An Examination of the Usefulness of Federalism in Australia

This essay provides a detailed examination of federalism in Australia, exploring its structure, historical context, and contemporary relevance. It begins by defining federalism as a governmental system combining state and central governments, and then delves into the specific characteristics of the Australian model. The essay highlights the advantages of federalism, such as the integration of diverse communities and democratic benefits, while also acknowledging its challenges, including policy conflicts and potential inefficiencies. The analysis considers the evolution of federalism in Australia, influenced by the US model, and discusses its features within the Australian constitution, including bicameralism and the legal system. Furthermore, the essay presents arguments regarding the decreasing usefulness of federalism in Australia, citing concerns about cost, inefficiency, and lack of competitiveness in the globalized world. It also explores potential reforms and opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of federalism through cooperation, decentralization, and a collaborative approach. The conclusion emphasizes the need to properly operate and implement federalism to retain its usefulness for Australia's future.

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USEFULNESS OF FEDERALISM IN AUSTRALIA

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Federalism refers to a kind of governmental system that is being run through a combined
governmental mode including a state and a central government. This kind of governmental
system has been adopted by Australia and has been being practiced on both regional and central
level from the date of their commencement of constitution. However, the relevance of federalism
in Australia has been under doubt since quite a long time because of its decreasing positive
impact in Australia. Thus, this study has focused on all the aspects of federalism in Australia in
order to present its advantages and disadvantages at this present era. For this reason, the
phenomenon of federalism has been discussed first. Furthermore, characteristics of federalism in
Australian constitution and governmental system have been illuminated. Finally, some evidences
have been provided that shows the fact that the relevance of this governmental structure has lost
its previous usefulness in this age and how.
Federalism can be called a governmental mode that is a combination of one or regional
governmental bodies and a central or general governmental body. In that case, the central
government is called the federal government. The powers are divided between these two
governments while the country runs according to the decisions made by both of the governments.
The difference between other governmental modes like Devolution and federal government is
that here powers are shared equally by both levels of governments.1 One of the advantages of
having this mode of government is that this mode allows an integration of different communities.
Ethnic groups and more and gives democratic benefits to all of them. However, this mode of
1 Cheryl, Saunders, ‘Federalism is a natural fit for Australia’ <https://theconversation.com/federalism-is-a-natural-
fit-for-australia-but-we-need-to-make-it-work-31846>

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government also bears some challenges such as overpowering the general government by
regional governments and so on.
Australia is one of the examples of practicing a federal government since 1901 when
Australian commonwealth was set up officially. This can be said that Australian federation has
been inspired by the US model of federal government. However, Australian government follows
a Westminster parliamentary system. Australian constitution has several features of federalism.
For example, according to Australian constitution, Australian government supports a strong
bicameralism where all the states have been represented equally through the senate without
allowing any kind of disparity in between them.2 On the other hand, the legal system of Australia
has also been bestowed on a state and a central level including High Court, Supreme Court and a
two-levelled amending system.3
The federal mode of Australian government was made official by the Commonwealth of
Australian Constitution Act 1900. The original federation of Australia has been criticized by
many because of the policy conflicts and rising chaos between the two levels of government. For
that reason, many concerned communities such as Abbott Liberal National Party Coalition
Government have issued their suggestions on reforming Australian federation in order to reduce
the issues generated by the commencement of it.
Federalism has been known to be one of most successful modes of government in the
whole world. However, the situation is quite different in Australia. Recently, federalism has been
2 Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (s 7)
3 Commonwealth Of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (s 128)

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criticized for being a costly governmental system that can only produce duplication and nothing
else. People also remarked that a large amount of money could have been saved if Australia did
not have implemented a federal government in the first place. On the other hand, many
Australians perceive federalism as being inefficient to develop a country both socially and
economically.
The reason behind this lies in the fact that the two levelled government makes it an
uncompetitive and archaic governmental system that lacks the motivation of becoming a
developed state. This is interesting because federalism is considered to be one of the most
flexible governmental systems worldwide that distributes power equally to multiple
governments. In addition, federalism is seen as the perfect mode of government that is suited in
the age of globalization because of its opportunities in international negotiations.4 So, when we
talk about the decreasing usefulness of federalism in Australia, we need to rethink about the
application of the ideology of federalism in Australia. This implies that there is a serious
challenge that Australia faces regarding the operation of a federal government.
One of the main issues of federalism in Australia is that it has not been properly
implemented in this country. For this reason, sometimes local governmental bodies seem to
control the decisions of the general government that creates a kind of devolution in the whole
system. On the other hand, federalism is considered to be useless in twenty first century in
Australia because it has lost its original idea of collaborative government. The dream of
federalism reform has also faced with many challenges. For example, the reformed federalism
may face the risk of fiscal imbalance. This is because of the imbalanced power distribution
regarding fiscal issues between the regional and the general government.
4 Louise, Chappell, and Jennifer Curtin. ‘Does federalism matter?’ (2013) 41.

