Nationbuild - Federalism

Australia came together as a nation in the year 1901 as a federation of six individual British colonies. The rationale for the creation of this federation was the existence of certain areas of government policy where States could better further the interests of their people by cooperating and working together rather than simply acting alone. Hence, each colony agreed to cede a portion of its own powers towards a new central (Commonwealth) Government. Unfortunately, over the course of the twentieth century, the balance between the powers of the States and the powers of the Commonwealth, as laid out in our federal constitution, have been drastically altered. Over time, the Commonwealth Government has gained enormous power at the expense of the States. This is a most unhealthy development which has severely undermined the potential of federalism to deliver prosperity to all Australians.

A positive step would be a renewed emphasis by the Commonwealth Government on returning powers to the States so as to recreate the balance of power.

downloadable documents

[25k] The Threat to Federalism, by Sir Harry Gibbs

[300k] The Seven Pillars of Centralism: Federalism and the Engineers' Case, by Geoffrey de Q Walker