Policies > Frequently asked questions

In bold are the TOP 20 questions asked by people followed by a brief answer.

1. But what about competitive federalism, where different states compete with each other e.g where one lowers payroll tax to attract more businesses to the state- is that a good thing?

The problem with this arguement is that it is robbing Peter to pay Paul. The states get half of their revenue from complex federal grants. The other half is from their own taxation revenue and other means. When one state cuts a state tax like payroll tax, it has a shortfall in its state budget and starts crying to the federal government for more money to fix the hospital system and their states school buildings.

By cutting one tax in one state to make it more attractive than other states means that the blame game intensifies between the federal and state governments on what is a fair level of federal grants to each state and who is to blame for worsening public services.

2. Also would we keep the present court hierarchy so every state would still have its own supreme court etc which could hear matters about state laws?

The current court system will be exactly the same with each state having their own local/district and supreme courts with the last appeal to the high court. Say in a 50 years times when all state laws on every topic have been finally harmonised by relevant federal govt laws - then maybe we can choose to look at the court system again and have one system rather than 6 different state systems.

3. What about things like transport or correctional facilities which may be too big for local councils to manage but perhaps too micro for the federal government? Would the federal government effectively be split into state jurisdictions?

In these examples you have an existing state based bureaucracy correctional facilities - where the head reports to the federal police / correctional facilities minister.

Public transport for example in Sydney could be run by an independent authority of transport experts.

There is a case for regional governments - but I don’t want them to be a 3rd tier of govt, but a result of one representative of each local council in a city or geographical region.

4. How do you propose this change will happen?

A referendum question posed to the Australian People: "Should we remove state governments and only have a national government and existing local councils as the second tier?

I think the question could include a trial period of ten years. If after that time, Australians are still happy with no state governments, then we have another referendum to make the change permanent.

5. How would each state be represented in the federal government? I guess you'd somehow have to have a fixed number so smaller states aren't prejudiced - think that's how numbers in the Senate is now?

The federal parliament would work exactly the same way it is today; two houses of parliament, both with equal power, the Senate and the House of Representatives. In the House of Rep it has 150 seats and states with bigger populations have more representation. The federal Senate is where all the states have equal power; both NSW and TAS have 12 senators each. (Even though NSW has about twenty times the population of Tasmania).

This would not change - the states rights would still be preserved in the federal parliament - even if the states do not have their own state govt. By preserving this system, people will see that the smaller states will not be prejudiced even if there are no state parliaments.

6. If getting rid of state governments is so popular, why don't the other political parties want to do pursue it as a policy?

Most politicians show their true colours of wanting to get rid of the state after they leave parliament. There are a number of politicians in both the Labor and Liberal parties who definately support the idea of only having a federal and local governments in Australia. E.g Bob Hawke, Michael Costa, Joel Fitzgibben, Barnaby Joyce. For more information see Links number 7.

But as history shows that those people and groups that have reached the heights of power in a society do not want to change the structures that will disadvantage them or their party. The largest political parties in Australia have 98% of power at the state level. Why would they want to get rid of their own hold on power? They always put the interests of their political party above the interests of the Australian people.

7. What will be the financial cost of getting rid of state governments (transfering to responsibilities to the national and local governments)?

There will be no additional cost compared to what the current cost of having a state government in every state. If all of the state politicians are removed from the political structure in Australia this will save about $400 million each year. Since we have no premiers there would be no need to have six 'Premier and Cabinate' state public servant departments. These cost about $950 million each year. So the saving of not having those departments could be put towards a new public service department "Transition department" that coordinates the move from three levels of government to two.

In fact the transition will save Australians money from the first year of removing state politicians.

8. What about sport? Will there still be inter state rivalry between NSW and QLD in State of Origin etc?

Politics and sport should not mix. So just because there is no state governments does not mean teams from those states cannot play sport against each other. Sport in Australia continues as normal. Politics can change but not sports organisation.

9. The idea behind our system of government is to ensure no level has too much power. The fighting over who can do what ensures that our individual rights are not trampled on by an unchecked government. This is not a 'waste' it's the price we pay for a 'free' state.

What individual rights do you think an Australian govt will do away with? Not letting us walk out on the streets at night? Cannot go to church or other place of belief? Be honest- what rights can they take away from us? We will always be a free country and people even if we have 3 or 2 levels of govt. It is important to note that there are well over a dozen other groups and powerful institutions that will hold the Australian government to account even if the state governments disappear.

