Australian education is currently at odds with the reality of the labour market and the changing economic face of the globe. The Australian Education system was designed for the industrial revolution - for turning out factory workers, technocrats and autocrats. The system is also designed with the CSIRO and institutional tertiary tenure being the pinnacle of the system. This must be changed to focus on the individual or else the ideals Gough Whitlam had for universal education; or Robert Hawke's stated "clever country" will never be met. Maintaining the current educational system will only make it more difficult for Australians to become educated as a path to individual happiness, increased knowledge, greater employment opportunities, fiscal security and social mobility.

The Current System

New South Wales education is divided into primary, secondary and tertiary education. Primary education is from ages five to eleven. The first year of primary is called kindergarten, and from then on, 1st class, 2nd class etc until 6th class. Secondary school is known as High School. This is for the ages twelve to eighteen and has two levels of graduation, the School Certificate and the Higher School Certificate. The School Certificate covers the period Year 7 to Year 10. This is often the bare minimum to get into a diploma course for a technical college.

The final two years in High School are Year 11 and Year 12. These two years culminate in the Higher School Certificate examinations. In NSW this series of examinations are marked out of a possible 500. This score is what is used by the Universities to determine which courses you are able to do. While the University entrance mark is supposed to show the level of academic achievement the University deems suitable for the course, it is more accurately a mark that is defined by supply and demand.

Universities in Australia require a student to have graduated from High School with the Higher School Certificate. Universities currently offer three and four year Bachelors Degrees in Arts, Science and Engineering. Many courses have compulsory fourth year Honour Degrees. Several Universities also mix in private experience with academic schedules. For instance, the University of Technology offers courses that split the time at University and in private industry equally. Universities also offer post graduate courses such as Masters Degrees and PhDs.

The Basis for Education Reform

Firstly, education is the basis for a rational and responsible civic society. Education also increases social and financial mobility through greater opportunities in the labour market. Since these truths are over-riding it becomes evident that education is required as a universal. No Australian should be denied the opportunity to partake in an educational curriculum from kindergarten to Year 12. This should be the bare minimum that a wealthy and egalitarian society demands.

Australia had a history in the 1970's of universal education at the primary, secondary and tertiary level. It is time to ensure that this opportunity is available to all Australians. This is not to deny that private education has a valid and competitive service in the education marketplace. However, there is a line to be drawn by the community and the government such that no-one on the Australian continent is denied a basic education. The level of education required is the baseline for an individual in a rational and responsible society.

The second issue with the modern education structure is its increasing lack of relevance to the requirements of the modern labour market and the amount of time it keeps potentially productive members of society from being active in the economy. There is also a focus on the style of education that is geared toward what is seen as the pinnacle of Australian education; the CSIRO or Institutional tenure. The Australian system was constructed from the philosophies of Sir Francis Bacon who believed there should be a central government funded research component to an economy. In Australia this is epitomized by the CSIRO, DSTO and University research.

Thirdly, education is an ongoing process that all members of society undertake, whether it is formal education or not. Individuals are constantly learning and thrive on the challenges and possibilities more education enables. Individuals are stimulated and empowered by education - individually, socially and economically. For this reason, a culture of valuing education must permeate society. To achieve this, education must be seen to provide the benefits of individual empowerment, social mobility and the fiscal mobility it promises.

Fourth, education has in more recent times been viewed as a personal investment, rather than a social investment. The Federal Government's HECCS scheme has pushed the burden of debt onto tertiary students. Those that are carrying HECCS debt are often the least able to carry the debt since students are not yet full economic actors. It is hoped that their choice of specialization once they graduate will allow them to pay back the debt. The pushing of debt onto that student while they are not a full economic actor is unfair. While "user pays" systems are a means of ascertaining just who is using a system, education has a positive and altruistic social aspect that goes beyond personal investment.

While primary and secondary education should be universal and with a public option; tertiary education should be limited from four-year degrees to one-year degrees. For private institutions and "user pays" systems, this will limit the student's exposure to debt. This will also expedite the student into being a full economic actor.

To achieve these goals education must be open and without age discrimination. Anyone can return to any institution at any time, at any level. Education must also be made relevant to the realities of the modern Australian life and economy - not a pass-time of indulgent study for the idle few. Education must be seen as the backbone of the civic individual in an egalitarian society. The goal is to move education from a position of scarcity for the intellectual elite, to a one of abundance for all.

Proposal for Modification of the New South Wales Education System

• Funding for Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education to be a State level responsibility. There is to be no Federal funding or legislation on this issue.
• Speed the educational process. Individuals thrive on intellectual stimulation.
• Remove the rote learning process evident in all levels of education. Private industry requires project-based specialization and team skills. Education processes should be modified accordingly.
• Civics to be taught from kindergarten onwards. This is in order to promote an aware polity.
• Real-world economics to be taught from kindergarten onwards.
• Include mandatory entrepreneurship courses from secondary school onwards.
• Compress current secondary education, including HSC, into four years (down from six).
• Move current first and second year university level courses to Higher School Certificate (HSC) Level (Year 11 and Year 12). HSC to be replaced with an Arts Degree.
• Allow Year 11-12 level subjects to be entirely elective.
• Allow increased Technical/Mechanical Arts specialization at the Year 11-12 level
• University Postgraduate Degrees to be one year in length and require an Arts Degree as the only entry requirement. This will allow specialist tertiary educated economic actors to enter the labour market at age nineteen, instead of twenty-two or twenty-three.
• Postgraduate Degrees to be offered by Tertiary Institutions.
• Postgraduate Degrees are to be one year in length and highly specialized. This will allow a nineteen year old specialist to become an economic actor at a younger age than with a four year degree. This also allows individuals to choose short, sharp courses that match the volatility of modern career paths.
• Postgraduate Degrees can be funded in public institutions by means other than taxpayer grants.
• All levels of public education welcome private competition.

