year we have been saying this reform area doesn’t really add up. It hasn’t added up ... and it is politically again quite difficult. Some of the states still own assets in the energy area,’’ he told the ABC.
“If it’s something that has just come out of federal government that hasn’t been built up through some sort of process, I’ve learnt over the years that these dramatic announcements made before COAGs are often very problematic if they don’t reflect some sort of process underneath them.”
Senator Wong acknowledged that business wanted to see the reforms implemented more quickly.
“I say to them ‘make sure you talk not just to me, but go and talk to the states as well because all of these things have to be agreed across governments’,” she said
She also reminded banks that the federal government expected them to pass on official cuts to interest rates, ahead of an expected cut by the Reserve Bank on Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t think any customers find the non passing on of rate cuts a good thing,” she said.
The RBA is expected to announce 25-basis point cut to its cash rate, bringing it down to 3 per cent.
The Australian Financial Review
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