ONE hundred and twenty-five-years since Sir Henry Parkes delivered the Tenterfield Oration - Prime Minister Tony Abbott has decreed his own vision for federation.
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Mr Abbott was in Tenterfield on Saturday evening to kick off a debate on the future functioning of the federation.
In a rousing speech that will spark discussion about how Australia's systems of government work with each other, Mr Abbott’s speech foreshadows the breadth and scope of the coming federation white paper.
“Most contention – at least in countries like ours – is not between good and evil but between decent people arguing over the best way to achieve a better outcome.
“Any debate over the future of our federation needs the same give and take if it is to produce significant change.
“Reforming the federation does matter, it is worth trying to achieve and the government is determined to make a case for change,” Mr Abbott said.
The Prime Minister, dwarfed by images of Parkes over either shoulder, said the current political landscape was an “unsatisfactory system of governance”.
“We would be failing in our duty not to consider better management of the “dog’s breakfast of divided responsibilities” – as I have previously called it – that characterises the Australian federation today.
“Our federation, I stress, is not entirely or even substantially dysfunctional – our country couldn’t succeed if it was – but it’s plainly not optimal either which is why reform is worth striving for,” he said.
A self-described “pragmatic nationalist”, Mr Abbott said the country was in dire need of a more rational system of government with less duplication, overlap and waste.
“That’s what my colleagues and I meant when we said repeatedly, before the last election, that our federation reform white paper was meant to make each level of government more sovereign in its own sphere.”
He spoke of "horizontal fiscal equalisation", theoretically giving each state and territory a similar capacity to provide public goods and services.
Health and education were highlighted as some of the areas that will be targeted in the shake-up.
Mr Abbott said his government will consider tax and funding changes to get states involved.
“It’s basically about giving everyone ‘a fair go’ – but it has to be fair to the states making the financial contributions as well as to those receiving them, to those who give as well as those who receive.
“The federation white paper is proceeding in parallel with the tax white paper making this a once-in-a-generation opportunity for all first ministers to address the issues bedevilling our federation.”
The PM announced a bipartisan group of advisers to help identify reform options.
Mr Abbott rounded out his 10 minute address by saying the white paper process would test the willingness and mettle of political compromise.
Member for New England and Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce flanked the PM during his time in Tenterfield and said the speech set the tone for future change.
“Tomorrow people will be going through the speech phrase by phrase, word by word, apostrophe by apostrophe – it was seminal to further the direction to refining federation.
“It is yet another adornment for Tenterfield,” Mr Joyce said.
