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Small town life-styles : Comments
By Lyn Allison, published 28/9/2006Decentralisation is the only possible long-term solution to the sprawling problems of Sydney and Melbourne.
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In contrast, the average expenditure by state governments on each of its citizens is only $6,000 a year. So each new metro settler generates $6,000 in tax revenue but is offset by $6,000 in services and $8,000 in congestion.
Furthermore, these costs are being incorporated into the cost of delivering government services so it is no surprise that service delivery is declining.
The most successful decentralisation experiments in Australia have been Darwin and Canberra. And both of these have been associated with self governance. State expenditure is 15% of GDP so it is an important economic engine in its own right. But at the moment much of this economic engine is misfiring in the regions.
We need new states within the commonwealth so regional communities can spend their own share of GST funds on their own priorities. It is nothing radical. Just create one and the rest will soon follow. And the cities can buy some time to fix their own problems.