John Madigan (Victoria, Democratic Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Senator Lundy. Can the minister explain why, in the International Year of Co-operatives and with many of the most successful businesses across the world being cooperative owned, almost no Australian cooperative can benefit from the government's Enterprise Connect scheme—which requires an applicant to have an Australian company number—when allowing applicants to use an Australian business number, thereby indicating they are a taxpaying business, would allow most Australian trading cooperatives to benefit from the scheme?