Federalism and Regionalism in Australia
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Federalism and Regionalism in Australia New Approaches, New Institutions? Federalism and Regionalism in Australia New Approaches, New Institutions? Edited by A.J. Brown and J.A. Bellamy Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/fra_citation.html National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Federalism & Regionalism in Australia (2006 : Sydney, N.S.W.). Federalism and regionalism in Australia : new approaches, new institutions? Bibliography. ISBN 9781921313417 (pbk.) ISBN 9781921313424 (online) 1. Central-local government relations - Australia. 2. Regionalism - Australia. 3. Federal government - Australia. 4. Australia - Politics and government. I. Brown, A. J. (Alexander Jonathan). II. Bellamy, J. A. (Series : ANZSOG series). 320.994 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design by John Butcher, based on the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia, Version 5.1., Commonwealth Department of Environment & Heritage (2000). Printed by University Printing Services, ANU Funding for this monograph series has been provided by the Australia and New Zealand School of Government Research Program. This edition © 2007 ANU E Press John Wanna, Series Editor Professor John Wanna is the Sir John Bunting Chair of Public Administration at the Research School of Social Sciences at The Australian National University. He is the director of research for the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). He is also a joint appointment with the Department of Politics and Public Policy at Griffith University and a principal researcher with two research centres: the Governance and Public Policy Research Centre and the nationally- funded Key Centre in Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University. Professor Wanna has produced around 17 books including two national text books on policy and public management. He has produced a number of research-based studies on budgeting and financial management including: Budgetary Management and Control (1990); Managing Public Expenditure (2000), From Accounting to Accountability (2001) and, most recently, Controlling Public Expenditure (2003). He has just completed a study of state level leadership covering all the state and territory leaders — entitled Yes Premier: Labor leadership in Australia’s states and territories — and has edited a book on Westminster Legacies in Asia and the Pacific —Westminster Legacies: Democracy and responsible government in Asia and the Pacific. He was a chief investigator in a major Australian Research Council funded study of the Future of Governance in Australia (1999-2001) involving Griffith and the ANU. His research interests include Australian and comparative politics, public expenditure and budgeting, and government-business relations. He also writes on Australian politics in newspapers such as The Australian, Courier-Mail and The Canberra Times and has been a regular state political commentator on ABC radio and TV. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ix Contributors xi Part 1. Setting the Scene: Old Questions or New? Chapter 1. Introduction 3 A. J. Brown and Jennifer Bellamy Chapter 2. Federalism, Regionalism and the Reshaping of Australian Governance 11 A. J. Brown Chapter 3. The Political Viability of Federal Reform: Interpreting Public Attitudes 33 Ian Gray and A. J. Brown Part 2. Drivers for Change: New Approaches to Federalism and Regionalism Chapter 4. Towards a Wider Debate on Federal and Regional Governance: The Rural Dimension 57 Mal Peters Chapter 5. Rescuing Urban Regions: The Federal Agenda 71 Brendan Gleeson Chapter 6. The Challenge of Coastal Governance 83 Mike Berwick Chapter 7. Adaptive Governance: The Challenge for Regional Natural Resource Management 95 Jennifer Bellamy Chapter 8. Regionalism and Economic Development: Achieving an Efficient Framework 119 Andrew Beer Chapter 9. Reconceiving Federal-State-Regional Arrangements in Health 135 Andrew Podger Part 3. New Institutions? Approaching the Challenge of Reform Chapter 10. Taking Subsidiarity Seriously: What Role for the States? 155 Brian Head vii Federalism and Regionalism in Australia Chapter 11. How Local Government Can Save Australia's Federal System 171 Paul Bell Chapter 12. Reforming Australian Governance: Old States, No States or New States? 185 Kenneth Wiltshire Chapter 13. Quantifying the Costs and Benefits of Change: Towards A Methodology 201 Christine Smith Chapter 14. Where To From Here? Principles for a New Debate 225 A. J. Brown and Jennifer Bellamy Appendix Reform of Australia's Federal System: Identifying the Benefits 231 viii Acknowledgements The Symposium on which this volume is based, held on 8 May 2006, was supported by Griffith University, the NSW Farmers' Association, and CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems as part of three research initiatives coordinated by the Griffith University Federalism Project ± see www.griffith.edu.au/federalism. Particular thanks go to the NSW Farmers' Association, including Mal Peters, Shaugn Morgan, Anand Sugrim and Margaret McCullough, for their ongoing support for research to quantify the economic and financial benefits of regional devolution within Australia's federal system, and for development of an overall framework for evaluating new spatial approaches to governance, to help contextualise and guide this research. The Symposium marked the release of this framework in the form of the Appendix to this volume: the NSW Farmers' Association discussion paper `Reform of Australia's Federal System ± Identifying the Benefits', launched by Professor Kenneth Wiltshire AO at the end of proceedings. This paper provides a roadmap to the objectives of new spatial approaches to governance in Australia, and identifies evaluation methods that can establish whether their intended benefits are being achieved or alternatively, which alternative approaches might better deliver on outcomes. Special thanks also to CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, particularly Associate Professor Tim Smith (now with University of the Sunshine Coast), for chairing and other support through the joint Regional Governance Futures project between Griffith University and CSIRO; to Professor Frank Stilwell, University of Sydney, for chairing and ongoing support and involvement; and to the Institute of Public Administration Australia, NSW Division (especially Liz Thomas) for symposium organisation. The symposium was also an important contribution to the Australian Research Council-funded Discovery Project, Towards Sustainable Regional Institutions (DP0666833). Final acknowledgements to Professor John Wanna and John Butcher, Australia and New Zealand School of Government, for respectively chairing the final session, including these proceedings in the ANZSOG publication series, and associated editorial support. ix Contributors Professor Andrew Beer researches and teaches in the School of Geography, Population and Environmental Management at Flinders University, South Australia. He is an expert in regional and local economic development, regional policy and institutional regulation theory, urban geography and public policy, and Australian Housing. He is Director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute's Southern Research Centre, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. He has edited the national journal Sustaining Regions, and his recent books with colleagues include Developing Australia's Regions: Theory and Practice (University of NSW Press, 2003), and Developing Locally: Lessons in Economic Development from Four Nations (Policy Press, Bristol, 2003). Cr Paul Bell AM is President of the Australian Local Government Association and of the Local Government Association of Queensland. He has been a councillor of Emerald Shire Council, Queensland, since 1985, where he was mayor from 1991-2000. He chairs Australian Local Government Training Limited, a national industry training advisory board, and is Deputy Chair of Queensland Rail and a Director of the Ergon Energy Corporation of Queensland. Cr Bell was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in January 2005 for service to local government, regional development and tourism, vocational education and training, and the community. In February 2005 he was awarded an Honorary Bachelor of Business Administration degree by the University of Central Queensland. Jennifer Bellamy is a Principal Research Fellow in the School of Natural and Rural Systems Management, University of Queensland, St. Lucia. Formerly a Principal Research Scientist (Resource Governance) CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, she has over 30 years experience in research on regional resource use management and planning, both in Australia and overseas. In particular, she has lead a number of major interdisciplinary research projects on the social and institutional aspects of regional natural resource management and planning including the evaluation of natural resource management governance within the framework of regional sustainable development. Cr Mike Berwick has been Mayor of Douglas Shire Council, Far North Queensland since 1991, and is a current member of the National Sea Change Task Force. He has wide ranging experience in local and regional governance and is also