CMEs potential heard at Senate public hearings

05 November 2015

A lack of diversity and competition is holding back Australia’s economy while one of the solutions, co-operatives and mutuals, remains largely “invisible”, a Senate inquiry has heard.

The Senate Economics Reference Committee established an inquiry into co-operatives, mutual and member-owned firms to explore the barriers facing the sector, as well as its potential to deliver marker choice and social outcomes. The initial two-day hearing ran on 29 and 30 October, with the final evidence to be provided on 4 December.

“One of the big themes emerging is around how the current structure of the economy, our oligopoly structure in certain markets, is really killing competition and we have to have a more diverse economy,” Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals CEO, Melina Morrison, said.

“The key messages that came out in the statements and the testimony presented is that Australia has an obsession with the PLC [Public Limited Company] model of business and we need a more diverse economy to create greater sustainability, resilience, but also competition that’s going to be beneficial to consumers in different markets.”

The Senate inquiry also heard that there are significant barriers preventing co-operative and mutual enterprises (CMEs) from gaining traction in these markets with education being an important area.

Numerous co-operative and mutual enterprises gave evidence to the committee over the two days of public hearings including Yenda Producers Co-operative (YPC), The NRMA, COBA, Australian Unity, The Co-op, Australian Scholarships Group and Industry Super Australia.

Original photo source: Jason James