Centralising and decentralising the response to Australia’s biggest disaster

In facing massive disasters like the Victorian fires, there are local, state and national governments involved – as well as many non-government agencies (that some, including those in government, regard as being more effective in delivering and managing social welfare), we have a recipe for potentially less than the best outcomes.

The problem comes back to a basic idea.  We have a huge and so often hostile country.  And we have only 20 million or so citizens to pay the bills for our services and our physical and electronic networks.

If John Howard got just one thing right – and I appreciate that even the possibility might be highly contestable – we have a country deeply rooted in the notion of looking after our mates (notwithstanding the lowest forms of life – arsonists and looters).  Perhaps JWH was a bit myopic in failing to grasp that our mates might also include people with whom we might not share as common ALL our views.  But the volunteers from other states and territories – and indeed our mates from other countries with special skills, rallying to the Victorian disaster, prove that we are indeed “One”.

Yet we have three levels of government plus a huge array of non-government organisations and a wonderful army of volunteers.   And the co-ordination of resources scattered thinly amongst this array of players is our great weakness.

As far as centralising disaster response goes, I think this disaster is a reminder that a nation of about 20 million people cannot afford to muck around with three layers of government and nightmares of co-ordination amongst states and territories.

As the Australian government is increasingly being called in to fix the states’ hopeless health systems and all the inadequacies and roadblocks caused by conflicting state commercial and other law, environmental degradation, education and transport, and on and on, the appropriate response for addressing the needs of all Australian citizens is the one that we saw when the other states’ and ACT fire-fighters went to Victoria.  Forget the red tape and all hands to the pumps.

We are all Australians.  And it’s time to dissolve the states and not just manage disasters as disparate states together, but manage the whole country at regional and national levels.

As a person living in NSW, I think we have plumbed the depths of state governmental incompetence and corruption and I for one would not miss them for a minute if they were gone with the wind.

There are clearly great people working in state governments and amongst the manifold public servants who implement state government policy.  But there also seem to be, from a total lack of evidence of magnificent success, many individuals with little or no vision, no depth of knowledge or experience in any particular discipline running important portfolios like health, transport, education, environment, energy and most importantly, water.  And there are the arse-coverers whose main agenda is to adopt a low profile, avoid effecting any change (positive or otherwise) and hide their incompetence and lack of energy and political courage.  Sometimes these folks are well-meaning, but in NSW at least, they have a proven track record being historically unable to work around party hack ministers whose only talent is to have the numbers.  For them, a big win is keeping their ministers off the front page.

If we accept that great, and even merely good politicians and servants of the public are in short supply, can we do anything to fix this situation ?  Some might argue that there is currently no prerequisite for a higher degree or any other professional training in running the nation, or even a small part of it.  Must do a TAFE course to be a plumber, but can run a state if all you have is the numbers.  Would a mandatory course in government do it ?  Apparently not.

Perhaps, as is fashionable now, Australians could take a leaf out of the “Big Book of How to Run a Corporation”.  If it is not working and adding value, just get rid of it.  Perfect solution for state governments.  If Australia did not have state governments, would we have allowed the Murray Darling to go guts up and excuse ourselves by blaming people who live in other states upstream ?

Imagine – no State Departments to amalgamate and re-amalgamate every time there’s a change in government.  No heads of Department to sack and replace with former opposition party hacks.  No ridiculous and endless COAG meetings to squabble over the tax receipt pie.

Imagine if we had a few dozen large regional councils running everything locally and a national government protecting us, negotiating with the rest of the world on our behalf, monitoring, funding and co-ordinating regional councils.  Would that not prove that states (for a population as small as Australia’s) are useless anachronisms ?  And we could get rid of inequitable state “taxes for nothing” like land tax, stamp duties, payroll tax (remember how those were goners when GST came in ?  Yeah, sure).

Instead of having six or seven different administrations for education, environment, transport, policing and health, we could have just one – setting one standard for every regional council to implement.

The Victorian fires have shown that Australians have a great capacity to work closely and care for each other in times of extreme adversity, despite our overly complex administration and governance.  We can, and should carry this through to all the services we need as citizens.  And we should have the courage to make the big changes that eliminating a moribund level of governance will require – and also those that will need to be put in place to make regional councils serve us far better than the many corrupt and incompetent gangs we find in today’s local government.