My only regret about the reduction in the number and influence of local governments is that it hasn't gone far enough. Local government is the level at which incompetence and corruption are most likely to be found. Look, for example, at Port Phillip City council's hiring of a white witch as a change management agent and paying her in excess of $0.5m without any public tender.

As for local government having anything to do with democracy - candidates for election are invariably people we've never heard of and about whom we know nothing, which means voting is little more than a lottery. I know it's not possible but I'd prefer local government to be abolished and local affairs to be managed by state governments.

Local government as we know and love it has long ago reached its use-by-date.
As the states will likely never allow constitutional recognition of local government, then why not go the whole hog and remove constitutional recognition of the states.
Give local government the powers they need to do the job properly.
Abolish the states and reconstitute local government into a realistic form of 2nd tier government in a completely new constitution.

I appreciate your factual updates on local government, Scott. They are always well documented and interesting. This snapshot is no exception. It would be nice if you could go a little further and provide an analysis of the philosophy behind the forces currently in motion and likely scenarios within the forseeable future on the evolution of the three tiers governmant structure in Australia, highlighting its forces and weaknesses. Even if, as you seem to suggest, no change in structure is visible on the horizon, the roles of all three actors do appear to be in a state of flux.

Banjo Paterson

I agree with consRmad, it is time to remove the state governments.
We have far too many politicians for our own good.
We need to divide the state's responsibilities between the Federal
government and the local councils. In an era of oil depletion so many
functions will be come localised whether the state agrees or not that
we might as well go the whole hog and remove the states.
It is gradually happening now, look at the hospitals and education,
more functions and finance control is moving from State to Federal.

We need a political party to take up the cudgels, but can you see it ?