Funding

There is no constitutional mandate for the Federal Government to be involved in education. For this reason alone, the State's should be entirely responsible for the education system in their respective jurisdictions. Australian Federalism has been suffering from an entropy or an ongoing creep centralism since 1901. With the Federal Government coveting more and more of the State's responsibilities - even to the point of taxing for the States. Federal money never comes without strings attached. For State autonomy, the implementation of education policy by the States must be free from Federal intervention, interference, obstruction and manipulation.

There is one Federal Government and if the Federal Government enacts educational legislation, this will mean all states are bound by that legislation. In essence the Australian people get stuck with one system of education. In other words a monopoly. There will be no competition in education, as nation-states make it difficult to move between them, especially for the purposes of working families.

There are currently six States and two territories, potentially eight different public education systems and eight different legislative systems that can compete for families and students. The diversity from this pluralism is good for the student, and the parents of students. For example, if a family does not like the NSW public system, they may choose to move to Victoria and take advantage of Victoria's strong private system and vice versa. The States education systems will be competing for families with children, and consequently the additional economic activity that a family will bring by relocating to a new State.

Under a Federal Education system, there is one system, one set of legislation and no diversity. The education system is not an area the Federal Government can contribute to in a positive manner. Consequently; the Federal Government must not enact any education legislation. This is the State's domain. The Federal Government must also not fund the State education systems in any manner. State fiscal autonomy is just as important as State legislative autonomy.

Another area in which the Federal Government cannot tamper with the Education System is specifically in the curriculum and the testing methodology. Since a major component of this proposal is Civics education, having the Federal Government decide a suitable curriculum for Civics is a conflict of interest. Since 1994, there has been polarisation of the civics course conflicting from the alternate view of the Australian Government by the current Howard Government and previous Keating Government.

Speeding the Education Process

Individuals thrive on intellectual stimulation. The pursuit of happiness is invariably entwined with an individual excelling at what they enjoy most, education is a means to draw that enthusiasm out of a person and give them the opportunities to achieve in their area of chosen specialization. This requires flexibility in the educational curriculum. The speed of technological innovation and the changing workplace require education to be faster and more agile. Current secondary and tertiary education curricula are too static to meet the needs of a modern individual pursuing contentment in the personnel, social and economic spheres.

Human Capital Theory tries to equate the benefits of education in the human pursuit for increased psychic and economic benefits. Salary does increase with education, especially in an individual's peak employment years. Where Human Capital Theory dispassionately falls down is - it is not enough just to get an education. Especially if the process of getting that formal qualification is tedious, tiresome and demotivating. The goal is to channel an individuals natural enthusiasm and interest in a specialization. Through this tapping and challenging of natural application, a content individual increases societies benefits.

Rote Learning vs Project Based Specialization

The industrial era was defined by constant scarcity. Drafters used logarithmic tables and slide rules for complex calculations. Now calculators are so cheap they are given away with a full tank of petrol. Mathematical processing capability has moved to an abundance model. Libraries were another example of industrial era scarcity. The library as we know it today was an innovation in Edinburgh from the Scottish Enlightenment. Today, the internet offers greater publishing ability and archives than any previous generation has known. Information has moved to abundance as well.

A left over of the scarcity present in the industrial era is the rote learning method. This is the process of committing to memory multiplication, formula's, derivation from first principles etc. In an era of mathematical processing abundancy and information abundancy this is no longer needed. Unlike factory positions that require the mechanical precision of rote, the informational world requires far greater creative skills.

The industrial world also required each worker to fulfill their position as one commoditized cell in a process of thousands of commoditized cells. Ongoing mechanization and computer control has made this process largely redundant. Private industry is now dominated by small teams working on specific problems; with specific deliverables. Where team members specialize - in roles and knowledge, from project to project. The education system needs to modify its learning methods to adapt to this method and train students for this reality in private industry.

Civics

There is a deficit in civic knowledge in Australia, and in particular in Australian youth. As Peter Botsman makes clear in his book, "The Great Constitutional Swindle"; the triumphalism of the Australian Constitution and Federation has drowned out genuine criticism of the limitations of the Australian Constitution and political system. With ongoing centralism and increased governmental manipulation of the mass media, a deep and direct knowledge of freedom, liberty, equity, natural rights and the process of Australian Government are more and more required.

Politics, unfortunately, do matter. Government permeates all levels of an individual's life and intrudes more and more each day with the constant legislation that is produced at the local, state and federal level. The government has also willfully misled the electorate and used existing prejudice in the electorate to foster an environment of fear. A strong understanding of civics and political methods will help disabuse this manipulation of public opinion by government.

Paul Keating reintroduced the subject of civics as part of the Australian education curriculum in 1994. Since then John Howard also introduced his version of what civics should be. This was part of the larger "History Wars" that Keating and Howard indulged themselves in. Since education constitutionally is entirely a matter for the states, the Federal Government has no right or legality to be influencing this area of the curriculum. As Keating's and Howard's influence shows, having the Federal Government decide what is taught about it, is a bad thing. While State Governments will have a hand in the curriculum that decides what is taught about state government, since there is competition between the state educational systems, a family or student can choose to move inter-state.

