Allan Patience presents ‘To be or not to be a state? The decline of Australian federalism in the context of the Howard Government's ‘radical centralism’’, on Wednesday 6 September from 12.30pm to 1.30pm.
Australia's federal arrangements have been fading almost from their inception in 1901. States' rights have been dissolving as Canberra—for good and bad reasons—has usurped states' powers, turning the intentions of the founders of federation on their head.
There is a growing body of opinion that federalism has effectively come to an end in Australia; that COAG meetings have become absurd exercises in populist grandstanding by increasingly impotent premiers; that the time has come to comprehensively rethink our political system. These views appear to be given weight by the Howard Government's ‘radical centralism’.
Where does all this leave the Northern Territory's expectations for full statehood in the Australian federation?
Allan Patience is professor of political science in the School of Creative Arts and Humanities at Charles Darwin University.
This presentation takes place in the SAIKS seminar room, Building 30, Casuarina Campus, Charles Darwin University.
Visit the School of Australian Indigenous Knowledge Systems website.