Is there a model that could be used to guide such a framework? Yes, there is. For example, the New Zealand Resource Management Act 1991 potentially provides a good model for the national coordination of coastal policy and planning with broader resource management and land use decisions at national, regional and local levels. However, the New Zealand system of government is not bedeviled by the same tripartite arrangement that we have here in Australia, with Commonwealth, state and local spheres of government.
In addition, research is showing that up to three-quarters of people surveyed in Queensland and New South Wales are not happy with the current three-tier system of government, and want the system changed (see Gray and Brown this volume). These surveys also suggest that the most popular option is to abolish state governments and create a two-tier structure of government. As Dr Brown has commented, such a system would see the Federal Government take over stronger policy responsibilities for key services, like health, with delivery of services at a community level necessarily occurring on a more local and regional basis. For many this resonates with suggestions made more than 30 years ago by the Whitlam government, which proposed growth in the federal government and started investing directly in regional bodies between the scale of the current state and local government tiers.
The States and Territories, however, would find some kind of federal/regional/local system difficult, because they would cease to exist. So, probably, would local governments, because they too would need fundamental and far-reaching reform. While there is growing support for this sort of framework, the pathway to adoption and the details are wide open. A few principles that could be signed off on, are:
the federal/state/local government tripartite system is wasteful, ineffective and divisive;
we are one country, so we need national policy on key issues – education, health, environment, infrastructure etc.;
regardless of issue or sector, service and policy delivery has always ended up being regional in nature, but based on different boundaries and different institutional arrangements for different issues;
there is a need for reform in practical ‘bite size chunks’, which allow for regional variation (one size never fits all), and which empowers and engages local communities; and
finally, we need to move from representational to participatory democracy at the regional level.
Applying these principles, we might begin to see a proposed framework for addressing the dysfunctional state of regional governance in coastal Australia. Its first element would be that the Australian Government should raise the necessary taxes and set the necessary policies for managing this population growth, at a national level. Secondly, however, the regions should engage the community in the process of tailoring the national programs to suit local needs, feeding policy advice back up to the Australian Government, and delivering the actual programs and services.
The third element of this framework would see state and territory government phased out of any direct responsibility for regional coastal governance, and possibly phased out altogether. The fourth element, however, is that the framework of regional and local government would need to be redesigned to foster more effective participatory democracy – that is, styles of governance which better empower people to have some influence over their lives and their own areas, within the national framework.
This broad framework immediately requires a huge amount of research, options and discussion. The details to be worked out include the broad national policies; the distribution of tax income to regions; clarity about roles and responsibilities; how to engage regional communities and foster this participatory democracy; whether to rely on slow evolution or sudden change; and how to align the existing regional boundaries – in health, education, environment, transport and so on.
How to get there? This is the real question. We live with the reality of a federal system in which the Constitution continues to be built on and to protect the position of state governments, to at least some extent. Removing them is difficult. For these reasons, we need to think creatively, and acknowledge that even when we see our problems as lying in part with our current constitutional structure, at least some of the answers may well lie within it. For example, the Australian Constitution allows for a lot more states to be created, with less constitutional barriers. So the path to an effective federal/ regional/ local framework may be to go from our present eight states and territories, to 50 or 60 states and territories, and call these ‘regions’. When it comes to more effective regional governance for coastal Australia, the ideology and terminology we use to describe the result matters far less than the practical workability of the outcome.