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The Big Government vision

By John Carrigan - posted Wednesday, 12 September 2007


One man’s undesirable person may be another woman’s son with an acquired brain injury. And the authority to make that judgment has been delegated to the centre’s paid security staff who centre management have committed to provide with appropriate training. There is no appealing those decisions.

These are the issues that every exercise of governance at every level of government throws up. But they also demonstrate the value of houses of review, judicial oversight, the separation of powers. These are devices designed to make decision-making accountable and ensure that good ideas are as good as their supporters think they are.

The PM’s vision - big government talking direct to local governance - is still a big-government vision of the future. It’s just that it is now “government”, singular.

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Discussion of federalism limits most discussions to a consideration of the state and federal levels of government. As if, in John Howard’s words, “an appropriate balance between the two were an end in itself”. The beneficiary of the “aspirational nationalism” he detects is not the nation but its government. That is what has become an end in itself.

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About the Author

John Carrigan is Manager of Community Resource Network Inc. which works to support small non-government human services organisations in Blacktown and outer-Western Sydney.

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