Peter Gleeson: Why we must abolish state and territory governments
If it’s not Annastacia Palaszczuk’s xenophobia, it’s Dan Andrew’s hypocritical blame on the Federal Government for mishandling aged care. Let’s have a referendum and get rid of the lot of them, says Peter Gleeson.
Opinion
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Coronavirus has exposed the absurdity of our antiquated political system in Australia and it’s time we had a referendum on the future of State and Territory government.
In the early days of COVID-19, Australians marvelled at the integrated and cohesive approach that a national cabinet delivered.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison had brought together the states and territories to join hands in solidarity and approach the looming crisis with a collective and bipartisan mindset. It helped us flatten the curve and saved many lives. But that’s all gone pear-shaped with the Victorian scandal.
And it is a scandal, not just because the Victorian Government dropped the ball on its hotel quarantine protocols and security, but because of the blame game that has since emerged.
After their initial lovefest, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has reverted to type by blaming the Federal Government for the aged care scandal that is a crisis within a crisis in Victoria.
Never mind that it was his government that dropped the ball on hotel security. Never mind it was his government that has woefully and incompetently handled proper contact tracing protocols.
And so we look to Queensland where the xenophobic tactics of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk play out every day as she takes the war cry “Queenslander’’ to new levels.
She too is going it alone now on everything. Forget the Commonwealth. This cheesy Queensland jingoism might work at State of Origin time, but it’s just wrong during a life threatening pandemic.
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We get that Ms Palaszczuk is a proud Queenslander. If that’s the case, where’s her plan to turn the disastrous economy around? Or fix juvenile crime? Or save the lives of babies who are dying under this government’s watch?
Nobody slammed the borders shut on those volunteers from NSW who came to Queensland to help repair and rebuild after Cyclone Yasi, or Cyclone Debbie or the terrible floods or bushfires of the past decade. It is now clear that the lack of co-operation and political point-scoring being conducted between the states and territories and the Commonwealth has undermined our COVID-19 response.
There are marked differences between the actions recommended by the Commonwealth and those taken by the states and territories. The feds said keep the schools open, the states closed them. The feds said keep the borders open, the states closed them. All we need in Australia is a federal government and local government. Imagine the savings on the bureaucracy and politicians alone?
The system we have now, inherited 119 years ago when the Constitution was enacted, is broken.
With a population of 25 million, we have about 1000 state and territory politicians. The duplication in resources, money and energy is extraordinary.
Not to mention the overt way in which state and territory bureaucrats simply clog up infrastructure projects with red and green tape, seemingly to justify their existence.
Education and health are perfect examples. The Commonwealth supplies the funding for education, yet the states and territories do the administration. Badly. Each state and territory has different curriculums and educational models. The outcome? Some of the worst educational standards in the world.
Same for health.
As the PM keeps saying, our post COVID recovery means we need to throw the conventional rule book out. It would mean local government stepping up.
Make no mistake, getting rid of the state and territory governments would be the catalyst to a brighter and better Australia. The time is now for a referendum to abolish them.