View Poll Results: Would you prefer the whole country to be run by a single parliament?
Yes
16
51.61%
No
13
41.94%
Who gives a *****
2
6.45%
Voters: 31. You may not vote on this poll
Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Nov 15th 2006, 9:01 pm
#31
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Originally Posted by chels
Not very surprising, seeing as the federal government has a majority of Liberals and NSW has a Labor government. Can't see JH etc supporting any Labor run systems.
Nov 15th 2006, 9:05 pm
#32
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Originally Posted by Vash the Stampede
...
It would also mean scrapping the Federal Constitution, from which the states derive their rights and powers - and I can't see that happening any time soon, can you?
It would also mean scrapping the Federal Constitution, from which the states derive their rights and powers - and I can't see that happening any time soon, can you?
Nov 16th 2006, 11:02 am
#33
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Great article on the back page of the Australian yesterday on why the Labour state politicians are so useless.
Nov 16th 2006, 2:52 pm
#34
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Originally Posted by NKSK version 2
Great article on the back page of the Australian yesterday on why the Labour state politicians are so useless.
Nov 16th 2006, 6:12 pm
#35
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Just a couple of additional questions.
1) Should the legal systems of the states be integrated or should it be left like the UK? (If integrated can we avoid adopting anything from QLD )
2) In 60 years or so once European Integration has settled down. Should the individual state parliaments be shut down and all the power transferred to the centralised European Parliament?
1) Should the legal systems of the states be integrated or should it be left like the UK? (If integrated can we avoid adopting anything from QLD
)2) In 60 years or so once European Integration has settled down. Should the individual state parliaments be shut down and all the power transferred to the centralised European Parliament?
Last edited by MartinLuther; Nov 16th 2006 at 7:16 pm.
Nov 16th 2006, 6:17 pm
#36
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Originally Posted by MartinLuther
Just a couple of additional questions.
1) Should the legal systems of the states be integrated or should it be left like the UK? (If so can we avoid adopting anything from QLD )
2) In 60 years or so once European Integration has settled down. Should the individual state parliaments be shut down and all the power transferred to the centralised European Parliament?
1) Should the legal systems of the states be integrated or should it be left like the UK? (If so can we avoid adopting anything from QLD
)2) In 60 years or so once European Integration has settled down. Should the individual state parliaments be shut down and all the power transferred to the centralised European Parliament?
Nov 16th 2006, 7:13 pm
#37
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Originally Posted by Wol
Answer to (2): Effectively this has already happened! The only reason the UK parliament is still allowed is to keep the proletariat - ie. thee and me - happy that we still have some vestige of choice of government <g>
I suggested 60 years for a couple of reasons: firstly they may have transferred power from the unelected Commission to the Parliament by then and secondly that the current situation in the EU is similar to the early days of Australian federation in that people had more affinity to their own state than to Australia and there was still a lot of people around who thought that their state shouldn't have surrendered sovereignty.
Nov 16th 2006, 7:18 pm
#38
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
It does seem incredibly wasteful to me that each state and territory has its own health service, police service, judicial service, legislature, etc etc - in some cases the whole bureaucracy serving a relative handful of voters/taxpayers. And of course each department having a cast of thousands!
Nov 17th 2006, 8:22 am
#39
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Originally Posted by Wol
It does seem incredibly wasteful to me that each state and territory has its own health service, police service, judicial service, legislature, etc etc - in some cases the whole bureaucracy serving a relative handful of voters/taxpayers. And of course each department having a cast of thousands!
Back in the mid 90s I did quite a lot of work for the England & Wales police forces. In this organisation there were 43 separate police forces. Each police force was responsible for it's own IT, creating the situation where different forces used different hardware, comms and software. Several of them were developing their own software and were hoping to sell it onto other forces. So, they all ended up with a mishmash of different systems. And this is nothing compared to what I experienced at the NHS.
Personally I don't think centralisation of the governments will actually cure the problem of wastefulness, duplication and poor MPs, but it would lose the advantages of decentralisation. It is worth considering why the UK has decided to decentralise in the last 10 years and why there does not seem to be a strong movement to re-centralise. In the case of the Welsh Assembly my mum was initially resistant to the proposal and voted against it because she thought it would be a waste of money. However, she has changed her mind as it seems to be doing a lot better job than its predecessor - the Welsh Office. I voted for the London Assembly which, in my opinion, has brought a focus to London's management that was sadly lacking under the previous arrangement.
My solution to the wastefulness would be to cut the number of MPs at state level by a half. The improvement in communications (both physical and electronic) has reduced the need for so many MPs. If we cut the number state legislators in half we would end up with less MPs per head than the UK but retain the advantages of decentralisation. This would also improve the quality of the MPs at state level as the less able ones would drop off the gravy train.
Nov 17th 2006, 10:28 am
#40
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Personally I think we should get rid of the Federal Goverment..
Queensland should declare itself independent....
Queensland should declare itself independent....
Nov 17th 2006, 9:28 pm
#41
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
If the state governments disappeared there would have to be a huge amount of devolution of power to local government. While that may be a good thing in relation to providing local services I reckon it would open the corruption door wide open. At least at state level there's a degree of media scrutiny - at the local level, well most suburban newspapers are more used to reporting on the local fete than investigating graft and back-handers. IMO that sort of thing is rife in local government and giving them more power would just make it worse.
Nov 18th 2006, 2:21 am
#42
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Re: Poll: would it be better to get rid of state parliaments?
Originally Posted by Wol
I thought it would be interesting to know how many people are wedded to the federal system, given the multiple inefficiencies involved. on the other hand does the size of the country make it inevitable?