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On the other hand, federalism in Australia has been suffering from a risk of coming up
with a damaged uniformity. The reason behind this scenario is that there is an ongoing lack of
understanding among the regional and the central government regarding the distribution of
responsibilities. This implies that Australian federal government lacks the ability to believe that
not every decision needs uniformity and that both the governmental bodies need to show
innovation and individual responsibilities. Lack of design is one of the causes behind the
decreasing usefulness of federalism in Australia. In order to elaborate, there are many drawbacks
regarding economic efficiency, economic planning and public policies. On the other hand,
Australia is a country that has diverse range of communities. Thus, various types of
marginalization occur in this country that can only be dealt with if the list of responsibilities for
the state level governments can be increased.
As mentioned earlier, the original federal principles have been modified over the ages
and that is the reason behind its recent issues in Australia. High court has misinterpreted the roles
and responsibilities of the state governments. For that reason, all the listed roles and
responsibilities, in the Australian constitution, have not been practiced. So, it can be said that the
Council of Australian Governments or COAG has not been doing a good job at looking at the
matters of how both the governmental bodies are doing their respective responsibilities. Apart
from that, federal system has been misinterpreted by the senate and the also by the states. As a
result, issues of revenue and expenditure have been increasing day by day. So, it can be assumed
that the existence of federalism in this country has lost its usefulness.
However, there are many opportunities of federalism that can be explored in order to
establish the fact that the implementation of federalism has become faulty and not the ideology
itself. The first thing that needs to be understood is that federal system is not originally an

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uncompetitive form of government. In fact, there are many countries like India have been
utilizing this mode of government in order to sustain their economic growth in the era of
globalization. On the other hand, there is an opportunity of having internal competition in a
federal government rather than a uniformed government because of multiple authorial heads.5
Decentralization of central government is one of the primal goals of many countries today
because of its benefits regarding economic growth. This shows that the performance of
Australian federation lacks force and for that reason it has not been showing the benefits that it
should have. Cooperation is one of the most reliable solutions to the issues generated by the
federal government in Australia. This implies that Australian federation needs to give heed to a
collaborative approach where all the governmental bodies will be able to give their opinions on
any new policy or change.
For example, if a policy is being issued then it should be made open in the public field so
that the policy making becomes more moderate and flexible at the same time. In this regard, one
thing has to be realized that controversy is one of the most common consequences in a federal
system. However, the controversies can be turned into healthy competition that can ultimately
benefit the whole country. Australian federation has turned into an unhealthy battle between the
general and the state level governments because they have not understood their respective
responsibilities yet or forgot them over the periods of time. Moreover, it can be said that
federalism is still useful in the context of Australia if it can be properly operated and
implemented in Australian federation as soon as possible.
This study has revolved around the dilemma of whether federalism loses its usefulness in
Australia or not. For that reason, federalism has been defined and explained along with a
5 Jacqueline, Williams. ‘Soils Governance in Australia’ (2015) 5.

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discussion on its advantages and disadvantages in general. Furthermore, Australian federal
governmental structure has been explained in this study. Moreover, it has been found that
Australia needs to work on the operation of its federal mode of government in order to retain its
usefulness in the future.

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Bibliography
A Articles/Books/reports
Chappell, Louise, and Jennifer Curtin. ‘Does federalism matter? Evaluating state architecture and
family and domestic violence policy in Australia and New Zealand’ (2013) 43.1 Publius: The
Journal of Federalism 24-43.
Saunders, Cheryl, ‘Federalism is a natural fit for Australia, but we need to make it work’ (2014)
The Conversation <https://theconversation.com/federalism-is-a-natural-fit-for-australia-but-we-
need-to-make-it-work-31846>
Williams, Jacqueline. ‘Soils Governance in Australia: challenges of cooperative federalism’
(2015) 1 International Journal of Rural Law and Policy 1-12.
B Legislations
Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900
Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900