Monday 19 May 2014

There was a protest march

yesterday. It was organised by those opposed to the "harsh" budget measures. They claimed to be a "diverse" group and perhaps they were. Certainly the popularity of the government has plummeted. They would lose an election right now. And, of course, the Opposition is making the most of this.
It would not be unreasonable to suggest that the Opposition helped to organise the march through the union movement. Certainly someone had to pay for the quite extensive advertising about it - and that would not have been the "diverse" group. They would not have had that sort of funding. The union movement has and they are no doubt paying for the anti-government advertisements about to air in the media.
I suspect that all this was planned prior to the election and it will go on until the Opposition is returned to government. They refuse to lose or even acknowledge they lost. Whether that is a good thing depends on your political outlook.
But what if, instead of protesting, Australians did something quite different? What if they altered the way the country was run? We are perhaps the most over-governed country on earth. We have local councils/authorities. They are, supposedly, responsible for immediate local issues. They run things like garbage collection, tree trimming, footpath repairs, the local (rather than national) parks and playgrounds etc. We have state governments which run everything else within the state - as well as supervising and restricting what the councils can do. State governments are very expensive to run but even a state like Tasmania - population about 600,000 has a state government, a governor, a premier and parliament, elections, departments and ....well, I am sure you get the idea.
And then there is the federal level of government which deals with most of the same issues on a national level. There is wasteful duplication over and over again.
Is it possible Australia could be rid of state governments? Yes, there would need to be some sort of regional administration but could the nature of councils be changed - so that they deal with more issues and become more accountable with it? Could Australia have one set of laws for the entire country instead of (often minimally) different laws in each state?
It is surely something worth thinking about. The entire population of Australia is about the same as that of New York State in America. Do we really need to be so over-governed? Of course not.
It would save billions and encourage growth.
It won't happen but it is worth thinking about.

A

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We should arrange the government of Australia better so there is more standardisation and less duplication and buck-shoving.

I also want a change the current voting system. I want to vote for certain people, not many, many which I have not heard of but whose (THEIR) preferences influence the outcome of the election . Why not have three votes for our choices and then the person with the most votes wins!

Tasmania also has an amazing electoral system which means it can be weeks before the outcome for an election is settled.

LMcC

catdownunder said...

Couldn't agree more - and a row has just erupted in our state's upper house, more allegations of union corruption influencing parliament. Sigh.