Page 970 - Week 03 - Thursday, 7 April 2022
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way of reimagining and rebuilding how we work together, and how we produce and share goods and services in a form that is, as the name says, much more co-operative. They are about people working together fairly and for shared goals.
In the ACT, I think we have a kind of jurisdiction that can advance co-operatives. As with so many other issues, we are small enough to make manageable and inventive change, but big enough to encourage larger jurisdictions to realise they can scale up and help co-operatives thrive in their own region.
We have a decent structure in place, as has already been referenced in the debate today, because in 2017 this Assembly passed enabling legislation adopting the Co-operatives National Law to standardise the regulation of co-operatives across Australia. This allows for the mutual recognition of co-operatives across participating jurisdictions without them requiring to register, which is good and a helpful change.
Access Canberra is responsible for the registration of co-operatives and the maintenance of the register of co-operatives in the territory. As highlighted by Minister Cheyne and Ms Castley, Access Canberra has a wealth of information available on its website. I have already asked Access Canberra, through the fair trading commissioner, to undertake a review of the website and its content to ensure that there is a simple overview of what a co-operative is and its benefits, as well as guidance for people wishing to register a co-operative.
Whilst Ms Castley outlined some of the details with a degree of acidity, I think it is useful to think about whether we can make it easier for people to understand. That is one of the questions that I have asked the directorate to look at. The next step is to ensure that there is appropriate assistance available for those wishing to register a co-operative in the ACT. We want to make it easier. It is about making sure that people think about this as an option that might be available to them.
I think that is the point of the motion that was misunderstood in some of the more critical commentary in the chamber today. This is about saying that people probably do not even realise this is an option that is available to them. How can we help them to better know that that option exists? They might be saying they want to do it together, that there is actually a different way to do business, and that we can do it in a way that is less about getting on top and more about working collectively to produce a great outcome.
The things contained in Mr Davis’s motion are a starting point, and I am looking forward to seeing the report back to the Assembly that arises from the work that Mr Davis has asked for. I think these are very promising initiatives.
I do not want to repeat the points that my colleague has made. Ms Clay gave a very good outline of the value of co-operatives and the potential role they could play in our society in addressing some of the concerns that I have talked about today, and I endorse her comments fully. We can all be inspired by this vision, so let us seek to move forward with it, and start the work required to turn Canberra into a flagship city for the creation of innovative and people-centred cooperative business models.
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