Analysis of Federalism and Globalisation in Australia

This report delves into the intricacies of federalism and globalisation within the Australian context. It begins by defining federalism and its implications for the division of political power between federal and state governments. The main body of the report presents arguments for and against the statement "Australia would be better governed if it were not a federation," exploring the historical context, advantages like checks on power, diversity, and cooperation, and disadvantages such as duplication and contradictory policies. The report examines key facts about Australian federalism, changes over time, challenges posed by globalisation, and the impact of federation on various policy areas, including immigration and public services. It also references various theories and viewpoints from different scholars. The report concludes by assessing the overall impact of federalism on Australia, highlighting the need for a unified government and the challenges faced in delivering services to all Australians.

Federalism
And
Globalisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
There are two statements for debate one is “Australia country would be better governed if it
were not federation” and second one is “The government of Australia no longer has control of
policy in Australia it is driven by global forces.....................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Federalism is divides in political power between different parts of federation. In Australia,
they have Federal and commonwealth governments or the Country’s government. Federalism is
all about sharing the power between various entities which are limits their power (Fenna,
Phillimore and Ramamurthy, 2021). It is defined as a mixed ode of government which gathers a
general government with regional governments in the phase of single political system. It is one
of the most crucial aspect of a constitution as both national and state governments share their
respective powers with each other. The below report involves an argument on Australian
federalism, advantages, disadvantages, facts, changes, challenges, certain reasons followed by
conclusion.
MAIN BODY
There is a statement for which debate is been done and it is “Australia country would be better
governed if it were not federation”
For first statement, it is totally against debate because Federation was a extraordinary
political achievement. Colonies and areas had jostled to defend their interests. New South Wales
had competed with the Victoria for influence, or the smaller areas or colonies had feared their
interest would be mistreated by the larger colonies. Federation achieved an independence of
sorts for country of Australia. In this country by focusing so much issues in the operations of
federal system people forgot about the advantages of federalism which are includes various
factors such as; it assists in check on power, in this federalism divide or limits power as well as
protecting individual from s powerful government (Huh and Park, 2021). It assures that there is a
best scrutiny of country’s government actions, through this government can reduce incidence of
the corruptions. It support choices and diversity, in this federalism provide citizen a best range
of choices, people can vote for one party at national level or other state level. Federalism have
huge role in Cooperation, creativity, competition and policies customization. If government were
not federation then there are various kind of issues which may faced by people. Such as
community cannot vote in accurate manner. Corruption will increase and there barriers may arise
in development of entire country or some specific areas of Australia.
Pros and Cons:-
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It was been analysed that the concept of Federalism was never considered positive in Australia
and was a very costly system for government and leads to duplication. It is also an inefficient
concept in context with both economic and social. Though it was wasteful for government but at
the same point of time it was highly competitive and to deal with certainties of globalisation it is
a good method. The advantages and disadvantages in relation with this is further been explained
as below:-
Pros:-
 Federation is a very flexible way as it allows all local needs to build up their satisfaction
level which directly helps them in dealing with huge pressure that gets arise from
globalization. It is also chosen by government as in comparison with other concepts
audiences needs are not been satisfied whether in terms of resources, culture geography
and many more.
 The concept of federation is also effective as without thinking about the perception of
some individuals the federal systems are not uncompetitive and inefficient(Doellgast and
et.al, 2021). In comparison with other unitary systems federations are less expensive
public sectors because of the competition within all the federal systems do not enhance to
the same extent in relation with other unitary states.
 Federalism in Australia also leads to better competition as well as collaboration which is
very beneficial to their country. Due to high level of competition better efficiency gets
developed and government is able to do more innovation. Federation also assures greater
level of legitimacy by gathering their entire nation together and improves the level of
accountability. In relation to the concept of federation, the new law got developed which
was anti-terrorism. With respect to this law the parliament of commonwealth explained
their all kind of adjustments which leads to better safeguards.
 In accordance with social aspect there were many other benefits also like it offered all the
people a voters choice through which it was given an opportunity to vote for various
other parties at both state and national level. It also led to better way of meeting needs of
customers as all policies and services were been effectively managed. The concept of
federalism was also considered as a check on power which that there is high level of
scrutiny.
