Comments on: Nationalism rises as state governments fall

By: Mr Denmore

Mr Denmore — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

It has been painfully obvious for years that the biggest unfulfilled micro-economic reform in Australia, and the one with the biggest potential benefits, is the elimination of the state governments. Federalism is an anachronism and reflects the geographic isolation of the colonial era.

Yet we are forced to go along with this charade in which mediocre town hall politicians strut the national stage pretending to be statesmen. They are nothing but deliverers of basic services and, even then, they can't do that very well. But they have this ridiculous pretension to greatness.

We would all be better off if the states were axed, the state policians got proper jobs not dependent on the public purse and the manifold, byzantine state bureaucracies they oversee were dismantled. This process should be concurrent with the strengthening of local government.

To the doubters, I ask this: If the Australian constitution was being formed now, would you create state governments? Of course not. They create duplication, confusion and eat up our taxes. Just think how much more money could be poured into health and education without the states in the way.

By: Marg

Marg — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Nice comment about the move levels of Government, the gerater the democracy. Not only puts into perspective my 20 yrs in the USA, where you vote for everyone from the Prosecuting Attorney to the dog catcher, but at least some of the voter dissatisfaction with the ACT Government. You hear it all the time: people want the ‘local council’ issues to receive more attention, but the elected reps seem to have more important things to worry about. My (thankfully former) career in ACT Government confirms the obsession with ‘state’-level issues. What leaves me cold, however, are the candidates who ask us to trust them to run the Territory — these are mostly young party hacks with little real-world experience and no credentials for running anything of substance.

By: Mel

Mel — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I’m never quite sure what inspires the constant carping about the states. It no doubts stems from my parochial West Australian perspective but I simply don’t comprehend what benefit can be gained from continual and increased centralization. Why would we want the hordes in the east to have more power over us here? What benefit could we possibly gain? Rather than wanting to scrap the whole system I think those bleating on the east coast about the inefficiencies of their state governments should get off their asses and sort themselves out. That NSW continues to have inept state governments says far more about them than it does about the deficiencies of the constitution.

By: JamesK

JamesK — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Did braindrain leave or was he left behind?

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Why do so many people still think that government's manage the economy? They don't - that is the job of the reserve bank and treasury. Government's make laws surrounding the collection of taxes and the disbursement of taxes.

Two different stories.

Now the myth exists that Howard was a good economic manager yet inflation rose, debt to disposable income went through the roof, the trade deficit blew out for 6 years without a single surplus even though exports and prices grew, our foreign debt almost trebled and so on.

Lunatic assertions of the pundits that Howard was a good economic manager are just that.

Any fool can sell everything they own, end up homeless and very rich and claim they are economic managers.

Until they need a roof over their heads.

And let's make no bones about it - all Howard and Costello did was sell th ecountry to Singapore.

By: braindrain

braindrain — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I have worked for both gov’t and now in Vic State and having worked with COAG reform agendas find that most of it actually came from the Bracks gov’t reforms and slowly copied by the Commnwealth. Also syudies have shown that the more levles of gov’t the better democracy. Wouldn’t you know it, just as other OECD countries are increasing the elvels of gov’t, we/you and others are talking about reducing ours. Don’t fall for this in the same way as we used to copy failing strategies from OS. Be careful what you wish for.