Imagine for a moment that in this modern age, an uninhabited new island continent about the size and latitude of Australia was suddenly discovered in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The United Nations invites 25 million people from around the planet the opportunity to move there, and then selects a panel of 20 erudite men and women to come up with a system of government. They sit around and deliberate for 3 months, then they deliver their recommendations.
They say there should be a national government which deals with matters like defence, foreign affairs, the environment, health, education, treasury and industrial relations. Next they say there should be a series of councils at local level which deal with more day to day things like waste removal, town planning, parks, childcare, road maintenance and so on. So far so good.
But then in addition to this, they recommend an intermediate level of government who will have responsibility for 8 discrete areas whose borders are determined either by the course of a river or arbitrary lines running through the middle of the desert. Six of those areas who can fund their own operations via taxation will be called "states" and the two that can't and will remain financially dependent on the national government will be called "territories".
In addition to the national health, education, treasury and environment departments, these states and territories will also have their own departments in these disciplines and the question of where responsibility for different costs lie between the national and state governments will be left deliberately ambiguous. They will also have their own different and incompatible land title systems, their own parliaments which operate on different electoral cycles, and the train networks they build will be on different gauges, meaning that trains from one state can't travel into any neighbouring state.
They also recommend limiting the national government's powers by specifically writing into the constitution that it can only make laws about certain specific things, and then by establishing an unrepresentative upper house of parliament which gives the state with 2% of the population the same voting rights as the state with 32% of the population.
Finally, apart from Christmas, Easter and New Year, the public holidays in each state will be different, and during summer, some states will go on daylight savings time and some won't, meaning that one of the western states will be half an hour ahead of their eastern counterparts, and an hour ahead of the territory directly to their north.
Now if that was what the panel recommended, you would seriously have to wonder what they had been smoking. However, due to accidents of history rooted in European settlement of the country, this more or less exactly describes the system of government we have here. Unsurprisingly, its operation is always problematic, and at times like this when every state retreats into its own shell, very damaging and disruptive.
Coming originally from Queensland, there are times when I identify as a native of that state and enjoy things that are unique to there, as I expect most people do about their home state. However in my case, this is limited to things to do with sport, such as the annual State of Origin contest, or occasionally, beer. After nearly 30 years living in Melbourne I still can't understand why no one drinks XXXX Bitter south of Coolangatta. By the same token, I also identify as Australian and it's hard to escape the conclusion that the way the Federal system of government is set up creates a massive handbrake on economic and social progress in the country as a whole.
For a start, state governments are responsible for imposing two of the most economically regressive taxes you can get in stamp duty and payroll tax. The first acts an a disincentive to business activity and the second acts as a disincentive to employing people.
Then you have the impediments to changing the Australian constitution which were included to appease state governments at the time of federation. Not only do you have to have a majority of people in the country approve any changes, you have to have a majority of people in a majority of states do the same. This brings about the potential of an absurd result where close to 80% of people in the country want something changed, but because a majority didn't carry in Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia, it can't be implemented. It's damn lucky then for people in same-sex relationships that the Commonwealth already had the power to make laws relating to marriage otherwise what turned out to be a demonstrably popular thing probably wouldn't have happened.
I could cite many more examples of inefficiency, waste and missed opportunity for reform directly deriving from the very existence of state governments, but of course right now the more pressing concern for the Federal Government and indeed, everyone living in the pariah state of Victoria is, how the hell do we get the different states to co-operate and get the country open again?
I make no secret of the fact that I despise the unpleasant communist jackass we currently have as Premier, and I am furious that he had the gall to lecture everyone like naughty children back in April while at the same time completely stuffing up the hotel quarantine programme which all other states somehow managed to get right. However, I will concede he has finally done something sensible this week. That is, by recognising that the latest batch of virus outbreaks are concentrated in certain specific localities, the government have imposed a set of restrictions that are also quite localised and don't impact on areas with no infections.
And this, I suppose, leads to my main point. Governments in Australia at all levels have always made laws and regulations which pertain to discrete, local areas with particular characteristics. A good example are national parks which enable the government to protect areas with unique flora and fauna. Another area is town planning where Councils typically don't give you permits to open brothels next to childcare centres, unless of course you live in inner Sydney. None of these laws or regulations are put in place because the areas in question happen to be situated in one state or another, but rather because of the need to have different rules applying to different local areas.
Let's face it, this sort of local, nimble approach makes a lot more sense to governing parts of the country than just drawing a line on a map and saying one set of laws apply to the 400,000 square kilometres on the left side and another to the 300,000 square kilometres on the right side. To me it is just illogical to say someone from Albury can fly to Queensland or South Australia in 2 weeks time, but someone from Wodonga can't, even though both areas have no active cases. However if they'd said no-one from the Moonee Valley or Hume Shires can travel, that would make perfect sense. Alas for we marooned Victorian residents, this sort of thinking just doesn't seem to be registering with most state governments right now, who seem far more interesting in gloating or exchanging barbs in the media.
The simple fact is, unless and until a vaccine is discovered, the country needs to find a sensible way to live with this problem in a way which allows trade and commerce between the states to resume without having one or more of their governments slam their borders shut every time there is an interstate outbreak.
I suppose in a way you can't blame the state premiers for acting the way they have, because their first priority is to act in the best interests of the people of their state. However sometimes I dare to dream that one day, they would wake up and realise that in fact, its in the best interest of their constituents to just vote themselves out of existence. An irrelevancy in the modern age, they should move out of the way to allow the Federal Government to deal unimpeded with the big picture issues and Councils to expand to deal exclusively with local issues.
Right now I'd be delighted if the Victorian Government would do just that and leave sorting out this mess to someone who knows what they're doing.
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