1. The opposition in the House of Represenatives in the Australian Parliament. 2. The Federal Senate 3. The media (collective of all forms and owners of media) 4. Local Government Councils 5. The Legal system (Courts, Judges are all independant of Parliament) 6. Unions (both large and small) 7. Employer associations BCA, AIG 8. Churches, charities and NPO's 9. The Public Service 10. Big Business (Mining companies) 11. Reserve Bank of Australia 12. The Australian people can vote out any stupid government or politician!

As a concession to those who fear that the national government will have too much power once the state parliaments are removed, consider this next sentence if we only had two tiers of government - national and local councils: 'If 70% of local councils agree that the national government is not governing in the best interest of the Australian people, they can force the Governor General to call a national election'. This would collectively give the local councillors in Australia more power than the executive in the national government.

It is important to understand that "Australia" is not equal to the government. Australia composes of hundreds of groups, thousands of organisations and millions of people and voters. Politicians makes up only a tiny part of our population. Our country is the sum of all the parts. There are many powerful people and groups that will hold the government to account if there are no state governments.

Think of how WorkChoices was defeated in 2007 by various groups (such as 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12). If you consider the current Mining super profits tax (the main players are 1, 2,3,7,10 and ultimately number 12 will decide at the each election). State governments are not needed to hold the Australian government to account. If you can only go to sleep at night because there are 3 teirs of govt , and not 2, then see a doctor.

10. How would the various state legislation be it criminal, work place, civil etc be enforced - would we keep it the same as is with state regulatory bodies, state police force etc?

If the state governments were outed in a referendum tomorrow, all the existing laws in each state would continue as normal and enforced by each state's police force.

There would be no new state laws ever introduced. The existing state laws all continue until a elected national government passes a law on a particular matter.

Some areas of the state laws may continue for ten or thirty years - if there cannot be agreement in the federal parliament on a law. But most laws can be made common for all states of Australia. (E.g. murder is murder in every state - but may currently have totally different max/min lengths in gaol. If a national govt can get a law passed in both houses of parliament on murder - then that law will replace all existing murder laws and the police in each state will keep doing their job and each state legal system will enforce/judge according to the statute law that has been updated).

11. If we had just federal and local governments, then the federal government would be in charge of both the Defence Force and the Police Force. Is that a dangerous idea?

No the Minister for Police will be a different person to the Minister of Defence. Both will have clear and distinct roles. One is for the protection of Australia and its national interests (Defence), the other is for upholding and enforcing the law within Australia. In late 2007 the defence minister and all 6 state police ministers were from the Labor party - we did not see Labor using this power to hurt ordinary people nor will we in the future.

12. What state responsibilities will fall to councils and which will go to the national government?

Theses proposed roles are not set in concrete and are able to be changed. No State Governments suggests that the following responsibilities fall to local councils to manage once state governments are abolished:

Anniversary messages, Community services, JP appointments, Planning, Public Housing, Public Transport, roads (except interstate highways), Youth Services

The following state government roles should go to the national government when state governments are abolished:

Aborigine affairs, Anti discrimination laws, Consumer affairs, Disability services, Electricty/Gas/Water, Emergency services, Environment and National Parks, Fair Trading, Hospitals, Industrial relations, Mental Health, Planning, Police and law enforcement, Rental bond board, Roads (major) and rail, schools and TAFE's.

13. How would state legislation be amended if there's no state parliament? Would the federal govt be given jurisdiction to determine state laws?

See answer to Q10 above.

14. There is no way our system of government can easily be changed to make this a reality.
Yes it can be easy. the public servants make up 99% of the total government sector. We should keep them all doing their jobs as normal - serving the public. It is just the head of a state public service dept would report to an Australian government minister - not a state politician. For a diagram see the bottom of this link.

15. Will the australian constitution need to be thrown in the bin and we can start again.

No not even close - we are just proposing one question to the aust people to only have two levels of government. I am not asking for the whole constitution to be burnt. one small referendum question!
ALL of the existing laws and freedoms in Australia will be exactly the same as they are today. All state laws and criminal laws will be the same. The thousands of laws we have in this country will only change one by one as the represenatives of australians have debates in parliament. If there is agreement on one issue then a law will be changed. But it still could be decades for all existing state laws to become one unified national law. Every change will be debated and have to pass both federal houses of parliament to be accepted (and through the senate which gives = power to small and large populated states). That is called democracy at its best.