Additionally, issues with the State view of civics can be raised locally. Government is far more responsive locally. A group of students, parents and teachers in Kalgoolie, WA complaining about State civic education is more likely to get an audience in Perth with the Western Australian Government, than it is in Canberra with the Federal Government.

Economics

Credit related bankruptcies in Australia have doubled since 1999. A greater knowledge of economics will help Australians and especially the young Australians preyed upon by credit companies, to make better risk management decisions when choosing to use credit. Credit is an everyday part of life, from financing student loans, credit cards, and personal loans for near essentials such as cars and mortgages. The management of money is incredibly important to an individual, and ultimately the health of a society. The World Health Organization found that the second most prominent cause of suicides in Australia was fiscal difficulties.

Legislation and technology has changed the role of capital, from being solely the domain of large banking institutions, to one that allows small investors to participate in the public markets. Through the legislation of the Hawke, Keating and Howard governments, superannuation has become an indelible part of the employment landscape. Superannuation is a forced withholding of income for retirement. This money is invested institutionally in the stock market. Knowledge of economics in the public markets has become a necessity for anyone entering or participating in the Australian labour market.

The Masters of Business Administration is a common post-graduate educational choice for those that aspire to middle or upper management. One of the reasons for its popularity is that most technical specialist courses at the secondary or tertiary have absolutely no economic focus at all. These courses impart the technical knowledge from technical specialists, who often have had limited if any exposure to private industry. MBA's may be less of a necessity if economic knowledge is imparted at a younger age to students.

Entrepreneurship

A deficit in Australian culture is inertia against the idea that making money is OK. While this may be a result of the strong organizational ability of the old Labor movement and the myth of the "fair-go" and "looking out for your mates", it is stifling on Australian perceptions of entrepreneurship. Too often the entrepreneur is lumped in with the dodgy brothers style of crass salesmanship. Providing a service or product for profit is not evil, it is an essential part of economic activity.

Entrepreneurship is an important part of an agile economy that is able to find and meet new holes in a constantly changing market. Australians too often come to it late; as the whole process and purpose of entrepreneurship is avoided at the secondary and tertiary level. Once again this is a remnant of the industrial era style of education. Where an industry, such as steel making, was capital intensive. In the past the educated population provided labour opportunities to heavily capitalized companies and their in the know directors. The information revolution has removed or lowered the capital barrier to many industries; consequently, knowledge of identifying markets, capitalization and entrepreneurship are in the domain of more than the supposed captains of industry.

Too often in Australian culture the small business owners and entrepreneurs that exist and make a living in already crowded service sectors such as taxi-cabs, accounting, retail etc are not held up as studies of entrepreneurship and successful business. There is a wealth of experience in Australia that only needs to be recognized and tapped by the education system. As an example of how little training in entrepreneurship the Australian tertiary systems offers, during a four year degree curriculum in engineering, I was exposed to one hour in fourth year where a business executive in the that area of specialization came and spoke to us. In approximately 4200 hours of tertiary study, exposure to business training of any kind was 0.02%.

Australia has suffered from high Youth Unemployment. This is judged to be individuals above the age of sixteen and below the age of twenty-four that are actively seeking employment. While authoritative statistics on this issue is hard to find, Australia has been maintaining a youth unemployment rate of between 13% and 14% between 1990 and 2001. This is compared to the national unemployment rate of 5.6% for January of 2004. Australian youth have been sold, by schools and government, the unempowering principle that their employment future is tied to an employer employing them. It is far more empowering for secondary students to be taught the principles of entrepreneurship so that it becomes a possibility other than facing rejections from employers and the line at the dole office.

Compressing the High School Schedule

Too often the education system has been used as a child minding service by politicians who are concerned about their popularity being linked to the high incidence of youth unemployment. Extensions to the period a teenager must spend in secondary education have been as linked to unemployment issues as the need for increased educational specialization at the secondary level. The child minding mindset has helped perpetuate a largely static system that has the Higher School Certificate as a gateway to University as the primary focus of secondary education. Little is done to stimulate the individual, instead the hum-drum beat of industrial era maths, english, science, geography and history are perpetuated.

Subjects such as maths have remained a core part of education since the Greeks instituted it as a discipline. This was expanded upon when Descartes and Newton added Algebra and Calculus to the subject matter. The value of mathematics as part of a rounded education is undeniable. However, it is currently taught in an exceedingly dry manner. All teenagers have an extreme passion for their hobbies whether it be cricket, cars, dinosaurs, aircraft, NSync or hiking. This passion needs to be tapped. For instance; statistical analysis of cricket scores, aerodynamics for cars and aircraft etc. The manner in which the mathematical principles are learnt and applied make a big difference to text book rote learning. The universe is so full of wonder, and individuals so full of passion for their hobbies, that text book learning should never be an option.

Another example which takes an applied approach to learning is the database. Nearly everyone in private industry has maintained a database of some kind, even if it is no more complex than a 300 line spreadsheet. The ability to handle data efficiently is at the core of the modern economy. All manner of core education can be taught through the database example. For instance a child who is obsessed with the Rolling Stones. Not only would the student be compiling data and reporting on data they have passion for but the discipline could be extended to writing a popular history on the band. These are examples of where the natural enthusiasm a child has is used to expand their applied knowledge.

