Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to say that a number of states have already passed relevant legislation. It has been introduced into this parliament and into a number of other parl­iaments, or is about to be. But there has been some backsliding by a couple of govern­ments in recent times. Victoria and Western Australia have been sending signals that they may not be as committed as their earlier commitments seemed to reflect. Figures released today show that not implementing the reform will cost the Victorian and Western Australian economies $62 million and $26 million respectively. Not harmon­ising would actually cost their economies, and there would be a very negative result for the development of a seamless national economy and the benefits that would flow to business from these reforms. I was very concerned today to see that Senator Abetz seemed to be hedging his bets as well, given the previous strong Liberal Party support for reform. Again they seem to be taking a negative attitude and are walking away from vital measures. (Time expired)