Local government referendum should be rejected in interests of the federation

Any attempt Ottawa makes to enhance its power is met with fierce opposition, across the ideological spectrum. The culture of provincial autonomy is extremely strong. A referendum like this would never see the light of day in Canada.

This situation in Australia is what Professor Greg Craven, Vice-Chancellor at the Australian Catholic University, calls the 'tyranny of subtlety'. In Australia, we do not have a state that speaks another language like Quebec, or a region like Newfoundland who only joined Canada in 1949 and has its own unique culture.

On the surface, our states are relatively homogenous. Yet this blinds us to geographic and more subtle cultural differences between various areas of our country. How is Canberra to create effective one-size-fits-all policies for both Fitzroy and Longreach? Local knowledge is paramount.

The Senate in Australia was initially designed to be a protector of states' rights (why each state was given equal representation regardless of population). However, with party discipline being what it is, the Senate is now nothing more than an instrument of party objectives. Only saved from being a useless and wasteful rubber stamp by the proportional representation voting system that the public wisely uses to frequently vote in balance of power players.

If this referendum passes, the idea of Canberra dictating wheelie bin policy, as has been suggested, might be hyperbole, but it is guaranteed that funding will be handed down with federal political goals in mind. With councils encompassing safe seats being short-changed.

While state governments also distribute money in political ways, a constituent's voice at state level is much stronger than at federal level (however much like lotto odds it might seem).

Yet if more states like Queensland had the nerve to protect their turf, or significant parties could form solely at state level, like in Canada, this ability to distribute money politically could be minimised.

We also wouldn't see such a blatant grab for centralised, duopolistic and disconnected power as this forthcoming referendum, and would have a more diverse array of ideas in our public debate.

Of course, all politicians claim they need power for noble causes, but real nobility comes with the relinquishement of power to a diversity of sources, not further consolidating it in two.