Entirely Elective Year 11 and Year 12

Often classes are held back by the students who do the least amount of work in the class or learn the slowest. This proposal is based upon the dictum that no knowledge is innate, it is all learnt. This proposal is also based on the premise that there is much wisdom in people; and even children at the primary level have specialised in an area of study that is of fascination to them. The challenge is for the school and the teacher to use the child's fascination in that topic to apply theoretical and practical principle to their existing knowledge. The challenge is also to have the child expand their chosen subject specialization in a way that evokes awe, wonder and passion in them.

Using this methodology of making the student own the process and aiding them in discovering and expanding their theoretical knowledge, plus applying those techniques to new areas of study the speed of current education can be improved. Enough, that what is now six years of study in high school can be compressed into four years. This would mean that what is now the Higher School Certificate would be awarded in Year 10 instead of Year 12.

The two years between the age of sixteen and eighteen would now be free to do the generalist component of any degree. In fact this is what Year 11 and Year 12 would serve as with an Arts degree in a specialization being awarded at the end of Year 12. With the specializations being Fine Arts, Scientific Arts, Mechanical Arts and Liberal Arts. These two years would be entirely elective allowing the student to focus on the study and ultimately the vocation they will choose.

This has several benefits. It now means that all who complete High School now come out of the system at the age of reason (18) with a degree in their area of chosen specialization. Ongoing specialization would be handled thereafter in their lives through post graduate studies, giving greater options to study any subject matter of their choosing.

Another benefit is that high schoolers now enter the labour market with a specialization that is focused on the applied arts. One of the causes of youth unemployment is the lack of specialization young people have. This is often equated with low skill jobs and as such young people are often competing with themselves for general labour positions. Allowing greater opportunities to specialize through High School will mean the chance for the student to either excel in their chosen field of study, or choose a specialization that matches the demands of the labour market.

Increased Specialization in Year 11-12

Often the rhetoric used by parents, teachers, politicians and society to get students to excel is through fear motivation. The installed fear of failing at High School, not getting into University and hence being stuck in a factory job that gets shipped off to Thailand. This installed fear is often all consuming at the High School level and is a demotivator rather than a motivator. Focusing on, and recognizing a students existing passions as a vehicle to expand theoretical and applied knowledge will remove this fear. As students will be spending more time on subjects they enjoy.

Making the High School program a degree qualification also removes the fear of not getting into the scarcity based positions for University. What was once a a nervous process as the finite number of Universities juggled their entry marks in order to satisfy supply and demand from the next years University students, will disappear as Universities compete for post-graduate students from a large pool of degree qualified High School students looking to specialize further. This competition to meet the demands of students will most likely expand the private sector in tertiary education.

A more applied and functional curriculum also recognizes the reality of the abundance in processing power and information. Whereas times tables had to be rote learned, currently a calculator is everywhere. From phones, to PDA's to laptops to PC. The calculator has become ubiquitous. Information has also moved to an abundance model. Rather than remembering information, the skills needed to find the information from diverse and often secondary and third sources is needed to make a thesis of value. Skill-sets that recognize this abundancy in these areas make students far more valuable for their own pursuits in their personal lives and in the private and public sectors.

University

The three year and four year degrees from University are unnecessary, inefficient and a burden society, the economy and taxpayers. In engineering the first two years are spent on continuing the generalist nature of the existing HSC curriculum with studies in Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics. This can be done in Year 11-12 instead. Not until third year is the chosen specialization applied. This is the year that the University should offer as the entire course. This would make post-graduate degrees one year in length, becoming more affordable and easier for prospective students to match them to their careers and needs.

This will also serve to speed a student's entry into the specialist labour market. Instead of being lost to the economy for three or four years, now a student is lost to the economy for one year if they choose to specialize further after High School. This one-year length for post-graduate studies also enables individuals in the labour market to take new post-graduate studies as their careers morph over time. Often an individual will stay in a career path for three to six years before moving either roles or industries. In this manner an individual can accrue short and sharp post graduate degrees that speed their introduction as a professional to the labour market; but also, to give them the flexibility to have an ongoing education that matches the wide variety of disciplines the modern work place requires.

Public Universities need not be bound by taxpayer grants as their sole source of funding. This is not too far different from the current state Universities find themselves in. While funding can be taxpayer supplied, the manner in which University has been changed to support the realities of modern employment supports greater private investment in the course nature while still allowing the Universities to pursue pure Research and Development.

Private Competition

All public institutions welcome private competition. The point of public education is for society to decide that there is a level - a bare minimum of education that no individual should be denied. If students choose to be educated in an institution outside of the public system, then that is their choice. The ultimate goal is to ensure that Australians are more educated, and that the education is more relevant to the needs of a post-industrial world. Whether the education is supplied through the public or private system is not a pre-requisite for that result.

Conclusion

The New South Wales education system remains rooted in the industrial era of education methodology. It does not recognize the realities that the abundance models for processing power and information have created in the modern world. It is also a slow system that delays specialization for students and effectively restricts them from being full economic actors in modern society. It is recognized the education remains the best means for individual achievement, fiscal security and social mobility. This can be achieved through recognizing that people have much wisdom in them and that all knowledge is learnt. Putting a students existing specialization to work to expand their knowledge both theoretical and applied will allow the increased pace of education at the primary and secondary levels.

The reformed system will entail the existing kindergarten through to the Higher School Certificate being compressed into by two years so that the HSC is earnt in Year 10. The remaining two years of secondary school will be devoted to pure electives in an Art degree specialization. This will allow students reaching the age of reason to enter the labour market as degree qualified.

