ADDRESS TO STUDENT DELEGATES TO THE NORTH QUEENSLAND CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

_{25 February, 2008}

Sign Up for free e-mail updates!

Thank you very much Jenene and students. Thank you Dr Chris Davies and my colleague and friend Peter Lindsay.

I am delighted to throw in a few ideas that may assist in your thought process on where you go with determining the question, “Which Legislative powers are best left to the Commonwealth and which are best left to the States?”

I come before you if not with some level of expertise, then certainly with some experience. I spent 11 years on Local Council, I have spent 18 years in Federal Parliament, including 9 years as a Minister, I have been Chair of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Australian Crime Commission and I have just been appointed Chair of the Senate Select Committee for State Government Financial Management.  I was also on the Treaties Committee that Dr Davies mentioned earlier.

Prior to entering Parliament, I was a Lawyer and again, Dr Davies reminded me when he asked the question about who likes Constitutional Law – that was the only University subject that I ever got a High Distinction in!

Again referring to Dr Davies, I used to be an ardent States ‘righter’, but I am now a confirmed centralist.

I come from a perspective from where we used to have a Federal Liberal Government and all the State Governments were Labor. People would say that my views where slanted because it was a different political party. However, they are now all Labor Party Governments and I still have the same view.

 In addressing the questions set for today, my answers are fairly simple;
Which Legislative powers are best left with the Commonwealth?  I think most.
And which Legislative powers are best left with the States? I think few to none.

In fact, I would go a bit further than that and ask if States have any relevance at all in this day and age?

You are aware from both the previous speakers, and from your own research, that we have 3 law making bodies in Australia at the moment – The Federal Parliament, the States and Territories and Local Councils.

As Dr Davies has explained, and again your research will show, of the Powers which the Commonwealth was actually given by the Constitution.

 Prior to 1901, there were 6 separate countries - 6 separate self governing colonies, which all had different views. They were as much alike in those days as say, Hungary and France – if you have studied European History.

In the late 19 century in Europe, in England and America, there was a change of power in various communities. It happened in Australia as well, and Australians realised that we really could not be on 1 continent that had 6 small countries operating within it. They realised that we needed to get together and do things as one country and one nation.

By the Constitution, the States more or less ceded their powers to the new central body. I won’t go through them as you are well aware of them, but most powers do rest with the Commonwealth now.

States ands Territories currently have powers in relation to Education, Transport, Health Services, Law Enforcement, Utilities, Mining and Agriculture - land management is what they actually have responsibility for.

Local Governments, like Townsville City Council, Thuringowa City Council, Burdekin Shire Council, where I used to be a Councillor and Peter Lindsay of course was a Councillor in Townsville, all have powers in relation to local planning, local roads, parks and playgrounds, animal control, rubbish collection, library services and similar things.

To illustrate the different levels of jurisdiction in Australia, if you were a turtle swimming from Indonesia into Australia, as you approach the Australian Coast, you have to deal with the Commonwealth Government and its powers in the exclusive economic zone, which is the wider circle around Australia.  As you swim in a bit further, 3 nautical miles off the shore, you start dealing with the State Government.  As you reach the Strand and climb up on the beach, you start dealing with the Townsville City Council- so it is a myriad and a mess of different laws and regulations across our waters and the land.

Australia is certainly is one of the most over governed countries in the world, with 204 Federal Politicians, about 450 State Politician’s - which you can almost double it as all States but Queensland have an Upper House - so about 900 State Politician’s. If you count all the Local Government Politicians from about 500 local authorities around Australia, you have another 5000 Politicians. All these people are governing one country.

Over the years, I have come to the realisation that States really don’t have a role anymore in the following areas;

Education.  As Peter has pointed out, Education is currently almost totally funded by the Commonwealth in one way or another.  Special grants to the States are passed onto the schools, or as in more recent times, directly to the schools involved. Both State and Private schools are both substantially funded mainly by the Federal Government, and of course by parents. None of you should ever think that going to school is cheap. No matter which school you go to, your parents pay enormous amounts.

Again, as it was pointed out before, it is ridiculous to me that students in Queensland have a different set of curriculum and standards than they have in Victoria, or Western Australia, or anywhere else in the Commonwealth. This does lead to employers choosing someone from, for example, New South Wales as they may think they have a better education standard than Queensland. This is not as prominent as it used to be in my day, but it is still relevant and with greater mobility of peoples across the country it is sometime taken into account by employers.

Here in Townsville, I suspect some of you at least have parents who work in the defence forces, and you are required to move from city to city. As a kid, my parents were in the bank and I moved from school to school. I know how I hated it even though it was all within Queensland.  All the schools were different.

