Fed: COAG to establish working groups to drive reform=3

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2007
Fed: COAG to establish working groups to drive reform=3

Mr Rudd said out of the $150 million, $50 million was on top of money already promised.

COAG has agreed to meet on a quarterly basis in 2008 and major announcements would
not be made at each meetings.

Instead it would become part of the working machinery of the nation, Mr Rudd said.

"We intend to turn COAG into a workhorse for the nation."

Mr Rudd said a major area of reform would be special purpose payments, which the commonwealth
wanted to link more closely to the performance of states and territories.

Incentive payments for making improvements would be made by the commonwealth, he said.

"Special purpose payments (SPP) are part of the deep structure, folklore and mysticism
of commonwealth-state relations," Mr Rudd said.

"If you have worked in these areas before, as I have, they are a source of frustration
at multiple levels given the multiplicity of them and the way they have been designed.

"We intend to take a different view.

"We want to see the SPPs rationalised in the future, we want to see the SPPs - special
purpose payments - increasingly reflect a combination of outcomes and outputs so that
people can measure whether the money which is being invested is actually delivering real
and improved services for the Australian community.

"And secondly, consistent with that new measured approach, we the commonwealth are
prepared to embrace incentive payments for the states. And that is a departure from the
past."

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KEYWORD: COAG RUDD 3 CANBERRA

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