The third and most important part of the educational reform; is the changed role of tertiary education. Universities would only offer one year long post-graduate degrees. This shorter period of study will allow for individuals to specialize quickly into an area so that they are not removed from economic circulation for a lengthy period other than by personal choice. This shorter post-graduate cycle also empowers individuals to match their post-graduate studies to a rapidly changing labour market where individuals have dynamic requirements for specialization as they pursue their careers.

Cameron Riley

New South Wales was once the sole colony of Australia. In the 1850's Australians started demanding forms of self-government which fitted in with British policy of the time. After a battle over what form this new self-government would take, in which William Wentworth tried to establish a titled Legislative Council, a westminster form of responsible government was established. This left the Republicans disappointed, as well as those that wanted innovation such as a Bill of Rights included.

Since then the NSW Constitution has been amended often , in the last ten years being rather innovative for Australian government institutions for establishing a fixed term election period. More recently a Constitutional Amendment has been proposed which would remove all mentions of the Monarchy from the NSW Constitution.

History

In 1851 Victoria separated from NSW and two years later the NSW Constitution was approved . In 1856 the NSW Parliament became a bi-cameral entity with a Legislative Assembly as the lower house, and a Legislative Council as the Upper House. The Legislative Council was appointed by the Governor and had property qualifications to meet. In 1933 this was changed to the Assembly appointing the Legislative Council until 1978 when the Legislative Council became popularly elected through proportional representation.

Jack Lang in 1925 attempted to stack the Legislative Council by adding twenty five new members which were supposed to act as a "suicide squad" and abolish the Legislative Council, similar to what had happened in Queensland. The attempt failed by six votes. In 1929 the Nationalist government entrenched the Legislative Council in the Constitution.

The Legislative Assembly has gone through growth and contractions in numbers. Recently the contractions have been done by sitting governments in order to gain electoral advantage. The shrinking of the number of members by Greiner and Carr, by ten and six members respectively, was to force redistributions. Rodney Smith notes that;

Partisan motives, rather than population size or debates about adequate representation, have driven changes to the size of the Assembly.

The last three decades in the 20thC led to a great deal of electoral reform. But again this was propelled by partisan advantage. The Wran government return to optional preferential voting in 1979 was to reduce informal voting which hurt Labor. The Greiner Government added a single tick or cross innovation in 1990 which disadvantaged Labor in informal voting. In 1995, the Carr Government, acting in their own party political self-interest enacted formal ticks and crosses again.

NSW Government has suffered from the static nature of modern government . Wran (ALP) held power from 1976 until 1986 and Unsworth (ALP) for two years beyond Wran. Greiner (LIB) and Fahey (LIB) held power from 1988 to 1995, and since then the Carr (ALP) Government has held power. Rodney Smith writes on the pattern of office-holding in NSW;

The post-war pattern of party dominance occurred less by default than through government manipulation of electoral systems and use of public policy to shore up support in apparently wavering electoral districts. ...

The fall of post-war NSW governments has had more to do with policy exhaustion, electoral dissatisfaction over government management and the build-up of perceptions of government corruption than the retirement of strong leaders.

This quote may well be the answer to my previous diary .

The Legislature

The NSW Constitution contains sections which explain the different arms of government and their responsibilities. There are several meta-sections which seem to overlap in subject with other sections. For instance Part 2 section 5 limits the Assembly to raising taxes.

Provided that all Bills for appropriating any part of the public revenue, or for imposing any new rate, tax or impost, shall originate in the Legislative Assembly.

The NSW Constitution allows for some parts of the constitution to be amended by the Assembly or Council without referendum. This has come about by successive governments seeking to entrench constitutional aspects of government. The NSW Constitution has been amended quite a bit in its history . Section 7B for instance shows explicit limits on the ability of the Assembly to modify the Constitution;

A Bill that:

(a) expressly or impliedly repeals or amends section 11B, 26, 27, 28 or 29, Part 9, the Seventh Schedule or this section, or

(b) contains any provision to reduce or extend, or to authorise the reduction or extension of, the duration of any Legislative Assembly or to alter the date required to be named for the taking of the poll in the writs for a general election,

shall not be presented to the Governor for Her Majesty's assent until the Bill has been approved by the electors in accordance with this section.

Despite the entrenching of many constitutional provisions, this has not stopped referendums being passed at the electoral level with strong majorities. For example;

• 69% : Four year term for Legislative Assembly (1981)
• 75.5% : Fixed term for Legislative Assembly (1995)
• 65.9% : Judicial independence (1995)

By the same token, in 1961 a referendum to abolish the Legislative Council did not pass as only 42.4% voted yes.

The Constitution limits the amount of time between sittings of parliament to a maximum of twelve months. The Legislative section also contains in section 11B the clause for compulsory voting.

A person who is entitled to vote at a periodic Council election or the election of a Member of the Legislative Assembly shall vote at the election and if he does not do so shall be liable to such penalty as may be provided by law.

A Parliamentary Representative can have their seat vacated for many reasons including parliamentary truancy, treason, crime conviction and remarkably for bankrupcy. Members of one house are ineligible to sit in another house as well.

Governor

The formal Executive consists of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and the Administrator of the State. The Administrator of the state can be the Chief Justice, unless the Chief Justice is the Lieutenant Governor.