Cons:-
 Though government in Australia had many benefits because of federalism but at the same
point of time it also leads to duplication and contradictory policies( Wilmers and
Ylimaki, 2021). It was analyzed that due to federalism there was an issue which got arise
in relation with different federation debates as all states had their own specific education
system and followed their own assessment methods.
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 It also led to inequality within all states due to which unhealthy and unproductive
competition got arise. As it was been analyzed that all states were stealing the
sporting events from each other and also there was differences in relation to cost of
electricity within states.
 Federation in Australia created negative impact on crucial areas of public policy due
to which the major problem got arise in terms of salinity.
In Australia there were many other issues also which got arise like hospital takeovers,
national gun laws, school curriculum, water policy and so on.
Facts about Federalism in Australia:-
In context with common wealth of Australia it was the period when the constitution of country
was into force. When federation got applied it achieved a very little support as there were many
conventions which created a constitution of common wealth and the most crucial part was been
played by the premier of New South Wales( Mach and et.al, 2021). As per the procedure of
making commonwealth it also included New Zealand and Fiji but they both have no kind of
interest to join the specific federation. There were many other issues also which got arise like in
relation with communication, Chinese immigration and uniform traffic rates.
Federalism in a changing Australia:-
As per the view point of Stephan Sherlock, 2016, federalism was a concept that affected each
individual in Australia. They faced many challenges in context with all the services and projects
that Government need to provide or they must provide. As per the section 96, which states the
financial assistance allows federal government to provide certain grants to all states in context
with what was imposed by parliament. In the year 2013, the government announced that the will
be introducing a reform of federation white paper process. It involves the term GST which gives
a share of income tax revenue. In relation to the federal government they imposed many
questions as whether there should be a floor to reduce the lowest possible amount of GST.
Various concepts, theories and tools:-
 As per the view point of Tim dick, 2015, Australia always needs a unified government
rather than a federation. It is always useful for states which has diverse population and
have internal historic divisions. It was been build up by meaningless lines on map that
discovers a certain point when life was limited by shipping time between all capitals.
Though the population is very vast but it doesn’t need any kind of federalism but just one
efficient one that can deliver local services. The constitution which involved certain
fundamental liberties in a bill of all rights allows all people to challenge the phase of
power that each aspect of democracy needs. So, it was determined that Australia should
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have the constitution that allows self-determination and also develop racial discrimination
law.
 As per the view point of James Ross, 2020, the current situation which is happening
because of lockdown it has been really hard for Australia as various restrictions got
imposed and if there was not federation it would not happen. There has been high phase
of social media traffic which enables all lockdown measures and in context with own
legal institution it has been unlawful and unconstitutional. It gives federal parliament a
specific power on certain matters like immigration, defense and so on. Due to federation,
many arguments got arise that ultimately led the state in major crisis. For example, the
crisis got arise when it was analyzed that the Victorian constitution is not valid because
the queen did not sign the bill that was initiated and in accordance with this theory it was
stated that queen also need to sign on it. Due to these certain arguments there was
constitutional crisis that enables shortcomings of civics education in Australia so that all
government structures and legal principles can be explained properly.
 As per the view point of Klaas Woldrin, 2015, it was determined that the concept of
federalism should be abandoned and replaced as it was been managed to streamline all
duplications of recent situations in terms of replacing federation and will actually lead to
become strong. Federation has not assisted the phase of decentralization which led to
become a major problem. Due to the problems arise by federation the situations were
getting worse. So, it was evaluated that the concept of federalism should be replaced as it
is not been required for the development of overall nation and also analyzed that
Australians now no longer support the phase of federation. So, it was needed that
government needs a different structure and certain changes should get implemented. Due
to federalism all electoral systems became more serious and almost each individual failed
to sell all kind of changes.
Challenges facing Australia due to federation:-
 The concept of federation was been considered as both positive and negative. In
relation to the positive phase when more than one government been involved it
provided checks on the power on one level of government while in terms of negative
aspect it was causing inefficiency due to conflicting policies which is really hard for
all end users to navigate all their way throughout their multiple policies as well as
public programs.
