Begin debate on governance change
None of our political parties are serious about governance change.
Even the republic has been placed on the backburner in spite of obvious support for a republic with a popularly elected president, as high as 81 per cent, demonstrated in three different opinion polls.
The need for a governance reform party is very obvious.
Australia's federal system is dysfunctional.
The state governments are superfluous.
The fiscal imbalance between federal and state governments is staggering already and growing.
Local government everywhere is suffering as the most grossly underfunded level.
The archaic inflexible constitution needs to be entirely rewritten. This is not something that can be done overnight of course.
A strategic plan is required that should be introduced with extensive involvement by the public so that, at the end of the process, the Australian public owns the new republican constitution and knows it as well.
Can such a major change be expected from either of the major parties?
There is no sign of that whatever.
Some may point to the current preoccupation with the global financial crisis as a reason for that but this is not credible.
The political will is absent.
A new political party needs to be formed which exclusively tackles governance reform in a very defined way, with specific proposals for change.
The successful candidates for such a party would be bound by that limited platform. However, on other public policy matters, they should be entirely free to vote in the parliament as they wished.
In election campaigns, they could therefore develop their own platform in that respect but would operate under the banner of the governance reform party.
Australia should move forward now to a republic.
There is no reason at all why the sovereign Australian people should wait for the abdication or death of the Queen.
The road towards a republic, which can be straightforward and fast, should start with a three-question plebiscite (non-binding) at the time of the next election.
That should be followed by a referendum three months later based on the outcome of the plebiscite.
The importance of and need for governance reform is already obvious to many Australians but to get this going is quite a different matter.
In terms of governance the major parties are solidly stuck to the status quo.
Neither of them are reformist in nature.
Not only do they cling to the federal system, they also are opposed to an electoral system that would provide diversity in parliament.
We have several Ministers, federal and state, who are functional amateurs in their portfolio. The career politicians of the current system often have little other prior experience than being staffers to these amateurs.
Overall, we have far too many politicians for such a small population.
The Central Coast would be an ideal region to start a movement for governance change, as it is a region that is increasingly a victim of a dysfunctional federal system.
It has become a kind of spillway for excess population in Sydney.
Effective decentralisation policies have been non-existent for a very long time in NSW and in Australia generally.
Governance change should aim at decentralising Australia.
The debates in the NSW Parliament concentrate continually on how more people can be squeezed in the metropolitan area and its spillway regions.
The question: What kind of Republic? has been steadfastly ignored.
But that is the very issue, which is ignored by the major parties - and the media.
That's why they are now referred to as "the old parties".
But, apart from the Greens, where are the new parties?
The system has squeezed those out that got up, the one after the other.
This has nothing to do with democracy.
That is why we need the change the system of governance.
Let the debate begin.
Klaas Woldring,
Pearl Beach