16. Australians rarely vote 'Yes' to a change in their constitution at a referendum. Will you suceed?

There has not been a sucessful referendum in thirty years! Australians are reluctant to change. We agree it will not be easy.
But we are having a go at making this a better governed country. We are all free to join an existing political party or start a new one. It is good for democracy to have many political parties. I think it is sad that 98% of the state and federal seats of parliament are held by labor and Lib/nat coalitiion parties. They don't want other parties changing anything as they have the power to do what they like.

17. What about people in less populated areas? How will the better keep a government based in Canberra interested in a health system catering for a tiny percent of the population? Look at Tasmania for example, Tasmania's population is about half a million. How are they going to compete (politically) with area's like Sydney and Melbourne? This is one of the reasons we have the political system we do. Growing up in a rural area I can tell you that governments are much better at spending money where it's needed if there are more votes to buy.

We care deeply about the needs of Australians living outside major cities. If there is a vertical fiscal imbalance and the federal govt (with no states) has to give money to local councils so they can run their programs - then the rural council areas get at least twice as much per person in Australian govt support as they do in the city areas. This will help improve services in the bush.

Regarding Tasmania - We will still have the two houses of the Australian parliament. The federal senate stays. Tasmania will have as much power in the federal senate as NSW, QLD and VIC. Do you remember the days of Brian Harridine - he was a Tasmanian senator in the 1990's who was elected by 0.02% of the australian population , but held the balance of power in the federal senate - he bargained for significant funding and programs for the apple isle, otherwise Howard didn't get his vote. he punched above his weight. There is nothing in our proposal that would ever change that from becoming a real possibility again.

18. How much are all the different state business regulations costing them and us?

The Business Council of Australia printed 182 page report in 2006 on the costs to Australian business of having 7 sets of business regulations in australia.
One company said it spent 4 million dollars a year on complying with all the different state laws. If you just times that by our largest 3000 companies - that is 12 billion a year cost just in the private sector and its only a small % of the total private sector. These extra costs are passed onto other businesses and consumers like you and me in the form of higher prices.

19. We won't have to vote at as many elections- this is not a good thing. Voting is an important part of a democracy. The idea that we can elect three levels of government in free and fair elections is what makes us different from places like China, Burma, Iran, Saudi Arabia (I can go on for ages). Anything that takes away our ability to make political decisions is not something I feel comfortable with.

I agree voting is important for a democracy. Is voting for 2 levels of government mean we are not free?

Is your definition of freedom = voting for more levels of govt at elections ??) If voting for more levels of govt makes us more free, then lets go for having, 4 levels of govt just so we can be more free than we currently are!!!

People hate voting for people who waste their taxes on wasteful programs and politicians who have every perk they can legally get away with. They like voting for people who will spend it on the public good rather than on different levels of politicans, their political staffers in offices all blaming other levels for the problems they cannot solve.

20. But my state government has come up with lots of good ideas. If you get rid of state governments then a lot of ideas and innovation will go out the door. It is boring if all states have to be the same.

Not all states have to be the same. There will be individual differences between states as long a people are different.

Innovation can still occur without state governments. If there is a new idea for say education then it can be trialled in one state for a year and see how effective it is. If it is then implement the idea for the rest of the nation.

Another example is the $43 Billion national broadband network. It is being implemented first in Tasmania to iron out any flaws before it is implemented on the mainland. Similarly the National government in 2010 is begining to trial a change to welfare to ALL welfare receipitents in the Northern Territory. The scheme involves half their welfare to be paid in cash and the other half to be kept for rent, food, water, electricty, clothing payments only. If this scheme works then it will be implemented to the rest of Australia.

The ABC television show called the 'New Inventors' will continue to enable any creative Australia to put their ideas to work. The Australian universities produce a significant number of research papers and ideas for this country. These professors are independent of the government and they have fresh ideas. The University of NSW team of undergraduates can second in the world in the robotic Olympics in June 2010. Just becasue we do not have state governments does not mean creative new ideas will disappear from Australia!

There is nothing stopping any Australian making suggestions for change and those changes are then trialled in one state or territory before being decided on to be introduced nationally. Local governments can make any change they like as long as their local community approves of it and they have the power over that area of public policy.

	Become a fan on Facebook
	Follow us on Twitter
	Become a member of No State Governments
	Share on Facebook
	Share on Twitter

The newsletter will inform you periodically about No State Governments.
Your email address
Subscribe	Unsubscribe

Policies > Frequently asked questions

Read more... Policies