Replace federation with something much better.

The "new federalism" or "cooperative federalism" discussed at the Summit cannot be a long term solution. The moment one state has a coalition government federal-state relations will again be a major bone of contention.

The reality is that the fiscal federal and state imbalance is huge, the range of conflict areas immense and the powers of the state governments declining. National decision-making in important public policy areas is very slow and costly. We have heard all the reasons why federalism should be "repaired", "fixed" etc from the conservatives. Mr. Rudd should not waste time trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again.

It is particularly nonsensical to argue that federation provides a good decentralised system of governance. Effective decentralisation policies should be introduced at the NATIONAL level to de-metropolise Australia. Some 80% of the population live in the big cities and the imbalance continues to grow. One major problem for Australian federalism is the centralisation of government at the state level, centred on the state capitals. The fate of regions adjacent to a metropolis, like NSW Central Coast and Illawarra to Sydney, is in serious danger because the state planners basically treat them as spillways for excess city population. What is needed is massive and sustained intervention by the national government, like subsidies and for low taxes for business, housing and rent assistance, salary loadings, etc. and decentralisation of government itself. This would involve strengthening local government; and recognizing constitutionally the regional organisations of councils, the 64 that are now voluntary adjuncts to the Cinderella of the current ineffectual three-tier system of federal governance.

Tackling the federation is NOT a question of just "streamlining". In particular the ALP COAG love-in should NOT stand in the way of real reforms. This is a real danger because the ALP State Governments are now all in favour of maintaining federation. Vested interests in a ramshackle structure! The Twomey/Withers Report, commisioned by them demonstrated that very clearly. Start talking about transitional measures to overcome the vested interests, the first step to get the states on side.

Klaas Woldring

1. George Bush has announced some time ago a similar sort of project re medical records and the idea has been around for some time.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6876192

2. Voluntary work for students is really paid work once it alleviates a debt. Who would pay for this, the taxpayer?. Students can volunteer now. What this is doing is turning voluntary work into paid work. A bad idea.

It was a dismal failure.
It ignored the elephant in the corner ie peak oil.

There will be no loverly proposals being pursued when we are scrambling
to change our mode of living, transport and food by 2020.

Not one single group of 100 made any reservations about how peak oil
may affect their proposal.
This alone defines the failure of the summit.

Sometimes I wonder if there are any public policy ideas, let alone good ones, that originated in Australian minds without stealing most or all of the substance from overseas.

Unrelated question: Does this forum allow BBCode or have any other way of placing into my post, for instance, italics?