Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am really pleased to rise to speak to this motion, and I thank the member for Cowper for moving it. I have no doubt that in moving it he is aware of the work that the federal government has been doing in this area, and again I acknowledge his commitment to the sector in moving this motion.

I doubt that there are many of us in Australia that are not involved with one cooperative or another, although we may not understand exactly what that means. This International Year of the Cooperative is a really good opportunity for us as a community to improve our understanding of how extraordinary the contribution of this sector is. If you are or ever have been a member of a credit union, you have been associated with a cooperative. If you have been a member of the RACQ or the NRMA or called roadside assistance, you have also benefitted from some of our strongest cooperatives.

There are about 1,700 cooperatives in Australia, and it is amazing how large some of them are. In the top 100, we have co-ops like Co-operative Bulking Handling Ltd (WA), which turns over more than $2.63 billion; the Murray Goulburn Co-operative, which turns over $2.24 billion; HBF, which turns over $1.1 billion; and the Royal Automobile Club of WA, which turns over $656 million. So these are very, very large cooperatives. As you go down the list you see the RACV, the automobile club for Victoria; and the New England Credit Union, which comes in at number 52.

It is really quite an impressive list in which you will see most of the credit unions, the names of which you would recognise: the Teachers Credit Union, at over $100 million, and the Police and Nurses Credit Society. It is an incredibly impressive list. It includes housing co-ops and some food co-ops. I had the pleasure of being a member of a food co-op once, many years ago, up in the Blue Mountains and I used to go up there from time to time to buy from it because it focused on local supply of very fresh organic food. Again, across almost every area where people have an interest you will find co-ops forming.

I would like to talk a little bit about the issue of regulation, because the member for Cowper has included that in his motion. I would just like to reassure the member for Cowper that the government will continue working with the states and territories to implement nationally consistent laws governing the operation of cooperatives. In the past, discussion between the cooperative sector and the regulators about the need for reform of current co-op legislation, including the need for improved consistency and simpler requirements for cross-border operations by cooperatives, led to the development of the Australian Uniform Cooperative Laws Agreement. I have said before in this place how amazed I am sometimes at the inability of a person to cross a state border without running into a whole stack of new regulation. This was and still is another area where we have that concern.

The agreement requires that all states and territories apply proposed national template legislation or pass legislation which is consistent with the national legislation for the regulation of cooperatives. New South Wales is the host jurisdiction under the agreement, and I have seen some commentary on some of the co-op sites recently about the work that the New South Wales government has done in this area. The uniform template legislation, the Cooperatives National Law and its supporting regulations, was developed by the Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs. The initial legislation, the Co-operatives (Adoption of National Law) Act 2012, containing the Cooperatives National Law, was passed by New South Wales and received assent very recently, on 18 May.

I note this development was welcomed by peak body Co-operatives Australia and their state based members. Again, I have seen how much traffic there has been on the websites that are dedicated to reporting on cooperatives in the last few weeks. While the regulation of cooperatives is the responsibility of the state and territory governments, the Australian government has supported the progression of the Cooperatives National Law through the Council of Australian Governments, which we know as COAG, Legislative and Governance Forum on Consumer Affairs, and the states and territories have agreed that they will continue to work towards the introduction of the Cooperatives National Law or alternative consistent legislation. It is quite appropriate that this work is being done this year, which is the International Year of the Cooperative. It is valuable work. It is work that supports an incredibly important part of our economy, one which I hope we will see greater recognition of this year.

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