Lior
Herbert Moran (7)
I hesitate to engage a medico when discussing the politics of health management in Australia but it brings up a pet subject of mine: Commonwealth/State relationships. Hospitals are "paid for" by the states (albeit with a hefty Commonwealth contribution) while health is paid for by the Commonwealth. At every turn in the public hospital systems the states have a vested interest in billing the Commonwealth for anything they can, that's why you're pulling your Medicare card out for any MEDICAL service your local hospital delivers. Personally, I'm not in favour of the Commonwealth taking over the various hospital systems as I philosophically don't think the Commonwealth's role is to deliver basic services. On this issue I'm at complete odds with the Labor Party.
Taking this point further, what on earth is the Commonwealth doing interfering in school education? School education is/should wholly be the bailiwick of the states and I honestly can't see ANY role for the Commonwealth here. The former journo and eminence grise Max Walsh reckoned Australian governments wasted about $5bn a year on duplicated services, and that was 10 years ago! If anything it's become worse in the intervening period with do-gooders like KRudd dispensing laptops to 15 year old school students on top of the poorly-thought out BER policy. Gillard proposes the Commonwealth intervene to grade teachers and "reward" those who shine on their imaginery scale. Is the Commonwealth going to improve garbage collection next?
On another note I'm married to a hospital health admin wallah. The money wasted in her (small) department would drive a sane man to tears.
I don't agree with State Governments however I will acknowledge that they are here and here to stay. So I would agree with you Lindommer, getting rid of federal funding for states for Education (at a school level, not a University level). Also this goes with what I had earlier to say, I think increasing the GST to 12.5-15% I think would allow for extra funding to be allowed, and for Federal Governments to perform Federal issues and State Governments to perform State issues.