General resources
Anderson G (2008). Federalism: An Introduction. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.
George Anderson, President and CEO, Forum of Federations, has produced this introduction to federalism written primarily for practitioners of government—politicians, government officials, journalists, members of non-governmental and international organisations and concerned citizens—who have a practical interest in federalism.
Beattie P (2008). A vision beyond the blame game.
Griffith Review, (19) Autumn: 38-42.
Former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie argues that despite calls to abolish the states, any such referendum is unlikely to succeed in the next 50 years:
If the current status of the federation is going to be in place for a majority of this century, then it is time for a National Constitutional Convention to realign the federation to clearly define the roles of both the Commonwealth and the States.
Bennett S, Webb R (2007). Chronology of Australian Federalism.
Parliament of Australia: Parliamentary Library.
Extract:
The Australian federal system, established in 1901, is one of the oldest functioning federal systems in the world. It grew out of a political culture in which separate colonies operated as independent units and was an integral part of the Federation deal between the colonies. However, in recent years the system has come under increasing criticism as being outdated and indeed harmful to Australia's future. This chronology traces the main points in our federal system’s story.
Includes an appendix of Parliamentary Papers on Federalism.
Brown AJ (2007). Federalism in Australia – new life or old tricks?
ABC News Online (9 February). Link to HTML
Extract:
Extract: For the first time in 15 years, the ability to make Australian federalism work better has become a leading political issue, at state and federal level. A variety of initiatives are being taken or proposed, that show our political leaders are responding to public concern about some of our federal system's unnecessary conflicts. But what prospect does this enthusiasm for a reinvigorated, cooperative federalism have for achieving what everybody says they want – a 'lasting solution' to some of the federation's big problems?
Brown AJ, Bellamy J (eds) (2006). Federalism and Regionalism in Australia: New Approaches, New Institutions?
Canberra: ANU E Press. Link to HTML
This volume is based on a Symposium held on 8 May 2006 – coordinated by the Griffith University Federalism Project.
Carling R (2008). Fixing Australian Federalism.
Policy, 24(1): 30-37. Link to PDF (143 KB)
Robert Carling, Centre for Independent Studies, argues that reform ideas in the Australian debate on federalism can be grouped under six broad headings: defining roles and responsibilities; reforming specific purpose payments; Commonwealth-State collaboration in national economic reform; horizontal fiscal equalisation; addressing vertical fiscal imbalance; and reforming state taxation.
Carling R (ed.) (2008). Where to for Australian Federalism?
Papers presented at the ‘Fixing Federalism’ Round-table, Sydney, 5 May 2008. St Leonards, NSW: Centre for Independent Studies.
Fenna A (2007). The malaise of federalism: comparative reflections on Commonwealth-State relations.
Australian Journal of Public Administration, 66 (3): 298-306.
Fleiner T (2008). Dynamics of Federalism: a comparative analyses of recent developments of federations and of the countries in transition to federalism.
Paper presented at The Future of Federalism (International Conference): Brisbane, 10-12 July.
Gallop G (2008). A radical legacy.
Griffith Review (19) Autumn: 55-62. Link to HTML
Govey I, Faulkner J, Murphy J (2008). Co-operative Schemes in the 21st Century.
Paper presented at The Future of Federalism (International Conference): Brisbane, 10-12 July.
Extract:
This paper is concerned with one technical aspect of the constitutional discussion: ‘references’ that may be given by States to the Commonwealth under subsection 51(xxxvii) of the Commonwealth Constitution. It is worth having a close look at State references right now because they involve an existing constitutional mechanism for federal co-operation. It is, moreover, a mechanism which has been used much more creatively in recent times to support very significant co-operative legislative arrangements. Some evaluation of the recent developments in this area is highly desirable as part of the broader analysis of federal reform.
Hollander R, Patapan H (2007). Pragmatic federalism: Australian federalism from Hawke to Howard.
Australian Journal of Public Administration, 66 (3): 280-297.
Inman RP (2008). Federalism's Values and the Value of Federalism.
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 13735. Link to HTML
Abstract:
What is it about federal governance that makes it so attractive to economists, political philosophers, and legal scholars and is there any evidence that would suggest all this attention is warranted? Proponents see federalism as a means to more efficient public and private economies, as the foundation for increased political participation and democratic stability, and as important check on governmental abuses of personal rights and liberties. This study provides a working definition of federal governance and classifies a sample of 73 countries as either a constitutionally-based federal democracy, an administratively-based federal democracy, a unitary democracy, a federal dictatorship, or a unitary dictatorship.
Jones S (2008). Cooperative federalism? The case of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.
Australian Journal of Public Administration, 67 (2): 161-172.
This case study of MCEETYA—from its inception in 1993 to 2006—provides a pertinent example of the difficulties of establishing a national approach when the function is squarely within the power of the states.
Tiernan A (2008). The Council for the Australian Federation: a new structure of Australian federalism.
Australian Journal of Public Administration, 67 (2):122-134.
Griffith University's Anne Tiernan describes the genesis and creation of CAF, a new structural response to ongoing state concerns about the trend to an increasingly centralised pattern of Commonwealth-State relations. Informed by interviews with key players involved with its establishment and documentary sources, this article assesses CAF's performance during its first 18 months of operation.
Twomey A, Withers G (2007). Australia's Federal Future.
A report for the Council for the Australian Federation. Link to PDF (2.6 MB) Link to Word (5.5 MB)
This report was commissioned by CAF to support its role in promoting and harnessing Australia's federal system of government. The authors identify and explore a number of benefits of federalism, including checks on power, voter choice, customisation of policies, competition, creativity and cooperation.
Twomey A (2008). Australia's Commonwealth government ends blame game: window of opportunity opens for co-operative federalism.
Federations, (June/July): 23-25. Link to PDF (2.3 MB)
Anne Twomey is an Australian constitutional lawyer, an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Sydney and was a member of the Governance Group at the 2020 Summit.
Twomey A (2008). Federalism in Australia: Gazing in the crystal ball of constitutional reform.
Paper presented at The Future of Federalism (International Conference): Brisbane, 10-12 July.
Introduction
To predict what types of constitutional reforms might be pursued by the Rudd Government, one must look back to the matters that it flagged in the election campaign and those that emerged from the 2020 Summit as government interests.
These areas of potential reform are:
- electoral reform
- recognition of local government
- recognition of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the Constitution
- human rights
- a republic
- a Commonwealth takeover of hospitals
- the allocation of powers and functions to different levels of government
- cooperative federalism.
All of these areas of possible reform have at least some potential to affect the operation of the federal system and the current balance of powers and functions between the Commonwealth and the States.
University of New South Wales Law Journal
This special issue—Vol 31, No 2, 2008—on Australian Federalism includes articles by Andrew Lynch and George Williams, AJ Brown, Geoff Anderson, Alan Fenna, Neil Warren, Cliff Walsh, Kenneth Wiltshire and Brian Galligan, with a foreword by Cheryl Saunders.
Walker G de Q (2001). Ten advantages of a federal constitution: and how to make the most of them.
Policy, (Summer 2001-2): 35-41. Link to PDF (470 KB)
Wanna J (2007). Improving federalism: drivers of change, repair options and reform scenarios.
Australian Journal of Public Administration, 66 (3): 275-279.
Williams G (2008). Now for the hard bit.
Australian Policy Online, (10 December).
George Williams (Anthony Mason Professor at the University of NSW and visiting fellow at ANU College of Law) argues that COAG has made great progress on reforming federalism, but the next step must be to lock in a new era of federal-state relations.