It is becoming a habit for the current Federal Government to try to gain public support by announcing projects which may eventuate in many years to come and without any definite provision for funding. It also appears that the Federal Government is making these announcements first and then telling the States that they have to participate in their funding even though they may not have been consulted prior to the announcement.
This is not how a federation is supposed to function. What we are seeing is a centralist government using its fiscal authority and political dominance to dictate to the States. Most people today forget that the Commonwealth originally had no taxing powers. That prerogative belonged to the States but was temporarily ‘borrowed’ by the Commonwealth in 1942 supposedly for the duration of the Second World War but was never handed back!
These actions do not appear to contravene the Constitution, but they are essentially against the tenet of our federal system.
What many people do not seem to be aware of is that we are seeing the closing down of current funding commitments to be replaced by promises of greater things in years to come. The problem in this is that it is convention that no one government can bind another and therefore any commitment to take place on a date following the expiry of the term of the current parliament has no validity.
Philip Benwell
National Chair
Australian Monarchist League