A Governor also has four weeks to get better, otherwise the Lieutenant Governor or Administrator will step in to fulfil the Governor's duties. The Constitution also limits who the Governor can appoint to maintain the Governor tasks. It must be done with the consent of the Premier.

The Constitution also limits the Governor to earning a salary of $80,000 a year.

Legislative Council

The Legislative Council has contracted in recent years to forty-two. Its height was one hundred and forty five members. At each state election half of the Legislative Council is up for election. This means that each Legislative Council members sits for eight years before either retiring or being up for re-election. The Legislative Council does not represent an electorate but rather, the whole state.

Proportional representation, like in the Federal Senate has helped to diversify the parties that are represented. No party has had a majority in the Legislative Council since 1988. The current members are;

• 18 Australian Labor Party
• 9 Liberal Party of NSW
• 4 The Nationals (NSW)
• 3 The Greens
• 2 Christian Democratic Group
• 1 Australian Democrats
• 1 One Nation NSW
• 1 Outdoor Recreation Party
• 1 Reform The Legal System
• 1 Shooters Party
• 1 Unity

The Legislative Council also operates the Committees which serve to review the legislation and operations of the Legislative Assembly. The public is able to make submissions among other things to the Committees.

The Legislative Council also contains a President, who presides over the meetings of the Council. The President also notifies the Governor of any vacancies that occur in the Council. The President also has the casting vote in any tie that occurs in the Council. When the President is unable to maintain their duties, the Chairman of Committees takes the Presidents place.

Legislative Assembly

The Constitution limits the Legislative Assembly to 93 members. Currently there are fifty five ALP members, thirty-two coalition members and six independents. The amendment in 1995 put fixed term elections into the NSW Constitution. The referendum contained the language;

A Bill for an Act to require the Parliament of New South Wales to serve full 4 year terms and to prevent politicians calling early elections or changing these new constitutional rules without a further referendum.

There is however Constitutional language to enable a government to have an early election, if certain circumstances in Section 24B are met.

The Legislative Assembly may be dissolved if:

(a) a motion of no confidence in the Government is passed by the Legislative Assembly (being a motion of which not less than 3 clear days' notice has been given in the Legislative Assembly), and

(b) during the period commencing on the passage of the motion of no confidence and ending 8 clear days thereafter, the Legislative Assembly has not passed a motion of confidence in the then Government.

After the motion of no confidence is passed, the Legislative Assembly may not be prorogued before the end of that 8-day period and may not be adjourned for a period extending beyond that 8-day period, unless the motion of confidence has been passed.

(3) The Legislative Assembly may be dissolved if it:

(a) rejects a Bill which appropriates revenue or moneys for the ordinary annual services of the Government, or

(b) fails to pass such a Bill before the time that the Governor considers that the appropriation is required.

This subsection does not apply to a Bill which appropriates revenue or moneys for the Legislature only.

This same section also lays out some of the Reserve Powers that the Governor has. Subsection five allows for the Governor to dissolve the Legislative Assembly in circumstances other than in subsections 2-4, against the Premiers advice as well. It also allows for the Governor to choose a viable alternate government and Premier if the Governor dissolves the previous government.

These do not specify explicit circumstances which allow the Governor to dissolve the government. This is fitting within the basis of responsible government where there is an implied nature to action. A government has been dismissed in NSW once previously. The government of Jack Lang was dismissed by Sir Phillip Game in the 1930's. During this period NSW and the Federal Government were on the brink of Civil War. Since the Governor's powers are implied, it is still debated whether Game was acting constitutionally.

The presiding position over the Legislative Assembly is the Speaker. In the Speaker's absence the Deputy Speaker takes over the Speaker's duties. The Speaker is chosen by secret ballot with a run off form of voting until the winner is found. If there is a tie in the runoff between the final two candidates, then the Clerk of the Assembly or another presiding over the runoff shall determine the winner.

The Assembly also accepts petitions from the people. This is the means to air grievances with the government.

Executive Council

The NSW Constitution contains explicit recognition of the Executive Council as the legislative advisory to the Governor. The Executive Council is appointed by the Governor, with the Governor also appointing one of the members of the council as the Vice-President of the Executive Council.

The Governor heads this Council. By reading the Constitution it would appear that the Governor is the formal authority in the Council. The truth is, a reading of the Constitution does not bear any similarity to the operational process. The Premier is the leading member of the Assembly for the party that can form a government. The Premier then builds a ministry or cabinet. The Governor appoints these positions on the advice of the Premier.

The Constitution also mentions Minsters of the Crown and Parliamentary Secretaries explicitly as well. The Governor appoints the Ministers, while the Premier appoints the Parliamentary Secretaries. Again it is the Premier which chooses the ministers and advises the Governor. A Secretary's office remains until, amongst other things, the Premier who appointed them ceases to be Premier. This is contained in 38D;

(a) if he dies,

(b) if the person by whom he was appointed as such ceases to be Premier,

(c) if he resigns his office as such by writing under his hand addressed to the Premier,

(d) if he is removed from office as such by the Premier,

(e) if his seat as a Member of either House of Parliament becomes vacant, otherwise than by reason of the fact that the Legislative Assembly has been dissolved or has expired by the effluxion of time, or

(f) upon the day appointed for the taking of the poll for the general election of Members of the Legislative Assembly next following his appointment to hold that office.

The embedding of the formal Executive powers into the Legislative arm of government is the weakest part of the Westminster system. The NSW Constitution at least mentions the Executive Council explicitly. Something the Federal Constitution does not do.

