Under a centralising Federal Government

Only on the issue of water did we seen the states, through the intransigence of Victoria, assert themselves over the Commonwealth.

The Howard government tried to sell the issue of the Murray/Darling Basin as the key to solving the water problems of Australia. Only three states bought into that. There is no plan for the MDB and in any case the problem of securing a sustainable supply of water in Australia is one that requires scientific study and recommendations by a National Water Authority answering to the Commonwealth government.

Water does not respect state boundaries except in Tasmania and Western Australia.

Official levels of corruption and moral turpitude in Australia are at about the same level they were in Italy in the 1970s.

Australia is a conservative country, almost to the point of being hidebound. We have shown little inclination to learn from the past with the consequence that we repeat the mistakes of the past.

Howard bundled us into Iraq in much the same way that Menzies pushed us into Vietnam and for much the same sort of reason; to pay the US insurance premium. The failure of US strategy and Liberal Party compliance has worked to the advantage of the Labor Party with respect to both military adventures.

The framework within which Australian institutions both private and public operate, despite or perhaps because of corruption, is fiercely and determinedly mediocre; aggressively and angrily opposed to reform which is to take nothing away from Rudd’s Sorry Statement.

I quote an observer of the Australian political environment.

Traditional institutional devices have been weakened by the dominance of the Federal Cabinet over the Commonwealth Parliament, the strict discipline of federal parties and the declining ability of political leaders to meet all demands made of them. Open access to public records and official information is denied except to a privileged few whilst the courts intervene only when aggrieved persons challenge Commonwealth actions.

No Bill of Rights written into the Constitution safeguards the rights of citizens against authoritarianism and the workings of the Commonwealth bureaucracy are shrouded in mystery. Its administrative processes are descended from autocratic colonial regimes, borrow heavily from British practices and reflect Australian conservatism. Its position is ideal for the manipulation of mass society on behalf of established elites.

It is generally accepted that states’ rights and the separation of power provides a check, a balance against the unreasonable exercise of power by the Commonwealth and therefore a mechanism for the protection of the rights of the citizens of Australia.

They do no such thing as we saw over the abuse contained within Howard’s Terrorism legislation, the excessive powers claimed and exercised by the Department of Immigration and the police and military takeover of Sydney for the APEC Conference in 2007.

The only protection for citizens and others living within the jurisdiction of Australian law is, as noted above, a Bill of Rights. As we have observed over the past 12 years other existing mechanisms are weak and unreliable.