Page 3719 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 9 December 1992
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Pursuant to section 47 of the Legal Aid Act 1977 -
Legal Aid Commission Annual Report and Financial Statements, including Auditor-General's report for 1991-92;
National Road Transport Commission Annual Report for 1991-92; and
Pursuant to section 22 of the Territory Owned Corporations Act 1990 -
Totalcare Industries Limited Annual Report and Financial Statements, including Auditor-General's report for period 16 December 1991 to 30 June 1992.
COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENTS
Ministerial Statement and Paper
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I seek leave of the Assembly to make a ministerial statement on the inaugural meeting of the Council of Australian Governments.
Leave granted.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, the inaugural meeting of the Council of Australian Governments took place in Perth on Monday, 7 December. In accordance with the practice adopted by successive ACT governments of reporting on major intergovernmental forums, I take this opportunity to inform the Assembly of the outcome of the council's deliberations.
Members will be aware that the Council of Australian Governments has been established with the aim of increasing cooperation among governments in the national interest. The council is a more formal and permanent incarnation of the Special Premiers Conference process, which commenced in 1990. With its focus on cooperation between governments, the Council of Australian Governments is additional to, rather than a replacement of, the normal financial Premiers Conference. This allows the council to concentrate on issues that are better suited to consideration in a consensual and non-partisan manner for the benefit of the nation as a whole.
It is inevitable that a gathering of all Australia's heads of government provides a forum for consideration of matters which at the time of the meeting are a source of tension between levels of government. This was the case in Perth in relation to industrial relations matters. It is a measure of the potential strength of the Council of Australian Governments and the goodwill that all participants bring to it that the council was able to agree to a means of seeking to resolve the concerns expressed by some States about the Commonwealth's proposal to legislate in response to industrial relations developments in Victoria.
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