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The Forum > Article Comments > Should local government be in the Australian constitution? > Comments

Should local government be in the Australian constitution? : Comments

By Don Aitkin, published 14/5/2013

Why you should care about September's referendum.

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I have just come away from 7 years as a councillor including one term as Mayor.
Unfortunately, the latest blood-sport in Australia, particularly from a populist media, is 'council bashing'.
I'll admit, much of the criticism can be justifiable, however it could be argued that Local Government is a 'more legitimate' level of representation than either state or federal government because of residents direct access to council staff (compared to fed or state boffins) and closer interaction between ratepayers and elected officials.
Should LG be granted constitutionality? The question should be, will it? Politicians I have spoken to on the subject don't give it much hope. I think all of that is beside the point anyway.
Almost everyone I speak to believes we are over-governed in Australia, and I agree.
So would giving another tier of government constitutional legitimacy fix that? Of course not.
We have to start serious debate about how we should be governed, i.e. the status-quo or something more befitting the 21st century Australia.
In my humble opinion, local government should be regionalised, essentially taking on the role of the states, and state government and it's wasteful duplication (and triplication) of services be abolished.
We also need to get away from the rusted on "Statists" who continually put legal, political and nonsensical road-blocks in the road of change and we must find a way to make change.
And it's not change for change sake. The vast majority of Australians demand it!
Posted by LeftOut, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 4:20:54 PM
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Whilst I have no doubt the majority of thinking Australians are in favour of abolishing the states, it appears to be a difficult if not impossible task for constitutional reasons, at least thats what the powers that be would have us believe. In addition, we have a bunch of virtual dictator premiers who would obviously throw up a zillion excuses why their very comfortable little empires shouldn't be dismantled. I'd feel a lot more confident about the exercise if we had some semblance of accountability however as it is, the bloodsucking parasites at both state & federal level have the upper hand and ride roughshod over us. I believe we need to devise a way to make the clowns sit up and take notice before we have a fighting chance of something as dramatic as deleting a whole level of gubmunt.
Posted by praxidice, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 8:45:21 PM
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My personal feelings are that putting something in the constitution is a last resort, as it is almost impossible to remove and reasons that seem good today, may end up as a real issue in a few decades.

If normal federal law can deal with the issue, then leave the constitution alone.
Posted by Shadow Minister, Thursday, 16 May 2013 9:05:07 AM
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I had not realised that my post would draw forth such animosity towards politicians, and that was not its intention.

I think we are over-governed and over-regulated, but not over-represented. The difficulty is separating the representation from the regulating. And I do think that local government has problems. I don't have an immediate answer, but putting LG in the Constitution is not the way to go. It might make things easier for the Commonwealth, but whether or not that would be good for LG is not obvious.
Posted by Don Aitkin, Friday, 17 May 2013 8:44:14 AM
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Don Aitkin - I had not realised that my post would draw forth such animosity towards politicians

The bloodsucking parasites are unquestionably their own worst enemies. Decades of untold arrogance, unbelievable personal greed & a total lack of accountability could hardly enhance the public image of politics. The reason why the vast majority of referenda fall flat is simply that the sheeple have universally adopted the 'if their lips move' criteria for judging whether or not an elected representative is lying. Personally I believe the invasion of lawyers has been the single most significant factor. The breed is infamous for twisting words beyond recognition, its also arguably the most avaricious & self-serving species ever to evolve on planet earth.
Posted by praxidice, Sunday, 19 May 2013 10:35:42 AM
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