Judicial

The highest courts in NSW are the Supreme Court, the Industrial Court and the Land and Environment Court.

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Government power is decided by money. The ability to collect money as well as hand it out. The Australian federal government is a big collector of tax money, in 2000 consuming 26% of Australia's GDP in tax. It is also a big spender of money, with 25.3% of the GDP being handed out by the federal government in 2000.

The Australian federal government has polluted our system of federalism by stealing from the States a government's autonomous right to tax for themselves. This not only leads to over-taxation but entropy of power to the central government. Canberra not only dictates policy, but funds it as well. The States are nothing more than a popularly elected bureaucracy to disburse federal funds.

Fortunately NSW never got over the fact that it didn't become "Australia", and on the western coast of the continent there are the Westralians, constantly suspicious of the t'othersiders, especially the ones in Canberra. Bob Carr and Geoff Gallop are both holding out for the moment.

If Carr and Gallop give in, they will effectively be handing over any last resistance to centralist principles. Australia will devolve into a Westminster system like Britain's where London dominates and nothing lies between Parliament and the local councils. The fact remains, the States need to take back from the Federal government their ability to tax.

The Failure of Federation

The failure of Federation was NSW's fault. The Australian constitution is devoid of enlightenment innovations such as a Bill of Rights, or an elected Executive. The "bearded men" knew of many of the flaws of the system and even tried to add in a few of their own. Griffiths for instance in one draft making the judicial arm subject to the authority of the legislature. Deakin was aware of the flawed federalism in the constitution, George Williams comments;

These can be traced back to when the Constitution came into force in 1901 when Alfred Deakin, one of Australia's first Prime Ministers, predicted that the states would find themselves "legally free, but financially bound to the chariot wheels of the Central Government".

NSW was the strongest colony of the time. It could have placed its stamp on the constitution, instead the Deakinists held sway and the flaws in the Constitution and Australian federal government continue to dog the country. The Deakinist world-view of Australia was an inefficient one. As Prime Minister he enacted, protectionism, discriminative immigration policy and centralised government. The first one took eighty years to get rid of, the second seventy years and the final we are still trying to disentangle from.

The Australian High Court has also been activist. Deciding for themselves that they, and they alone had the authority to turn the Australian Constitution into a living breathing document. The corporation's power is an example of this activism.

The Australian Constitution has proven difficult to change through the strict referendum and majority system. We lag behind the Swiss in this area of Constitutional responsiveness. Even so the static nature of Australian Constitutional change does not give the High Court the right to modify the meaning of the Constitution and federalism without public consent.

Emergency

In 1942 the federal government decided it needed more money to pursue the war against Japan and Germany. The demanded and got the ability to tax income. Previous to this the Federal Government was unable to tax income. Several states opposed the legislation, taking it to the High Court, but they lost. War is always a poor time for liberty, and political opportunists constantly use it to accrue more powers around themselves. James Madison had wise words on this subject;

In no part of the [US] constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department ... In war, a physical force is to be created, and it is the executive will, which is to direct it. In war, the public treasures are to be unlocked; and it s the executive hand which is to dispense them. In war, the honours and emoluments of office are to be multiplied; and it is the executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed. It is in war, finally, that laurels are to be gathered; and it is the executive brow they are to encircle. The strongest passions and the most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honourable or venial love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.

To Madison's world-view, war and centralising power undermined the very foundations of free government. We are saying the ripples, if not the super-waves, of the collapsing of income tax power to the Federal Government today. The Australian Federal government over-taxes in order to impose its will on the states.

Cockroaches and Sandgropers

In the 1930s, the NSW Premier was Jack Lang. He was elected on a platform that included bashing the Bankers in London for being unsympathetic and out of touch with the realities of depression era Australia. Lang was fortunate he was given the perfect foil in the imperialistic arrogance of Sir Otto Neidermeyer.

NSW was still carrying loans to Britain from the First World War at higher rates of interest than they were paying to other lenders, such as the United States. Lang decided that he would default on the loans until he got better terms from the London bankers.

The problem from the Federal Government's point of view was that they had under-written those loans. If NSW defaulted, they were liable for those payments. Once again the pollution of the federal system led to conflict between the Federal Government and the States; in this case though, it nearly ended in Civil War.

The Prime Minister, Joe Lyons, decided he would take NSW's income tax rolls and do the taxing instead of NSW. But those rolls had been hidden, as had any cash NSW had in banks. Lyons was stuck, unable to get money out of NSW, and with Lang not changing his mind on defaulting. Lyons readied the Australian military to take government buildings in Sydney, while the NSW Police Force backed Lang to the hilt. Militias began forming all over NSW, some pro-commonwealth and some pro-state.

In the end the ambiguities of the Westminster system and reserve powers defused the situation. The Governor of NSW, Sir Phillip Game sacked the Lang government. It was most likely unconstitutional to do so. All it would have taken was for Lang to not recognize Game's authority and civil war would have descending. Lang said the words, "I am a free man, the bastards sacked me." There was no blood on the wattle that day.

We Secede!

The Western Australians were reluctant participants in Federation, concerned about the concentration of power in the Eastern States. When Western Australia held the referendum to join Federation, they were the last colony to do so, with the other colonies already approving their referendums.

The regional streak is strong in Western Australia, in 1933 the state voted to secede from the Commonwealth of Australia. To many Westralians, the federal government and Canberra were remote, far from them, and disconnected from the issues of the state. Several Leagues formed to promote secession of Australian unity. The Dominion League led the secession campaign.

