Federalism or centralism?

Abstract

The maintenance of federalism is both a purpose of the Australian Constitution and supposedly a fundamental policy objective of the Nationals. The aim of this article is to bell the centralism cat so as to warn of the risks which unchallenged centralism brings to the relevance of the Nationals whose parliamentary representation has beenslashed by 40 per cent in the last twenty years. Centralism is founded on the heresy that the Federal Parliament has a general power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Australia. Its powers are limited. The advancement of centralism has been to the detriment of the Nationals. It is contended that this ill can be cured by using the provisions of Chapter VI of the Constitution to establish New States. The aim being to devolve power at regional levels so as to push decision making down to the most local level possible. Mention will also be made of the experience of the UnitedKingdom Parliament in creating and devolving power to the Scottish Parliament under the Scotland Act 1998, c. 46.