cam, 170 words, 0 comments, Federalism, States, COAG

Christian Kerr comments on the recent COAG meeting:

But if the premiers want movement on these issues, why do they need to wait for the Commonwealth? Why don't the states take a lead?

He is absolutely correct. Even with the fiscal imbalance there is nothing budgetary wise stopping the States ignoring the national government and making/implementing policy. (more)

cam, 234 words, 2 comments, Changes in Government Graphs, Victoria, States

Victoria has been dominated by Liberal and anti-Labor parties for most of its electoral history. It is only in the last twenty years that Labor has become competitive in the state.

The state was sufficiently anti-Labor that there was a competitive electoral market for many non-labor parties such as the Conservative Party, the Reform Party, the Country Party, the UAP, the Electoral Reform Party (which held a minority government for a few days) and the Liberal and Country party. The latter held government for 27 years until the Liberals were able to win government on their own in 1972. (more)

cam, 106 words, 0 comments, Changes in Government Graphs, Tasmania, States

Like South Australia, Tasmania has been pretty competitive other than one period of 30+ years of dominance between 1934 and 1969 by the Labor Party.

Aynsley Kellow argues that during Labor's hold on Tasmanian politics between 1934 and 1982 the politics were "distributive rather than redistributive in flavour, what Lowi calls patronage politics." State sponsored development for industrialisation, mineral extraction and hydro-electric power led to electoral success. (more)

cam, 234 words, 1 comment, Changes in Government Graphs, South Australia, States

South Australia has been a very competitive state between Labor and the Liberals.

Other than one period of Liberal Country League dominance for over thirty years, South Australia has seen the frequent switch between governments of differing parties. (more)

cam, 131 words, 1 comment, Changes in Government Graphs, Queensland, States

Queensland has had long periods of party hegemony interspersed with short cycles of volatility and electoral competition.

I think it is safe to say that the periods where the parties are competitive are short and don't seem to last beyond a party establishing itself as the dominant party of government. (more)

cam, 343 words, 0 comments, Federalism, States, Local Government, Plebiscites, Queensland, Howard Government

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. (more)

cam, 535 words, 3 comments, Federalism, Centralism, States, Vertical Tax Imbalance, Power politics

Power politics dominates the international scene and the US as the most powerful nation on the planet plays power politics hard. Power politics is also how the vertical power balance in a federal system is conducted. For instance in the US California tends to be very independent of the US national government. This is due to a mix of size, economic power and ability to raise revenue to support independent policy. So much so that Californian policy ends up influencing federal policies.

Australia has a far more centralised federal system which despite NSW's dominance of GDP at 33% has not translated into independent policy and political power since WWII. The main imbalance is tax, but a nationalist high court has helped as has a national government selective in its fights. (more)

cam, 129 words, 0 comments, ABS, States, Population

From the ABS is the population statistics for the states. The 2007 stats haven't been released yet.

(more)

cam, 526 words, 0 comments, GST, Anti-federalism, Overtaxation, Tax, States

I am not a fan of the GST. I consider it an anti-federalist tax. I would accept it if it was funding the federal government, but since it is redistributed to the states, and not one for one, it breaks the principle of a government only raising the revenue it needs to support itself and nothing more. (more)

cam, 133 words, 0 comments, Local Government, States

Decentralisation and local autonomy are important principles. The rules, regulations and restriction that govern Local Government are currently all done at the State level. The current issue over uniform proportional representation for Local Government in Western Australia is a good argument for Local Government to determine these things themselves. (more)