STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J. KEATING, MP
COAG AND A NEW COMMITMENT TO CHANGE
On the eve of the COAG Conference in Hobart I take the
opportunity to repeat the Government's call for a new
commitment to change. A new consensus about change.
The Commonwealth Government does not believe that its
role in economic reform is over by any means. Although
the role has changed there remains much to do as the
forthcoming White Paper will confirm. However, what
Australia urgently requires is a willingness on the part
of business and the States to accept their share of
responsibility for economic reform in the decade ahead.
As I said on Tuesday night, the truth is that reform in
electricity or in competition rules will only succeed if
the States accept that it is in their own interests and
the interests of their citizens. And that it most
certainly is. Similarly, progress in enterprise
bargaining or bringing Australian industry to global best
practice is in the interests of business and business has
the ultimate responsibility for achieving it.
If we are going to maintain the progress of economic
reform, strengthen economic recovery and extend its
benefits to all Australians, the States and the
Commonwealth must develop efficient means of working
together and in a more complementary way.
If we are going to deal the people into the opportunities
which national recovery offers the States have a
fundamental role to play.
We have spent a decade knocking down the barriers to our
external competitiveness and creating a cooperative and
productive workplace culture. We have to bring the same
resolve and the same attitudes to the . Federation.
The pursuit of competitive standards of efficiency which
the Commonwealth Government has fostered and to which so
many Australian businesses have responded must be brought
to the Federation. 4649
The principles of efficient management and efficient
delivery which have come to govern Australia's best
businesses should govern the business of Australia.
The Commonwealth wants to discuss the roles and
responsibilities of governments in the Federation how
to deliver programs more effectively.
But a commitment to common national goals must the
guiding principle of the relationship between the States
and Commonwealth.
HOBART 24 February 1994
4650
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