Bottom line, if the Liberal/National coalition went to the next federal election promising to abolish the states/territories &/or merge them together with local government. They would, "guaranteed" win 60% of the vote, across the board.

The key to the unpopularity of the red/green/getup/labour coalition, federally is not personalities, like Rudd, or his leadership style, etc, in fact, ditching him, in favour of an, even further, left wing, ideologue like Julia Gillard, would make them even more unpopular.

But, it is that their Hawker/Britain, poll/focus group driven, tax/spend like drunken sailors, style of, "cover the gross incompetence, corruption" with endless, government advertising campaigns & taxpayer funded spin doctoring spells.

This has tapped into, reminded everybody instantly of how equally, worse than bad, the red/green/getup/labour coalition has been in the states/territories over the last decade or so.

This policy has the instant appeal of reducing the number of politicians, bureaucrats in OZ. As well as devolving, power down to local government.

That's real states rights. Far north Queensland has always wanted to secede from faceless bureaucrats in Brisbane. Northern NSW has often wanted to secede from faceless bureaucrats in Sydney & engage with South east Queensland.

Run a simple online poll asking this Question. Would you like to reduce the number of politicians, bureaucrats in OZ? See if it only gets 40%? I dare you.