Council of Australian Governments
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) was the primary intergovernmental forum in Australia from 1992 to 2020.[3] Comprising the federal government, the governments of the six states and two mainland territories and the Australian Local Government Association, it managed governmental relations within Australia's federal system within the scope of matters of national importance.
"COAG" redirects here. For other uses, see COAG (disambiguation).Successor
1992
29 May 2020[1]
On 29 May 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that COAG would be replaced by a new structure based on the National Cabinet implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]
Criticism[edit]
In 2012 a group of 20 environmental organisations released a joint communiqué denouncing the establishment of the COAG Business Advisory Forum and wanted wider representation on the Forum. The groups also opposed the weakening of environmental regulations.[10]
After the forum's abolition in early 2020, journalist Annabel Crabb wrote that, after initial utility in the 1990s, COAG had become a "sclerotic nightmare" producing "communiques of impenetrable bureaucratese". She suggested that the meetings in Canberra had produced a performative element in which state premiers sought to boost their profile at the expense of actual reforms.[11]