 Due to federation there was major duplication which was leading to wasteful
expenditure and was considered as a blame game between both governments who are
dealing up with cost of public services and within those people who don’t have much
knowledge about which level of government has what kind of responsibility ( Daly and
Chuenpagdee, 2021. The main problem was in relation with minds of people. As it
created confusion that whether the problem is with the concept of federalism or it is
just an assumption which has been made that it is over governed and is more
concrete.
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 The main problem was in context with delivery of better services to all Australians as
how the arrangements within federation are properly structured and it creates an
impact on all incentives within each phase. So, as per this perspective it required a
careful assessment in relation with who are responsible for what, how roles are been
followed and how it affects behaviors of other individuals.
 Another disadvantage in relation with federalism in Australia was that it got arise on
the basis of government separate desires in order to accept a specific role and initiate
a particular policy instead of being a consequence of collaboration within both
government and co-design reforms. Due to this aspect, all roles and responsibilities
faced high level of blurring and also overlapping functions.
Policies:-
 There were many debates that got initiated with respect to immigration policy and led to
a major political debate. Over the period of federation the debates over immigration
policy determined that how federal parliamentarians managed the complex task based on
racial exclusivity. In context with Immigration restriction act, 1901, it was implemented
by Australian government to deal with immigration. Due to federation, many issues got
arise which made all situations very complicated with respect to foreign relations of the
Empire( Datta and Sodhi, 2021.
 In context with Pacific island laborers act, 1901, was one of the founding laws in relation
with white Australia policy. Through the concept of federalism, it was analyzed that the
policy of immigration was prohibiting certain migrants on the basis of their race and the
traffic over the pacific islanders was considered as the cruel practice.
Reason behind federation in Australia:-
The concept of federalism got established in year 1901 in Australia. It was implemented
in the period when six separate Australian colonies gathered together to form a commonwealth
of Australia( Arete, 2021). There were many reasons behind it like to make uniform bank laws,
to build up the unity over the defence of Australia and to indulge white Australia policy into
practice. The main reason behind federation was to unite Australia’s defence. As the defence
force was not much strong in order to protect Australia’s vast coastline from attack been done.
Through this it makes a great sense to build up the unity under one command only.
In terms of different bank laws, taxes and so on, the concept of federation made it very easy to
trade and communicate within all states( Janda, and et.al, 2021). It also led to changes made in
sizes of all railway track and they all were identical in nature due to which all individuals were
able to stay on the same train rather than changing at each border. Though it was evaluated that
many obstacles got arise because of federalism but at the same point of time it was improving the
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economic aspects of Australia with the help of better trade laws like in relation with free trade
within all states.
There were both positive and negative aspects on the policy of federalism as some people
believed that it was a good phase to be implemented while some Australians felt that it created
lot of trouble. In terms of positive phase, many people believed that federation would help to
make white Australian policy by making the immigration laws little tough but some of the
Australians were not been happy through this policy because as they were making the usage of
foreign labour which was much cheap than local labour ( Crothers, 2021).
The main example of this was Queensland which employed Kanakas. As per the new
constitution there was many feared Chinese who came to Australia during the phase of gold rush
and through federalism it would remove all foreigners which are not needed and more
employment opportunities are given to Australians.
Federation of Australia:-
As per the view point of Callum J. Jones, 2021, the concept of federalism was a major political
movement and all public mainly voted for the new constitution. Before the aspect of federation
the states of Australia were mainly British colonies as they each operated six separate countries
in relation with that they had their own government, laws as well as a defence force. The concept
of federalism was inefficient but Australian audiences realised it by the year 1880. Almost all
public believed that the government must not put an end to it rather than continuing with the
concept of federalism. As per the act of commonwealth of Australia constitution it was
implemented by British parliament in 1900 and in official manner got established in 1901.
Australia had the population of around three and a half million when the phase of commonwealth
got arise.
Separation of powers:-
In context with the phase of separation of power it involves three main powers with respect to
legislative, executive and judicial powers. During the period of British council the separation of
all powers involved a log history( Singh, 2021). It was essential that all general powers of
legislating must be exercised by legislature, the administration of all laws and affairs should be
done by executive and the last one was in relation with that the interpretation of law should be by
those courts that have independent status. As per the commonwealth constitution of Australia, it
required a referendum to accept all changed except from certain sections. There were three
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branches which are involved and these are the legislature, executive and the judiciary. In
Australia it is the duty of high court to interpret the constitution.
