Former Resources Minister and senior Labor figure, Martin Ferguson, has backed the Coalition’s One-Stop Shop reform and is calling on Labor and the crossbench to give their support.
In an article in The Australian today, Mr Ferguson said that the One-Stop Shop reform is a priority for Australia and slammed opposition to the plans to cut red tape and streamline processes for business.
Mr Ferguson specifically criticised the former Gillard Government for backing away from the important reforms:
“Julia Gillard started the process through COAG and then threw the towel in; she gave into the Greens. I must say, from a business perspective, it did the Labor Party a hell of a lot of damage. Tony Abbott has got to finish it off. It’s of great benefit to attracting investment in Australia.”
“I actually regard the One-Stop Shop as an absolute priority”
Labor should listen to Martin Ferguson’s advice and support this important job-creating reform.
At last week’s Council of Australian Government’s meeting, all State and Territory governments once again reaffirmed the importance of addressing duplication in environmental approvals, while maintaining high environmental standards. They underlined the importance of implementing effective one-stop-shops as soon as possible.
Unnecessary duplication of federal, state or territory processes add complexity and cost to environmental approvals across the country.
The One-Stop Shop will reduce the regulatory burden on business by streamlining the environmental assessment and approvals process, while still maintaining high environmental standards.
The introduction of the One-Stop Shop reform will save Australian businesses around $420 million nationally every year.
According to the Minerals Council of Australia, the One-Stop Shop reform has the potential to lift Australia’s national output by $160 billion and create an extra 69,000 jobs by 2025.
Despite this, Labor continues to stand in the way of the reforms which it had previously supported, and in doing so is risking jobs and investment in Australia.
(ENDS)