FEDERALISM

Critical Analysis: Federalism in Australia

Critical Analysis: Federalism in Australia

Introduction

The paper aims to discuss federalism in Australia by understanding the outcome of a roundtable discussion on federalism in Australia. Federalism refers to the government system based upon division of power among central governing authority and the respective states or provinces. The paper strives to understand the reasons for the negative view of Australian system of government. The paper also analyses the various steps that can be taken in order to overcome this negative view of the Australian government.

Federalism in Australia

Federalism is based upon the rule of democracy, which is based upon the division of power among the national and provincial governments. The division of power among these two bodies is explicitly defined in the constitution. Federalism is dividing and sharing powers among the national and provincial government levels such as the cities, counties, provinces, states and territories. Federalism allows carrying out of various considerable opportunities in environmental politics. Federalism allows formulation of any strategy, according to the needs and rights of its citizens. This autonomous power, of states, aids them in overcoming several economic, political and social issues.

In order to discuss the complexities and negative views of Australian government system, we need to grasp the roots of our political system including some of the major theories associated with the development of Australian political system.

John Wanna (2007, pp. 275-279) in his article discusses the diminishing condition and obstacles in the current Federalism in Australia. Wanna provides the evidence for changing and improving of the government system in order to make it better, to ensure better policy to the Australian community. He highlights the uncoordinated resources of Australian government, the policy space competition and the mistrust in government. He states that several resources are not being effectively addressed by the government, which includes: climate change, infrastructure and water.

Outcome of Roundtable Discussion

On 17-18 May 2007, the “Policy Roundtable on Federalism” was attended by around 50 people comprising of politicians, several prominent figures from academics and the State and Commonwealth public servants, at the University of Canberra. The focus of this roundtable was not only on addressing challenges and issues of federalism, but mainly on determining effective options to make the working of federalism better, in Australia. Australia possesses the most centralized system economically, it is considered as one of the most equal and uniform federations. However, there are a few influential barriers to centralization, but, there is a greatest degree of synchronized powers across the three levels of Australian government. Emerging technologies and advanced means of communication has eroded the distance, which protected the states long time ago. Likewise, there are no ethnic groups that have formed chaos.

Some of the participants of the roundtable argued that, nevertheless, responsible government and federalism cooperated in ways that could ultimately have helped the good government. They further argued that federalism has only fetched blurred responsibilities and competitive governments. Governments are only concerned about filling the policy gaps and offsetting the margins of others by ...