If we did away with the states then I think that we would also need to do away with any thought of fixed term elections at the federal level.
As Australians appear to be hell bent on a lemming like political suicide at the next election the only hope we have is that people will recognise the problem and reverse the situation at state level.
Fixed term elections would mean that a political party dominated by outside interests (unions or big business) or open to blackmail or corruption for other reasons would not be able to be removed. Democracy demands that governments can be removed or balanced out by other considerations.
One of the problems with Labor all over is that democracy will fail to function as it should. Although they may argue on the surface the ALP and the state governments will work together to lock in what is most beneficial to them, indeed they are already doing that.

There are ways to fix it with removal of the states and for accountability this can be brought about by local councils and federal become aligned.

Thus we may need a few more federal reps but this will bring about accountability.

If the electorate do not like how the council and fed rep are doing their jobs then the boot up the bum.

This will also bring about better allocation to each electorate where this is what the mayor and fed rep are for and also better communication between the people and governments.

ie; when a council meeting is happening both reps to be there unless of course on duty at canberra.

So greater accountability
less waste and

The money being spent where it should be.

Stuart Ulrich
Independent Candidate for Charlton

"it is all well and good people like those here shooting from the hip with bright ideas about the future of Australian governance - as good a start as it is - but it needs a co-ordinated public debate - or we will get no where fast or somewhere no one really like to be."

I think that's basically right SneekeePete, but I think we're at the stage where these "best case scenarios" need to be placed in the public domain so that they begin to be seriously thought about as an option.

I fear that this sort of change could only ever happen in Australia by stealth over a long period of time, but you never know and I would love to see a serious public debate about this issue, despite what I agree are major practical difficulties in getting these sorts of changes passed in a referendum or even a series of referenda over time.

As i see it this argument is academic because the states are sovreignties and they will defend their power base to the death.

The authur also seems to favour bigger local councils. In the last few years we have seen council amalgamations and neither rates have come down or the services improved. Electricity suppliers the same.

Bigger does not necessarily mean better.

Every country of our size has at least three tiers of government – for an obvious reason.

There are 30 countries in the world (when you include Greenland with Denmark, of which it is a dependency) of more than one million square kilometres – as small as one eighth of our size. Every one of them has at least three tiers of government.

Some countries have more than three tiers. China has provinces, then prefectures, between the national government and local government (which has both counties and villages). France has regions and departments between the national government and local government. Italy has regions and provinces between the national government and local government

The United Kingdom has a regional system of government in place, with elected assemblies for Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Greater London and unelected assemblies in the rest of England and then local government of various sorts. In some places there are two tiers of local government, counties and then districts.

Tiny European countries like Monaco do not have three levels of government, but they are the exception.

Above the national governments of EU members is the European Parliament. In short, at least three tiers of government is the norm for any nation of any size. Having four levels are not unusual. Having five levels is not unheard of.

In the extremely unlikely event that the people of Australia gave up the habit of a century and voted to increase the power of the federal Cabinet by voting to abolish their states, you would still end up with a middle level of government, as the federal government would create administrative divisions to deal with the sheer scale of the place. The difference would be you would not get to elect anyone to oversee them.

I doubt very much that Australia has a higher number of elected politicians per head than other countries. I have seen the claim made, but I have never seen a precise presentation of figures from around the world to prove it

We need fewer people in non productive Govt bureaucracy and more in the engine room of risk,courage and enterprise that creates the wealth for the left to have the time and self indulgence to protest against the very system that sustains them.

The States are redundant and long may they demise.