We are over governed
Australia is a nation of approximately 20 million people. Australia is approximately 7.2 million square kilometres in area compared to approximately 9.1 million square kilometres for the USA.
No you are not in a geography lesson. These facts provide the background to opinion on the state of the government in this country. Quite simply we are over governed. There are three levels of government in Australia - federal, state, and local. Naturally each level of government is responsible for different areas of running things. For example, defence is a federal responsibility (although some would argue that in this regards we are a very small branch of the US but more on that in another story), Education and health are state responsibilities and water and utilities are generally a local responsibility.
How on earth can we really need three levels of government for a country that in population terms is the size of New York State and only three times the size of New York city or London? We have seven police forces (one for each state or territory), seven health systems and seven education systems.
Yes, seven education systems. As a teacher this is one area that is particularly of interest to me. We are in the middle of a debate on the need for a national curriculum. The federal Liberal government is pushing this agenda designed to ensure that all students in our country are educated to the same standard. Our state Labour government seems hell bent on pushing through its own ill-considered reforms so as to beat the federal government to the punch. In my humble opinion the answer is a simple one - make education a federal responsibility. This would achieve all the goals a national curriculum could achieve under the current arrangements and more. I can’t even begin to imagine how many additional teachers could be employed with the funds saved through the abolition of 6 systems of bureaucracy.
These cost savings could be replicated throughout many governmental activities. Health is another case in point. Significant economies of scale would be achieved through bringing this under the federal umbrella and having a single government department stuffing things up running things rather than six or seven. Enormous hospital waiting lengths could be reduced with the employment of more doctors.
Some would argue that the sheer size of Australia prohibits this dream becoming a reality. However, I would argue this is not the case (I really wanted to say “this is bullshit” but this is a serious piece of writing). Cairns is in far north Queensland and as such is approximately 1800 kilometres from the capital, Brisbane. I would suggest that when a city is already this far away from the centre of power and decision making, another thousand kilometres or so is not going to make a difference.
So, is any change in this regards likely? Of course not. There are too many people with a vested interest in keeping the status quo. The origins of the states as separate colonies of the British Empire seem to have an influence even today. More importantly though, what state politician is going to support such a change when it would entail the loss of their job and the hold on power that they currently enjoy.