The constitution did the interpretation in two ways and these are federalism and
libertarianism. In context with the aspect of federalism, it initiates the importance of a
separated as well as independent judiciary because of maintaining the federal character of
whole constitution.
Reasons Australia was better without federalism:-
As per the view point of Cheryl Saunders, 2014, federalism is been a perennial topic since
long period of time. In context with constitution both the phase of commonwealth and states
can impose any kind of tax except taxes which are imposed on all kind of products. All the
transfers from commonwealth to the states analyses the control over all state functions that
are been exercised. The functions of all certain that government in Australia has to deal with
levels of government are interdependent in each federation and with respect to this the most
important aspect which is needed is the phase of collaboration. While implementing the
aspect of federalism, there are three challenges and these are the fall out of fiscal imbalance,
restoring state tax raising capacity and maintaining the nexus between responsibility for both
taxing as well as spending.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded the above report, as per above report there are two statement for debate an
as per registered for public sector management through the QUT Australia. Both statements
based on government and community of country. For the first stamen debate become going to
against because federalism is play very crucial role in country’s development and build better
relations among country’s community. In second statement, country’s government have control
on policies that is why they have good relations with other country in terms of education, export
and import, some business and other areas also. It is also been concluded that in context with the
concept of federalism there are many advantages as well as disadvantages that created an impact
on Australian government. Almost all Australians felt that the policy of federation must be
changed because it was leading to the phase of inequality and certain kind of duplications were
getting arise. The government of Australia also had to face various challenges due to which
different issues were getting implemented and it was considered that a wastage is been done.
Some Australians thought the phase of federalism a very positive aspect while for some
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audiences it was a negative aspect. There were many other policies also that got implemented
like the immigration act and many more.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fenna, A., Phillimore, J. and Ramamurthy, V., 2021. Australian Health-Care Federalism:
Beyond the Logic of Autonomy. In Beyond Autonomy (pp. 135-157). Brill Nijhoff.
Huh, H.S. and Park, C.Y., 2021. A new index of globalisation: Measuring impacts of integration
on economic growth and income inequality. The World Economy, 44(2), pp.409-443.
Li, J., La, H.A. and Sologon, D.M., 2021. Policy, Demography, and Market Income Volatility:
What Shaped Income Distribution and Inequality in Australia Between 2002 and 2016?. Review
of Income and Wealth, 67(1), pp.196-221.
Doellgast, V., and et.al, 2021. Conclusions: Globalisation, Crises and Institutional
Responses. International and Comparative Employment Relations: Global Crises and
Institutional Responses, p.363.
Wilmers, A. and Ylimaki, R.M., 2021. Public education at the crossroads: Introduction to the
special issue. European Educational Research Journal, p.1474904121994415.
Mach, A., and et.al, 2021. From Quiet to Noisy Politics: Transformations of Swiss Business
Elites’ Power. Politics & Society, 49(1), pp.17-41.
Daly, J. and Chuenpagdee, R., 2021. Community responses to international trade policy: A
Newfoundland case study. Ocean & Coastal Management, 206, p.105578.
Datta, P.K. and Sodhi, I.S., 2021. The Rise of the Panchayati Raj Institutions as the Third Tier in
Indian Federalism: Where the Shoe Pinches. Indian Journal of Public Administration,
p.00195561211005569.
Arete, N., 2021. The Bar Exam’s Contribution to Systemic Inequalities in Access to Justice
Around the World. Washington International Law Journal, 30(2), p.10.
Crothers, L., 2021. Globalization and American popular culture. Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers.
Singh, M., 2021. Multilateralism in a Changing Global Order: Prospects for India–EU
Cooperation. EU-India Relations: The Strategic Partnership in the Light of the European Union
Global Strategy, pp.275-290.
Janda, K., and et.al, 2021. The challenge of democracy: American government in global politics.
Cengage Learning.
ONLINE
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