Reasons why we should change the system

 1.        Efficiency

Our current system that commenced operation in the days of horses and buggies has become cumbersome and outdated.

With today’s transport and rapid communications, the existing group of federal politicians can easily accomplish what was done by six times their number of state politicians in 1901 (and 2004).

2.         Responsibility

Politicians seem to have refined  ‘duck shoving’ to an art form.

We now have a ‘third world’ health system in this country.  People in pain are waiting many months, even years, for ‘so called’ elective surgery on knees and hips in our public hospitals.

There is no possibility of the system improving while state politicians blame their federal counterparts and vice-versa.  Making one person responsible for a problem is the first step in getting it solved.

Then if the federal health minister cannot deliver the goods, maybe at the next election

we will find someone who can.

3.         Cost Reduction

You do not have to be an accountant to see the savings that would be achieved if all state and territory politicians retired.  Why should Australians continue to pay for eight regular state and territory elections, as well as politicians’ salaries, superannuation and necessary expenses such as overseas travel?

4.  Education

Wouldn’t we all benefit from a single public education system, rather than different ones in each state?

If we take the Australian Air Force as an example, each family usually moves to a different state every two years.  Changing to a completely different education system each time must be real fun for the children!

Do Victorians really need to be educated differently to Queenslanders?  We hope not.

5.      Anomalies Effecting  Business

Firms that operate in more than one state incur huge costs in complying with different state laws and regulations for items as diverse as occupational health and safety to insurance.  Even doctors, nurses and tradespersons require additional registration or licences to work in different states.

The Victorian State Government, to its credit, has attempted to address some of these anomalies, particularly those applying in the Albury-Wadonga area.  Unfortunately, it found the problem to be too hard and gave up.  This is a shame, as the cost of interstate anomalies is estimated to be TEN BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR!

6.      Sharing

Australia is a dry country and water resources are scarce.  Doesn’t it seem ridiculous that different states are squabbling about who owns what?  With one central body taking charge, we could have a chance of ensuring that all Australians received a fair share.

    7.  Resource Optimisation

We need good politicians and have many of them.  Some, however, are not quite as good as others.  Without state governments, there would only be jobs for about 20% of the current state and federal politicians.

It is probably wishful thinking to expect political parties to nominate the best 20% from their ranks as candidates for the positions available, but we can hope.  If we must have politicians, it would make sense to know that we only had the very best in the country on our payroll.

8.  State Law Upgrade

Abolition of state and territory governments gives us a great opportunity to get new and better national laws to replace the existing state ones, many of which are clumsy and outdated.  It does not seem unreasonable to expect our new top-flight federal politicians to come up with fresh legislation that will combine the very best features from the laws of individual states.

Any further suggestions would be most welcome.