Gillard should lead as opposed to follow

Comments on Arthur Sinodinos “Gillard must develop ideas worth fighting for”, 18/11/2010, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/gillard-must-develop-ideas-worth-fighting-for/story-e6frg6zo-1225955200804
Relatively speaking, education is one of the least problematic areas among the nation's priorities.

Federal taking over of education, including TAFE, is likely to be a bad idea. State government must retain some lever over the skills of their labour force and TAFE is an important means to achieve it.

The federal government should focus on macro policy areas that affect the whole nation.

It should find ways to enhance federal-state cooperation in achieving better outcomes, as opposed to short term politics to compete with the state governments.

While climate change is in danger of being hijacked by the Greens, it is a key area that Gillard should fight for, because the public are likely to use it to measure Gillard’s success or otherwise.

Given that Gillard has already been seen having changed her stance on carbon tax, she should pursue a carbon tax that is revenue and trade neutral to be her initiative and policy.

Tax reforms are another key area where Gillard could leave a mark. The government could design a staged approach to the flat tax in the Henry review report: first to raise the tax free threshold to $15000 and then in another X years to $25000, for example. Accordingly, the associated expenditure side reforms or simplification would also be phased in by two stages. This staged approach has another advantage: it gives the government a chance to improve in the second stage based on the first stage results.

But in the longer term, the division of national tax revenue between federal and states should be a key area of reform based on the optimal division of services and policy management between the two levels of government.

These reforms to tax and federal relations should be aimed at bipartisan.