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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Given that Australia's cooperatives have laboured under a legislative regime of state-based cooperative law that has restricted their ability to compete on an equal and fair footing with other corporate forms of business, what plans does the government have to encourage and support the development of cooperatives, including funding for small- and medium-enterprise development intermediary services, with the skills and resources to advise on cooperative business formations and assist the aim of growing the number of cooperative businesses operating in the national economy?