Round-table held in Albury on automatic mutual recognition for licenced operations

Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ben Morton held a round-table in Albury today, hearing of the need to let licensed occupations work across borders without having to pay new licence fees or fill out additional forms.

"What it means is that people with occupational licences like tradies won't have to get registered on both sides of the border, they'll be able to cross the border and do their work if they're registered on one side," he said.

"This reform is going to be debated in the NSW Parliament's Upper House, and that will, when that passes, allow us to implement this scheme on July 1.

"This is an important reform that makes life easier.

"When the reform does come into place, we will have an advertising campaign to ensure that local people know."

Mr Morton said individual states would have the ability to exempt certain occupations "but they'll have to have reasons for that".

"This will cover all occupational licences - there are discussions that some occupations are not ready just yet, so state Ministers will be able to exempt some for up to five years," he said.

"There's some talk in relation to exempting teachers for a period of time; there's a debate occurring about about that, and for sparkies as well.

"Currently, if you're a sparkie in Wodonga, you can come and work without getting a NSW licence in Albury, but if you're a sparkie in Albury you can't go to Wodonga without getting a Victorian licence - this is the rubbish we're trying to fix.

"I would hope for the greatest possible coverage.

"PricewaterhouseCoopers has estimated this will deliver $2.4 billion worth of additional economic activity for our country over the next 10 years."

Farrer MP Sussan Ley said it would also make a difference for health.

"if you're a registrar and you want to practice in New South Wales and you come out of the Victorian system, at the moment, it's very difficult," she said.

"So, in almost every area of services, jobs, and how our regional economies run, this is going to make a difference."

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Indi MP Helen Haines said she was glad to have Mr Morton in the same room as local businesses after inviting him to hear of the impacts when working on the amendment to the Mutual Recognition Act 1992.

"We had more than 30 businesses at a breakfast this morning and I heard a lot of things," she said.

"One thing that stands out straight away is talking to Dyson's Buslines, they have two filing cabinets, one for Victorian regulation and one for NSW regulation - you can imagine the cost and the time burden to maintain those kinds of records.

"We heard about TAFE students who are living on one side of the border and can't access the training they need on the other side.

"I think this AMR regulation change or legislation change is the first step, and we need to see much, much more change."