These days people move, for example, from Canberra to Queensland and find different standards, different curriculum and different methods of teaching and I think that is ridiculous. The sooner that the Commonwealth takes over education curriculum and standards, as well as in the Universities - which they effectively do now although the real power in the Universities is from the States, but the sooner there is a commonality in education, the better.

Business Related Laws: In business related laws, construction and building are just 2 that I mention; there are different rules, not only in every State, but in every local authority. I remember when I was Minister for Regional Services I once chaired a forum with all the State Ministers to try and get some uniformity amongst building construction laws.

We met for 3 years and at the end of the 3 years, we came to one agreement on one definition of one thing.  That is how difficult it is. Somewhere along the line in a country as small as Australia, which only has 20 million people, we have to have these national building corporations knowing how to construct a building in Townsville, and how to construct a building in Launceston. They must have the same rules, the same definitions, the same workplace health and safety and workplace relations.

We spoke about the Environment earlier today. The Environment does not stop at a State border. I was the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation, and in the conservation area had a lot to do with the Environment, where everything had to be duplicated across jurisdictions.

The Commonwealth passed the ‘Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999’ (EPBC Act), which did extend the Commonwealth Powers, by saying that any project that affects anything of international significance, like Ramsar wetlands, must be approved by the Federal Minister. What this really means is that now, Queensland has control over the Great Barrier Reef, and so does the Commonwealth. Sensibly, a few years ago, we entered into a joint arrangement; so that the Commonwealth can allow Queensland undertake certain tasks relating to the Reef, but the final decision lies with the Federal Minister for Environment.

In relation to Law Enforcement, as Chair of the Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission, I was privy to first hand intelligence on the fight against real crime, particularly drugs. Having the States principally involved in crime and law enforcement is putting obstacles in the way of those who are at the coal face of the fight against major crime.

Do you realise, that under Commonwealth Legislation, looking at the fight against major crime and drug traffickers particularly, most Police Forces, have telephone tapping powers. But, Queensland for some reason that I do not think is relevant, refuses to join in with the other States. The ‘crims’ know about all this so they think if they are going to do a drug deal in Australia they should come to Queensland, because the Queensland police cannot tap your phone. That is how ridiculous it is. For drug trafficking, you may get 14 years in gaol in Queensland, but in Victoria, you may get 50 years. It is just silly to me, that in a place as small as Australia, we have 7 different Criminal Law jurisdictions, wile the criminals go where they like and do what they like – they don’t care about State boundaries.

However, if Law Enforcement Officers are going to so something in Queensland, they have to work out whether it is a Commonwealth or a State Law, and which Police Force will deal with the matter – it is just silly.  Crime fighters are put through all these sort of difficulties simply because more than 100 years ago we decided that States should be given the power to make laws for crime and law enforcement.

Indigenous Affairs:  A terrible situation that you may have seen in the media in recent times. Fortunately, the Commonwealth was able to intervene in the Northern Territory and do things which a lot of people thought was the right thing to do.

 Why could we do that in the Northern Territory? Because it is a Territory of the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth still has some powers.

We could not do it in Queensland, yet the problems in Queensland are as great, if not greater, than they are in the Northern Territory. So you have this farcical arrangement where you have the Commonwealth doing things in the Northern Territory, Queensland not doing anything, and West Australia doing something different again.

Water policy: The Commonwealth Government has some power where a river crosses the State boundary, but water is so inter-related these days that having each State have the power to make its own rules in relation to who gets water and how water is preserved, is just absurd as far as I am concerned.

Major infrastructure – Ports. Australia relies on its ports for its very existence. We export all our goods, we bring in things we need and yet some of our ports are absolute bottle necks.

The country is being held to ransom because ports in Mackay cannot get Queensland’s coal out quickly enough. We could earn twice as much in Australia if we could get the coal out of the ports. Who runs the ports here? A Queensland Government instrumentality does. However, the Victorian Government instrumentality runs their ports, but they are much more efficient, so goods move in and out with greater speed. Why major infrastructures like Ports are not under the Commonwealth is hard to work out. Similarly with railways, but we went through that earlier.

Time zones- we don’t like daylight saving up here, but it seems silly to me, that each State should set its own time on when we have daylight saving. It would be better to be done centrally, taking into account regional differences where they apply.

Having different Traffic rules – you drive across the border and suddenly you don’t have to give way to a person in the street and you just run them over – this is an exaggeration of course, but it illustrates the absurdity of traffic rules being different in each state. Again, in a country as small as Australia, and a country as mobile as Australia, it seems ludicrous to have different traffic rules.

However, States do have a role in protecting democracy. They do ensure that there are some differences across the country and perhaps we think it is nice being a Queenslander and not a Victorian. Some would say that if we have a big central Government the main bureaucracy will have all the power which resides with only a small number of people.  Some people say that States are more attuned to local conditions and opinions which benefit those living there.

