The Hon. Anoulack Chanthivong MP's speech at the BCCM-NRMA Icons Breakfast

20 March 2025

The Hon. Anoulack Chanthivong MP speaking at the BCCM-NRMA Icons Breakfast

On Wednesday, 19 March 2025, BCCM CEO Melina Morrison addressed over 80 policymakers, business leaders, and co-operative champions at the NSW Parliamentary BCCM and NRMA Icons Breakfast, hosted by New South Wales Treasurer, the Hon. Daniel Mookhey, MLC. The Breakfast marked the launch of the International Year of Cooperatives 2025 (IYC 2025) in NSW. In her speech, Melina underscored the crucial role of co-ops and mutuals in fostering a fairer, more resilient economy – highlighting their history of innovation, deep community impact and ongoing commitment to sustainable growth.

Among the key speakers were NSW Treasurer, the Hon. Daniel Mookhey, MLC, and the Hon. Anoulack Chanthivong MP, Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Minister for Industry and Trade, who addressed the audience on the importance of mutuals and co-operatives in today’s landscape.

Read a transcript of the Hon. Anoulack Chanthivong MP’s speech

I’m really delighted to be here and to provide the closing remarks for the icons breakfast this morning. I’m really delighted to be joined by so many of my parliamentary colleagues who are supporters of the co-operatives and mutuals sector to ensure that it continues to play its role in the NSW economy.

But what struck me this morning, Rowan, in your speech, and Melina’s and the Treasurer’s, is really the important word of shared, and this is the shared responsibility. We have shared values and were on a shared journey, and of course, shared prosperity for your members and also for the community at large.

And so, the important role that mutuals play and co-operatives play in our community, and in our economy as well to make it more competitive and that people and profit are actually not mutually exclusive events, they can actually be done together and they should be done together to make our economy productive and more competitive.

So, after hearing all today’s speakers, there is no doubt, of course, that co-operatives can and will continue to play a role in our economy.

The Treasurer has rightfully made this point about the contribution to the state’s economic prosperity and competitiveness. The ongoing strength of our progress is affirmed by the fact that so many of our biggest co-ops are actually right here in NSW, of course, because of HCF, but also what that shows on the tables is that it actually touches almost every cornerstone of the NSW and the Australian economy. And it’s actually not historical, but also going forward, as well as we know, banking and finance is one of the most competitive sectors we have. Mutuals and building societies, of course, still play quite important part for many people in our community to access the finance and the support that they need.

As the Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, this is where co-operatives and mutuals come under my portfolio. I want to show everybody in this room that the government is committed to ensuring we work with the sector to reduce the regulatory burden on you and to help you thrive and succeed.

I want to make sure that the Council’s timely release of their report Modernising Australian Corporations Regulation, and it’s something we will certainly continue to co-operate and to consult with you to ensure that we actually thrive, allow the sector to thrive in going forward.

We are supportive of work with our colleagues in the other states as well to try and get some sort of national coordination and national consistency which improve the efficiency and the standards and reduce the regulatory burden for your organisations and your membership base.

As NSW, we are trying to make things easier for you as an economist and I know the Treasurer would agree.

We are interested and committed to reducing the regulatory burden and the red tape costs for co-operatives and for other sectors in our economy so we can continue to improve the efficiency and productivity and a key aspect to this is about co-operatives online service, that we have to help better inform the public as well as specific resources for co-operatives.

That’s why its co-operatives online portal provides a quick and easy access to complete a range of compliance activities, including lodging applications and paying fees, and we’re also adding more functionality to the portal in the future.

Fair Trading ensures compliance amongst our co-operative sector and runs a proactive programme to reduce the risk base and to ensure that they all meet the co-operative and national law. A major part of these compliance efforts ensures that the register and the websites are up to date and reflect the nature of the responsibilities of co-operatives.

And so, adding to your presentation, I launched the state’s first industry admission policy, which is around the three core missions that are really important for the NSW economy going forward: housing, the net zero and energy transition, and local manufacturing.

I’m really pleased and delighted to know that there are so many co-operatives. They’re actually involved in each one of these faces.

The NSW Government can’t reach these objectives for the NSW people without the role and the contribution of the co-operatives and the mutual sector and also industry as well.

This is particularly true for the manufacturing sector where co-ops are either directly or indirectly involved and underpin the whole supply chain with each other so I’m really encouraged to have the support of the sector as we continue to diversify our economy but also address as Rowan said some of the most pressing public policy challenges we have in NSW, housing, opportunities including energy, how we stimulate our manufacturing base, because if we can’t afford to house the future generation of people in New South Wales, we won’t have an economy, we won’t have the productivity and we won’t have the innovation and entrepreneurship that NSW economy needs in going forward because in every essence, our economy is dependent on human capital.

And these three missions that the NSW companies focus on, [their] industry policy objectives about, nurturing, attracting and retaining talent to ensure that our economy continues to power forward. And of course, with the shared goal, as I mentioned earlier, to build a brighter future in a better community for all of us.

So, in this year, the International Year of Cooperatives, the New South Wales Government acknowledges the valuable role that co-operatives supply throughout our economy, throughout the very different sectors and across the NSW geography, regional, central, metro.

We’re all here and that’s why it’s so important to allow the mutuals and the co-operatives to actually grow from light and small enterprises to sporting endeavours.

To essential community support in childcare and for your members, which is everyone here in this room.

We’re all consumers in one way or another or participants are in co-operatives, so better to ensure that your contribution to our economy and to our collective well-being is for the betterment of our diverse community across NSW.

So, on behalf of the NSW government, I’d like to congratulate the state’s co-operatives on your hard-earned success and wish you every success in the years ahead. But I also want to restate that the NSW government is here to work with you, to partner with you, to create that sense of shared values and a shared journey to share prosperity for the people of NSW.

Have a lovely morning.