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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-10-31 Daily Xml
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INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE COOPERATIVE

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:50): The United Nations has designated 2012 as the International Year of the Cooperative. Since the formation of modern cooperatives in the mid-19th century in England, they now account for a significant amount of production globally and in Australia. Cooperatives take the form of credit unions, agricultural cooperatives and housing cooperatives, to name a few. They can be consumer or producer cooperatives. Co-ops differ from normal business organisations in that they have a democratic ethos without a single owner or large shareholders. Every member of a cooperative has an equal vote and share of dividends.

The South Australian history of co-ops goes back to 1864 when the British Industrial and Provident Societies Act was introduced into the colony. A Cooperative Association was formed in 1866 with early consumer cooperatives such as the Adelaide Cooperative Society being established. This co-op operated for nearly a century, providing cheaper household necessities for the residents of the new colony.

The Port Adelaide Cooperative Society was formed in 1897 by railway workers running a shop, hotel and bakery. By World War I there were seven consumer cooperatives at locations including Millicent, Wallaroo, Mount Gambier, Angaston and Eudunda. In fact, it was in rural South Australia that co-ops showed their success and diversity.

The Renmark Hotel is the oldest co-operatively owned hotel in the British commonwealth, established in 1897. It came out of a prohibition background when the town decided that if they were going to have a hotel, it should be community owned. I understand that it has remained community owned ever since and serves local produce and supports local community groups and initiatives.

An inspirational part of the cooperative story is the town of Nuriootpa which has been described as a cooperative township. Since 1925, the community has built a library, a cinema, a community centre and a community hotel. It established a cooperative store with a supermarket, hardware, furniture and electrical divisions, providing 250 jobs. Long regarded as the most cooperative town in Australia, Nuriootpa is a fine example of local self-government and regional development.

A recent study by The Australia Institute looked at the size and scope of co-ops in Australia and found that the community cooperative store in Nuriootpa is Australia's third-largest consumer cooperative. The Australia Institute also found that the cooperative model is still alive and well in Australia and we now have 1,600 across the country with an estimated 13.5 million members. In fact, whether they know it or not, eight out of every 10 Australians are members of a co-operatively owned or mutually-owned enterprise such as roadside assistance services or mutually-owned banks and financial institutions.

Co-operatively and mutually-owned enterprises typically invest the surplus they generate into the community or return it to their members so, even though Australians may take their co-ops for granted, it seems we are happy with the services we get from our co-ops even when faced with competition from corporate counterparts. Cooperatives often attract great loyalty and regularly provide better value. For example, the average industry superannuation fund delivered $1.50 in earnings for every dollar taken out in fees compared to an average of 40¢ in the dollar for retail super funds.

Since the global financial crisis, many Australians have lost confidence in the ability of profit-maximising firms to make decisions that are in society's interests as well as their own. In some ways it is surprising that there has been so little attention paid to emerging forms of economic structure such as co-ops and mutuals to challenge the greed and mismanagement that led to the GFC. It may well be that the answer has always been right in front of our eyes as well as in our history books.

Since 2005 in Australia, there has been a move towards the creation of a cooperatives national law to be established via mutual agreement between state and territory governments. The objective is to harmonise state and territory legislation. The cooperatives national law is designed to deliver a modern legislative environment that removes competitive barriers but continues to assure the unique nature of the cooperative structure. The aim was to have all legislation introduced in 2012—the UN International Year of the Cooperative. We may be dragging our feet in South Australia, but the Greens urge the government to bring on the legislation as soon as possible.

In conclusion, I acknowledge and applaud the contribution that cooperatives have made and continue to make in our economy and society. In the words of Wayne Elwood, writing in the July 2012 issue of New Internationalist magazine, which itself is run as a cooperative, he says:

We can no longer afford the free market shenanigans of the last decade, the free-wheeling state capitalist Chinese model or the dead hand of traditional communism. We will have to do much better. Cooperatives can point the way towards a different kind of economic model, where people control capital and not the other way around. A little real democracy wouldn't hurt.

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