It’s time to get rid of state government
26 May 2009
They may frustrate, they may infuriate. However, for many, the States remain the indispensable building blocks of Federation.
Passionate allegiances and rivalries are defined by colonial boundaries, often more imagined than real.
But are they boundaries that only made sense in an age before the jet engine and internet.
Have the States outlived their usefulness – becoming expensive islands of dysfunction? What do the States really offer that could not be provided by a combination of Federal and local governments?
Speakers
- Professor AJ Brown is a constitutional lawyer, social scientist and director of the Federalism Project, Griffith University.
- Barnaby Joyce is National Party Senator for Queensland.
- Michael Costa is a newspaper columnist, former NSW Treasurer and Deputy Premier and a former union leader.
Against:
- Professor Anne Twomey is a constitutional lawyer, University of Sydney and co-author of Australia’s Federal Future.
- Professor Greg Craven is Vice Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University.
- Professor Geoff Gallop AC is former WA Premier and Director of the Graduate School of Government, University of Sydney.
Chair:
Dr Simon Longstaff is Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre. Simon spent five years studying and working as a member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Having won scholarships to study at Cambridge, he read for the degrees of Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy. He was inaugural President of The Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics and is a Director of a number of companies. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Foreign Policy Association, based in New York. Simon has been Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre since shortly after it was founded.
