Australian federal relation issues

Comments on Rob Burgess “What's behind Gillard's new waste line?” 29/04/2011, http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Labor-BER-spending-bill-funding-pd20110429-GCSU7?OpenDocument&src=sph

You may be right in saying "the disastrous home insulation scheme with the much less disastrous Building the Education Revolution scheme", but in dollar terms, the much less disastrous Building the Education Revolution scheme may be higher in total in terms of wastage.

Even leaving the normal and conventional definition of wastes aside, the effectiveness of many of those school halls to the so called "building the education revolution" is highly questionable - another form of effective wastage.

That is the first point.

The two indiscretions the Gillard government is committing reflect the long term trend and very unhealthy development in federal relations, that is, the federal government has been invading into states constitutional powers. The fed has been bullying and abusing the states on various matters.

That has not been helped by a pro-fed high court that has often sided with the fed on a number of federation relation issues.

Unfortunately, many Australians falsely and naively believe that many of the current problems with state government services can be resolved by further centralisation of government power to Canberra. It is illogical to think that a central government can do a better job where eight duly elected state governments have had difficulties to achieve.

That is a fantasy, especially after the huge wastage that the fed government did in the not so distant past and that government is still in government after the last federal election!