- Title
- Sovereign states, separate spheres and visions of regional Australia
- Creator
- Moore, Tod
- Relation
- Australasian Journal of Regional Studies Vol. 22, Issue 1, p. 9-26
- Relation
- http://anzrsai.org/publications/ajrs/2016-Volume-22/Issue-1/
- Publisher
- Regional Science Association, Australian and New Zealand Section
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2016
- Description
- Since 1901 the structure of formal politics in Australia has been determined by the nature of Australian federalism as a framework for resource allocation and authoritative decision-making. As opposed to the more usual two-tiered structure of politics where there is national and local/regional government layering, Australian federalism has three tiers due to the retention of the former colonies as sovereign states comprising an intermediate tier, and this has reduced the role and significance of the local/regional tier. In the first half of this essay I explore the history of campaigns to abolish the sovereign states in order to demonstrate the importance of the idea of enhanced local/regional politics within such modes of thinking. With this in mind, the remaining discussion is focused on the current federalism White Paper process. The underlying federal premise of state sovereignty is examined in order to better understand the purpose of the White Paper, and to explore the implications which it may have for the local/regional tier of government. Despite years of ‘co-operative’ federalism and blurred lines of responsibility, the system remains centralised and remote from local/regional concerns and the proposed sharpening of separate responsibilities will do nothing to change this.
- Subject
- federalism; regionalism; reform of the Federation White Paper; divided sovereignty; vertical fiscal imbalance
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1327754
- Identifier
- uon:25736
- Identifier
- ISSN:1030-7923
- Language
- eng
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