•             National trade licences

•             Financial services regulatory reforms

The Rudd Government is also investing $475 million on landmark reforms such as the creation of a national system for registering business names and taking over responsibility for the regulation of all consumer credit.

The reforms also make way for a new national electronic conveyancing system, which could save homebuyers hundreds of dollars on every house purchase, and will help support the Government’s work on affordable housing.

The new system to create a national register for business names alone has been estimated by Ernst and Young to save Australian businesses $1 billion over the next 10 years.

Federal and state governments have been working all year towards removing regulation differences across borders in 27 areas.

Never before in Australian history has a government attempted such an ambitious program of reducing unnecessary business regulation.

We are moving Australia from being nine markets to one and putting an end to “rail gauge” economics that have plagued the business community for more than a century.

The Rudd Government is vigorously pursuing the reform of Australia's tangle of business regulation because it will help lift productivity growth off the floor.  This is essential to ensure Australia’s future prosperity and for job creation.

The cooperation of the states and territories has been instrumental in pursuing these reforms that are so vital to Australia’s future.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has also shown strong and constructive support for the package.

“Our current fragmented economic regulation creates a whole range of unnecessary burdens and costs for business and the wider economy,” BCA President Greig Gailey said. (BCA press release “COAG meeting a chance for economic growth” - 28 November).

“Right now we need businesses to have the confidence to employ and invest.  Businesses will have significantly greater confidence when they see governments pushing ahead with reforms that enhance the productive capacity of the economy.

“The economic burdens of ending this inefficiency have been estimated to be as high as $16 billion annually.”

The Government will continue to press ahead with economic reform while managing the impacts of the global financial crisis.

• Creating a robust network of parents, other schools, local communities and businesses to help students in transitioning successfully to work or further education; and
• Providing incentives for individual schools to extend their reach through longer opening hours, after-school study support, sports and other activities to help keep students engaged in their studies.

The funding individual schools receive will depend on their size, the extent of reforms undertaken, degree of reform ambition and the level of State/Territory co-contribution. Costings assume an average school cost of $500,000 per year.

The Australian and State and Territory Governments will develop a list of schools based on an agreed measure of relative disadvantage. The non-government school sector will be invited to participate in the National Partnership.

Through the National Partnership on Low SES School Communities, around 1500 schools will be empowered to improve student learning outcomes and wellbeing, to better equip students for future labour market participation and address social exclusion and Indigenous disadvantage.

National Partnership on Literacy & Numeracy $540 million

As promised in the 2008-09 Budget, the Australian Government is prepared to invest $540 million to drive improvement in the foundation stones of literacy and numeracy.

The National Partnership will fund a range of approaches to accelerate improvement in literacy and numeracy outcomes for targeted students and schools.

These approaches will focus on:

• Effective and evidence based teaching of literacy and numeracy;
• Strong school leadership and whole school engagement with literacy and numeracy; and
• Monitoring student and school literacy and numeracy performance to identify where support is needed.

The National Partnership with States and Territories will, overtime, ensure there are more students achieving above the national minimum standard in literacy and numeracy, allowing Australian students to progress successfully through their schooling and actively participate in the workforce and contribute to their community in future years.