There is no valid reason of governance or constitutional allowance for the federal government to put a plebiscite on the Queensland council redistricting during the federal election. It is outside the national governments jurisdiction and further "the mergers will be law when any ballots are held".
I fully agree with the argument that the councils should have home rule and the legislative ability to construct their own charters rather than have the state government do it, but this is nothing to do with the national government.
I read somewhere that this may be an attempt to get the same electoral effect as the ballot initiatives in the United States during the 2004 Presidential election where constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage at the states were included in the state elections.
The US tries to make state and federal elections occur on the same day including any referendum and plebiscite questions. They are a state based authority and it was not the federal government putting these on the ballot, it was the states, though I do not doubt that the Bush Presidential campaign was behind the suggestion.
I don't see how Howard can do this, or even if he will bother. It is probably enough politically that he has even mentioned it.
There has to be some wariness of cynicism that this is just a political stunt and there really isn't complete disdain by the Howard government for the separation of powers between the federal and state governments - it is just electoral pragmatism.
But as these new establishments of sovereignty over the states responsibilities grow it is corrosive on the whole federalist system and leads to new layers of overlap in responsibility, authority, services and funding. They end up having an effect far greater into the future than just a temporary electoral one.
For those that intimately care about political structures and their benefits as technologies this behaviour is quite repulsive.
Update - I read the plebiscite being used in a similar manner to the US ballot initiatives at Poll Bludger.
