ACT's John Banks to be Minister for Regulatory Reform, Minister for Small Business, Associate Minister of Education, and Associate Minister of Commerce. He will be a Minister outside Cabinet.
National and ACT have completed negotiations for a confidence and supply agreement.
“The agreement gives the National-led Government confidence and supply support throughout this term. The agreement has a strong focus on the economy, including a concentration on fiscal discipline, and reducing the costs to business," National leader John Key says.
“As part of the agreement, the ACT Party will support the legislation required to give effect to the policies outlined in National’s Post-Election Action Plan.
ACT's sole MP John Banks will become Minister for Regulatory Reform, Minister for Small Business, Associate Minister of Education, and Associate Minister of Commerce. He will be a Minister outside Cabinet.
“Mr Banks will be a member of the following Cabinet committees: Expenditure Control, Economic Growth and Infrastructure, and Appointments and Honours.
“In addition, National has agreed to support a range of principles, policies and priorities put forward by the ACT Party. These include:
Economy-Wide Monitoring - Treasury should be charged with reporting annually on the progress being made to improve the quality of institutions and policies, as measured by international organisations, including those producing indexes of economic freedom, and on progress towards raising productivity growth and reducing the income gap with Australia.
Regulatory Standards Bill – The two parties will continue the work commenced in late 2008 to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses and individuals. The Regulatory Standards Bill will be included in the continuance motion for the new Parliament, and the Minister for Regulatory Reform will work closely with the Minister of Finance to achieve an agreed outcome, based on the Treasury's preferred option for enacting within the next 12 months.
Legislated spending limits – National and ACT will legislate within the next two years to provide that core Crown operating spending, excluding finance charges, spending on the unemployment benefit, asset impairments and spending on natural disasters, will be subject to a spending limit. Under this limit expenditure will grow no faster than the annual increase in the rate of population growth multiplied by the rate of inflation.
Resource Management Act – ACT believes a full review and rewrite of the RMA is necessary, while National intends to focus on Phase 2 reviews and reforms to address particular weaknesses and deficiencies in the legislation. A key change that both parties will work to achieve is in the planning area; where there is a need to reduce the clutter of planning documents and increase the efficiency of the planning process. ACT and National support simplifying the planning process, and will legislate to ensure that there is only one plan (a “unitary” plan) for each district. The RMA reform agenda will be a standing item in the regular National/ACT leadership meetings, and Hon John Banks will work closely with the Minister for the Environment to advance reform proposals.
ACC - National and ACT agree to introduce competition for ACC's Work Account. National acknowledges ACT's concern about the participation of private insurers and the fairness of the competitive process if ACC remains a competitor for Work Account business, and agrees to implement policy to manage and minimise this risk. will be made through the Government’s initiative.
Read the National-ACT Confidence and Supply Agreement.
