Regional government can transform Australia

Whereas Australia's entire population at the time of federation in 1901 was just 3.7 million, nearly 7 million Australians now live outside the capital cities alone.

The fivefold increase in Australia's population since 1901 prompted the late Ken Thomas (TNT's founder) to suggest that we needed an accompanying fivefold increase in our number of sub-national governments - from the eight present states and territories to around 40 appropriately designed regions, including 30 or so centred around our biggest cities.

Regions such as Hunter, Riverina, Illawarra, Central Coast, New England, Central West and Northern Rivers (in NSW), Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Far North (in Queensland), and Gippsland (in Victoria), all now host populations as large or larger than those of Western Australia and Tasmania in 1901. Of 192 nation-states in the world in 1996, in terms of land area, only 13 are larger than Western Australia and 20 larger than Queensland; both these states are much larger than the ideal for subnational governments.

Regional governments numbering 40 or so would have an average population approximating that of the Swiss Cantons (our State equivalents) and an average land area approximating that of the 50 United States. Significantly, Switzerland and the USA are probably the most settled and viable federations in the world today in terms of their political geography and wealth.

Our present system impedes internal and external affairs

Constant buck-passing and conflict generally between the Commonwealth and the states/territories, which arises as an unavoidable consequence of our Constitution, imposes unsustainable burdens on our nine sovereign governments, leaving them with insufficient human and financial resources to adequately discharge their constitutional duties.

Commonwealth-state/territory battles regularly take the Commonwealth government's "eye off the main game" in the critical areas of foreign affairs, national security and the national-global interface generally. These same battles, and their associated costs, likewise reduce the states' and territories' ability to satisfy the very real needs of those living within their localities - in both rural and urban areas alike.

Responsibilities of life-and-death gravity such as national security, foreign affairs, healthcare, the environment, policing and emergency services are simply far too important to be allowed to suffer under the weight of our present form of government, which is chronically inward-looking on global matters and neglectful of local matters.

Our present system encourages gambling and discourages employment

Just as tariffs can be regarded as taxes, so too taxes can be regarded as tariffs. The $7 billion in payroll tax that state and territory governments annually collect can be regarded as a tariff 'protection' of federal arrangements in Australia, which apparently could not be sustained if this tax on employment were abolished. The over-enthusiastic pursuit of gambling revenue by Australian governments further underlines the failings of our present federal system.

A system of 40 regional governments can transform Australia

I have estimated that an appropriately designed new system of government, without the states but comprising 40 regional governments along the lines of the ACT government system (but with major powers transferred to the national government) could provide some $15 billion in savings out of the $180 billion or so per annum government outlays at all levels, and some $30 billion per annum out of the $500 billion per annum GDP. These vast amounts are presently wasted due to the friction and duplication occurring "horizontally" among state/territory governments and regulations, and "vertically" between the states/territories and the commonwealth.