However, increasingly we all want Governments to do more and more and the States are simple less able to fund the things that they are responsible for.  We have already mentioned Health, Education, and Ports. People want more and more and the States have less and less ability to provide these services.

$4 out of every $10 that goes to the States has conditions attached. Over the years, various Commonwealth Governments have been able to push their way into, for example, Education by telling the States that they will give them a big bundle of money Education, on the condition for example, that they start teaching Australian History at school. The States may say they don’t want to teach Australian History but they want the money. This is a way to bring about consistency across the country but it is a back door way, and I think we should be doing it upfront.

There are almost 1500 Commonwealth Acts of Parliament, and if you multiple that by all the Acts of State Parliament, and Local Authorities, you get to the situation that we are in across Australia, that there are over 24,000 different types of business licences. It is just incredible for a country as small as we are.

What is the solution? Local Government. Communities do have their own needs that are outside of national policy areas. Therefore, Local Government can meet many local objectives. Local Government is important, as it does provide local communities with an ability to govern themselves in certain policy areas that are closest to the people.

But the weakness of the Local Government system within the present situation is that they are created by the States and therefore have no constitutional rights.
For example, the recent council amalgamations. It was not as bad here with Townsville and Thuringowa, but many of the smaller Shires in central Queensland, did not want to be merged. Councils wanted to stay looking after own particular patch as they know the particular problems there, but they had no say at all about the amalgamation. You may remember that there were some referendums held, and in one case 98% of people, in Aramac I think it was, decided that they did not want to join with the other Shires. But, the State Government just went ahead and merged them anyway – talk about democracy at work!

This is one of the problems with Local Government. They have been trying to get constitutional recognition. As Peter mentioned, I used to be the Minister for Regional Territories and Local Government, and I was very much aware of this. We would have given constitutional rights, but the States won’t agree. States won’t give Local Government much power. However, a stronger Commonwealth Government may be appropriate and also stronger Local bodies that are recognised in the Constitution.

So, how do we solve all these problems? My solution - which should not necessarily be your solution, as you will move further in thinking about this, but you might want to just improve it in your thought process- is to have a National Government with Legislative power,  and a series of Regional Governments which undertake most of the service delivery responsibilities.  A Regional Government – remember it does need a lot of thought – may include Townsville, Ingham, Burdekin and Charters Towers. Out in the west you might include Mount Isa, Longreach, Birdsville- based on similarity of interest. You could have a Regional Government in Brisbane, or Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast - as I said, a lot of thought needs to go into them, but I think you could have a number of Regional Governments – larger than Local Governments with a bit more power, protected by a Constitution, and undertaking service delivery .

If you got rid of the States, which I advocate, you would need to increase the number of Federal Politicians. Do you know, just digressing for a moment because this irks me, that State Politicians look after about 24,000-30,000 people compared to Peter Lindsay, who looks after about 85,000-90,000 people. The State politicians get paid more than he does, and more than Senators like me, where the electorate is the whole state of about 4,000,000 people. I suggest if you did away with the States, you would have to increase the number of Federal politicians, but you would have a net saving.

How would you fund this arrangement? The Commonwealth has all the taxing powers. I was interested to read recently that at Federation, taxation right around Australia was 5% of GDP, and in 2001/02, it was 30.4% of GDP -  21% of that was Commonwealth and the rest was States - including 3.8% collected by the Commonwealth that goes directly to the States for GST.

The Commonwealth has all the taxing powers right now. The Regional Governments would get money from the Commonwealth, via Horizontal Fiscal Equalisation. That is how the States are currently funded by the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth gives a bigger share to the less ’rich’ States.  We could use the same sort of arrangement, and I think the Regional Governments would have the present powers of Local Governments – that is, roads, rates, rubbish, parks and so on. I also suggest that the Regional Governments should look after schools, but subject to a National Curriculum.

They could also look after hospitals, via a Local Board, but again subject to national funding and national policy.

They could also govern the actual enforcement of national laws in relation to crime. They would not create legislation, but Regional Governments could run the Police Force in the particular area to implement the national criminal law.

So students, as Peter Lindsay quite rightly said, these are good ideas, but how do we make change? I think the time is coming that we do have to, as a nation, have a serious look at this. I think the electorate is becoming more discerning, and it starts with people such as you. It is your generation, when you are leaders of this country that can start this process.

Federation in 1901 was tremendous for Australia. At the time it was just what Australia needed. But, we are 110 years on. We are living in a very rapidly changing world. We are part of a global society, and we really have to make sure that the Constitution moves with society and that we get an effective form of Government that suits Australia in the modern day and age.

So, over to you. It will be you people in the years ahead that will make these decisions and it is great that you are involved in this particular exercise now as it does start you thinking on the issues that will affect the generations of the future.

Thank you very much.

More Speeches