A very stimulating look at our present set-up regarding the rights of States,Federal relations. No mention of Local, which also needs attention.In Queensland in the past we have been content to let the rest of Australia do what it likes so long as they don't interfere with us, but now, as we have billing as "The Smart State" it's time we did something about it.I have been sickened by the continual bickering about who should be responsible for this or that. It costs too, because there is no list of the things for which each tier of Government is responsible. So we have duplication and the silly situations like the "Feds" sending money to our state, to accede to a request by a local government to upgrade a road, only to be told by the Premier he will hold the money and collect the interest thereon. Why can't the transfer go direct? Local, State,Federal, the modern constitution the people want should tell us WHO DOES WHAT!

I think I need a holiday, I am in broad agreement with David Flint!

My concern is that we need to reinvest in the political structure if we are to gain long term dividends. We need better State politicians and better State bureaucrats. We need anti corruption commissions in each jurisdiction (including the Feds). The States do need to raise 100% of the taxes for their services. The States need to take over services, eg, aged care. The States should agree to a standing commission to harmonise laws.

Workchoices also demonstrated that as far as the High Court are concerned referenda mean nothing, there were 4 referenda on the issue of referring State IR powers to the Commonwealth and all failed.

The dangers of unrestrained centralism , it is not only the States but the people who get shafted.

ie, the view of the people is irrelevants meThe experts would haveve a us believe that

David,the States are just an entity by name.The NSW present Labor State has failed us abysmally.We do not need three tiers of Govt.Presently no one cares about State Politics as witnessed by the re-election of the Iemma/Carr debacle.Our Local Councils are just a farce that everyone loves to hate because they are run by opportunistic developers or the lunatic fringe green lobby.

Just eliminate the states and put more focus on local Govt so that the needs and wants of real people have a voice.It can be done by a slow process of evolution whereby the responsibilities of the States and Feds are divided between Local Govt and the Feds.We have too many fat cats and fewer will make us all happier and more prosperous.

And who is responsible for this state of affairs? Why none other than David Flint's poster boy, John Howard, who has done more to centralise power in the hands of the Commonwealth government than any single PM in our history. Flint manages to get through an entire article with only scant reference to, let alone laying any blame, at the feet of his beloved rodent.
I smell a rat.

Federation will work when North Qld, Central Qld, Southern (non-metro) Qld, NSW Nth Coast, New England, Riverina, South Coast, Victorian Murray Basin, Gippsland, Western Districts, South East WA, Pilbara/Kimberley, ACT and NT all have their own state legislature.

The biggest and most wasteful duplication of government is to make the state MPs from these regions travel to metropolitan parliaments to listen to endless discussion on metropolitan congestion issues when they could be back home talking to their local federal member and their own service delivery people about how to spend their full and fair local share of the GST funds.

The next biggest waste is to send this months metropolitan bureaucrat on a "fact finding" trip to the regions so he can interpret what the local federal and state MPs, and the local service deliverers, are saying before providing a highly sanitised version to the "official" (read metropolitan) policy process before tansfering to a new position where the information he gained will be of zero use to anyone.

The next biggest waste is to suck regional funds into metropolitan head office overheads in a way that compounds urban congestion and builds the costs of that congestion into the cost of government service delivery, and then passes it on to the regional residents in the form of less service or more user pays.

And it will be up to the new regional states to decide whether they want to eliminate local government (as in ACT) or shift delivery to stronger local councils. That is their call in response to their own circumstances. See http://www.regionalstates.com

David Flint argued; “”. I would argue, although His Honour might not, that the proper working of the Federation will only be achieved by returning to the original intention of the founders of this nation. After all, they succeeded in writing one of the world’s most successful constitutions.”. As a “CONSTITUTIONALIST” it is unlikely that any government would want me to attend to a Constitution convention Debate,, this as I have precisely the view David Flint did set out.

I happen to have published on my blog at http://au.360.yahoo.com/profile-ijpxwMQ4dbXm0BMADq1lv8AYHknTV_QH at 11.44PM on 17 September 2007 a copy of a e-mail forwarded to Kevin rudd and other parliamentarians headed as follows; “Kevin07 versus DEAD DUCK HOWARD, two faced Turnbull & why not voting”.
This document sets out what is constitutionally applicable, etc.

I am neither a Republican or a Monarchist, as a CONSTITUTIONALIST I am only concerned as to the true meaning of the Constitution.
In my latest book published on 27-5-2007 in the INSPECTOR-RIKATI® series on certain constitutional and other legal matters, I exposed what the High court of Australia concealed from its 14-November 2006 judgment to purportedly declare the WorkChoices legislation constitutionally valid.
HANSARD 27-1-1898 Constitution Convention Debates
Mr. SYMON.-
The relations between the parties are determined by the contract in the place where it occurs.
And
Sir EDWARD BRADDON (Tasmania).-
We have heard to-day something about the fixing of a rate of wage by the federal authority. That would be an absolute impossibility in the different states.
And
Mr. BARTON: If they arise in a particular State they must be determined by the laws of the place where the contract was made.
And
Mr. BARTON.-We do not propose to hand over contracts and civil rights to the Federation, and they are intimately allied to this question.
And
Sir JOHN DOWNER.-
The people of the various states make their own contracts amongst themselves, and if in course of their contractual relations disagreements arise, and the state chooses to legislate in respect of the subject-matter of them, it can do so.
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