Senatorial shemozzle
IF NANETTE Radeck ( TB, 2/8) is to be believed, the major reason for creating a new state would be to get 12 senators in Canberra. Sadly, she is misinformed.
The states which drew up the Constitution gave themselves 12 senators each.
To protect themselves, they also put into the constitution a rule whereby any new states would only get two senators, unless changed by a referendum.
So, for Nanette to get her 12 senators, a majority of people in a majority of states would have to give their consent to a new state having 12. Only a fool would think this would be delivered.
A new state for the North is an economic disaster waiting to happen. The new state would have to build some form of energy supply to keep the lights on, at our cost.
The new state will also have to purchase all the hospitals, schools, prisons, emergency services, public housing, etc from the Queensland Government with our 800,000odd people footing the bill from the word go.
Our society would be massively in debt and the current State Government free of all responsibility.
I get that people feel let down by Brisbane, no matter who is in charge. But the answer cannot be more government.
It is incredibly expensive to run a decentralised state, but it is clearly worth the effort.
Instead of expanding state governments, we should campaign for the consolidation of governments.
What worked in 1901 when the states federated does not work now.
State governments are addicted to gambling income and increasing fines and fees because they will not have a proper debate about how revenue is raised. If they did, stamp duty and payroll tax would be dropped quicker than a bad habit.
Scrap all state government functions where the Federal Government is the major or equal funder, and where departments operate on a national basis or market. Keep the state-based public sector employees who run the show but drop the duplicated state ministries plus the bloated Canberra bureaucracy which oversees their operations.
That is a good start, but only a start.
Instead of more government,