Fifteen state parliaments with a maximum staff of 30 each. I bet that staff figure will steadily creep up to rather large proportions. And fifteen more pollies plus staff crammed into an already overcrowded Qantas departure lounge. Alterations will have to be made not only to the Qantas departure lounge but to those 5 star hotels in Paris, Rome, London, New York and Vienna. The owners of those hotels must be singing "We're in the Money".

.... or we could just abolish State governments, give constitutional recognition to local governments and save a lazy few billion in the process.

At least rather than plain whinging you have provided a structure that you believe may work better.

I am not a fan of your part-timer philosiphies, or your 15 states, but unlike the rest at least you've had a go at a solution.

thanks for your comments

On paper it seems like a good idea. The only problem comes from reforming the existing bureaucracy. A prime example would be VicRoads, which among other things manages the vehicle licenses of every Victorian. Who will do that job after 15 states are made? Will each new state have it's own road laws and licensing? Will they keep the old VicRoads? Or will the Federal Government take over this function?

15 states, but how many resource bases? It seems to me that each state ought to have the wherewithall to generate enough income to meet all the requirements which our current Federal Government accuses them of neglecting. Plainly it isn't all going to be met by splitting the GST 15 ways. Tyrannies of distance, chances of drought and a few more yes-buts which others will inevitably think of -

An interesting idea; fortunately, not even the current Government, in full-flight pre-election mode, is willing to offer this one as a bold, big-brush fait accompli. And damn the details.

I'm genuinely interested in the details.

Having 3 layers of government is not the problem, the duplication of functions is the real killer.

The purpose of the states should be administration of local issues. Separate departments determining education standards, safety standards, labour laws, etc are a pure waste of money.

The answer is to strip the states of functions where duplication yields little benefit. For example there would be little benefit in federalising the employment of teachers or the building and maintenance of schools, but 8 departments devising curriculums can go.

The main wastage is not on the fat cats in parliament but the thousands of people working at duplicate tasks.

To Quote Peter Drucker "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."