A policy wish list

Were we not a federation, we would still have those odious death duties which only farmers and widows with a family home and a few assets seemed to pay. We have Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen and the federation to thank for their removal. At that time, elderly Australians voted with their feet and moved to Queensland in such numbers that the politicians in the other states and the Commonwealth had to accept that the game was up.

In retreating to federal matters - defence, the currency and so on, the states should be ruthlessly cut adrift. They should be forced to find the greater part of their finance from within the state. The American Founding Fathers warned against what is called “vertical fiscal imbalance”. They recognised that federation would only work if the government spending your money was the one who raised it from you and, most importantly, had to answer to you for what they had done.

Australians are confused about who should do what. This has come about not only through the decisions of those centralist judges who have long decided that the Constitution means what they want it to mean, but also because of those corrupting understandings between power hungry federal politicians and weak state politicians who prefer the federal government to take the blame for the taxes they spend.

This was no more evident than with the GST windfall which the state politicians accepted, and often misspent, while simultaneously attacking John Howard’s courageous and, to some, inexplicable decision to fight an election on it.

Until we restore the constitutionally intended demarcation between the Commonwealth and the states, and make the states responsible for their own funding, we shall continue to deny ourselves the advantages of good government.

There is an inexorable drive to centralise everything in Canberra and if it does not stop even garbage collection will be administered from there.

The states are still sovereign, even if the High Court has failed in its duty to protect them. And yes, we could do with a few more states - New England and North Queensland, for example.

If the federal and state governments and parliaments did what the people want them to do and return to their constitutionally enshrined core functions, and raise the taxes for these themselves, the people would understand clearly who was responsible for what.

The resulting higher quality of government, especially at state level, would mean that much of the social and infrastructure decline in this country could at least be arrested. It is ironical that this decline has occurred just as the country has achieved a standard of technological advances and economic well being inconceivable not only in 1901,but also when we emerged victorious from the two world wars in which Australia had taken such a significant role.

My hope is that the next federal government realises that it can best perform its core functions by concentrating on them, by restoring the states to their proper place and not subverting or bribing them, by not seeing centralisation as the answer to all problems, and by not engaging in social engineering or wasting time on some current elite obsession such as the three “R’s” - republicanism, reconciliation or refugees.