To Abolish the States ....

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Our Statement of Objectives, and Our Convenor's Invitation :

The ASC believes that Australia needs a better system of government, one without state governments in their present form, and that state governments should be abolished at the earliest possible opportunity.

We believe that state governments are divisive, the source of destructive "bidding wars" and "buck-passing", wasteful in their duplication, and an enormous cost burden generally which Australia can ill afford in an increasingly competitive world.

We recognise the link between government system design and public outcomes and heed the opinion polls which continually remind us that Australians would much prefer governments invest scarce resources on education, health, safety, the environment and so on rather than bear the cost of eight state and territory parliaments and their attendant bureaucracies.

We believe that everything state governments do could be done better at either the national government level or at a level closer to the people than state governments are in their present form.

We believe that Australia needs a single, effective national government which would assume most of the powers and responsibilities held by the present state and federal governments. We also believe our national government should administer uniform national laws, but we endorse flexibility in the local application of such laws.

Our membership represents a range of views on what the subnational governments should be. We generally agree that we need two principal levels of democratic government, though some also support additional levels of democratic participation.

One suggestion is that we eliminate state governments and continue with local governments in more or less their present local council format, though with expanded budgets and perhaps modestly expanded powers and responsibilities. Proponents of such a move, whilst generally opposed to a tier of regional government as such, are nevertheless supportive of some intermediate structures such as voluntary collaborations of localities at city or regional levels which could pool their resources for joint purposes. Voluntary regional organisations of councils (VROCs or ROCs) presently in place provide a model for such arrangements. Significantly, such intermediate structures would not have the attendant parliamentary or bureaucratic expenses of the present state governments nor the power to make laws resulting in inconsistencies across borders.

Another option under consideration is the replacement of both state and local governments by a number of (probably 30 to 60) regional or provincial governments having lesser powers than present state governments but greater powers than present local governments. Some believe we should introduce a two tier system comprising national and regional (or provincial) governments, whereas others believe additional levels of democratic participation should be encouraged in smaller communities given that such regional government areas would typically have populations of around half a million people.

There are a range of views on the sovereignty of these different levels of government, their funding, how their boundaries might be changed, and various other points.

Regardless of the details, our desire is for a system of government which is:

Democratic, understandable, accountable, just and equitable, affordable, efficient, environmentally, socially and economically sustainable, stable but flexible, close to and responsive to the needs of individuals and communities, responsive also to the needs of the country as a whole and global circumstances, and centralised and decentralised in an appropriate balance.

We are together developing ideas for improved government which satisfy these criteria, and endorse any associated improvements to the present system, including, for example, the Albury-Wodonga union. However such one-off changes attack symptoms, not causes, and the pace of improvement is glacial. We believe the major costs associated with cross-border inconsistencies, bidding wars, buck-passing, excessive duplication and so on can only be removed through our preferred comprehensive improvement option of state government abolition.

In its efforts to achieve a new and better system of government, the ASC is pursuing a process of public consultation, education and advocacy in order to provide the people of Australia with the opportunity to participate in the process and bring it into being.

We invite you to learn more about the ASC, to join our mailing list and join us at our dinner gatherings and other meetings. Together, we can work to bring about a long overdue and much needed change to government in Australia!

John August, ASC Convenor,

On behalf of the Abolish the States Collective

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