The vote on secession was overwhelmingly in favour of seceding. The only district to vote no was the goldfields, presumably because of an influx of eastern staters in the gold-rush. Ironically the voters also removed the incumbant secessionist government from parliament and replaced it with a federalist one.

A petition was presented to Parliament in Britain, but British officials claimed they were unable to act without the Federal Government in Australia approving any secession. This left the Western Australian secessionist nowhere to go, other than a straight out repudiation of the Australian Constitution.

From the song, " Westralia Free ";

Plains of our pastures boundless,
Seas of our rainbow'd pearl,
Destiny is your breezes
Liberty's flag unfurl!
See its folds flung wide
And the challenge cried
"On to conquer ride,
"Wave o'er Westralia free!"

Land of the karri spring,
Land of the wheat and vine,
Aye to thy sons and daughters
Faith's altar and Love's shrine.
Lo! Our vows were sworn,
And the triumph born
In a nation's dawn,
"We made Westralia free."

By being ignored by Australian Federal Parliament, and politely fobbed off by the British Parliament, Western Australia was forced to seek its style of freedom within the Australian Commonwealth.

Claiming State Power Back

George Williams writes that the States may have a way through the corporations law to claw back against the federal government. The law comes up for review after five years;

There is however one area in which the Commonwealth does rely upon the states. The states have referred power to the Commonwealth to ensure that the Commonwealth has the power to enact key national laws. Without such power, the coverage of these laws would be incomplete, leading to confusion and extra cost. Recent referrals include giving the Commonwealth power over de facto relationships and terrorism offences. The referral most likely to be contentious is that by the states over corporations law.

Over 1999 and 2000 High Court decisions led to instability, problems with enforcement and a lack of confidence in the previous corporations law, which covered the creation and regulation of companies across Australia. It is generally accepted that Australia needs a national law on this topic. The states recognised this and in 2001 referred power to the Commonwealth. However, they did so in a way that will cease after five years. After that time, unless the states renew the grant of power, the uncertainty that plagued corporations law in Australia will return and business will suffer. Unfortunately for the Commonwealth, it will be seeking a further referral of this power at the same time as a new deal on GST revenues and a national industrial relations law.

The aggressor here is the Commonwealth government. It is the one that needs its wings clipped. We can start by not allowing the Federal Government to tax for the states. Ken Parish has written that Federal Government taking over initial income tax powers is reversible and could be the basis for the States taking back control of their own taxation . Parish writes;

The States should all agree to set up a Joint State Tax Office that would levy a uniform state income tax on all Australian individuals and companies. The rate should be set so that it covers all state spending needs, so that the States can afford to tell the Commonwealth to shove its GST revenue and section 96 tied grants where the sun don't shine. The Commonwealth would then be under intolerable pressure to reduce its own tax take back to the level required to fund only it own spending needs. It should be fairly easy for people to see which polity was guilty of greed and duplicity in that situation, and it wouldn't be the States.

Governments don't let other governments tax for them. A government is also only supposed to tax for its needs and nothing more. The federal government collecting income and sales tax for the states is a gross perversion of the principle of government.

The Nuclear Option

The states other than NSW and Western Australia have already given in to Costello. So the larger states like Victoria and Queensland are going to be no help in forming a power-block against the Federal Government. NSW will probably have to show some of the guts and gumption that it was incapable of in the 1880s.

Governments are addicted to, get fat, get wealthy and get powerful on tax collection. Economically NSW is the biggest state in Australia, and the tick of federal government is getting fattest on NSW's neck. The NSW 2004-2005 Budget contains revenue from;

• Taxation
  • 5,482,000,000 Stamp Duties
  • 4,696,000,000 Payroll Tax
  • 1,448,000,000 Land Tax
  • 1,243,000,000 Taxes on Motor Vehicles
  • 1,404,000,000 Gambling and Betting
  • 1,247,000,000 Other
• Commonwealth Grants
  • 9,648,000,000 GST Revenue Grants
  • ...96,000,000 GST deferral
  • ..260,000,000 National Completion Policy Payments
  • 5,944,000,000 Specific Purpose Payments
• Other
  • 1,670,000,000 Dividends
  • ..171,000,000 Licenses
  • ..114,000,000 Fees
  • ..242,000,000 Fines
  • ..300,000,000 Royalties
  • ...53,000,000 Fire Brigade Levy on Local Government
  • ...98,000,000 Other

Which comes to the totals;

• 15,520,000,000 State Taxation
• 15,760,000,000 Commonwealth Grants
• ...979,000,000 Other

NSW is only fifty percent self-sufficient, it is reliant on the Federal Government for about half of its revenue. NSW has several choices, be the federal government's lackey and subject to their every policy and political whim; or decrease the size of the state by fifty percent, making the federal government irrelevant; or the nuclear option, tell the Federal Government that NSW no longer recognizes the Federal Government's ability to tax income. Even better, that the Federal Government cannot tax in NSW at all - a reverse grant scheme.

Carr should claim that in 2006 a new taxation regime will appear in NSW. The federal government is no long able to tax in the state and to maintain the upkeep of the Commonwealth government, NSW will apportion grants to the federal government to ensure common issues such as the national defence, coast guard, customs and trade are maintained at the appropriate level.

To further poison the naked power grabs of the Federal Government the state of NSW should institute innovative taxation means, such as a flat tax of 25% for individuals and companies. This will neuter Costello's plea to NSW businesses to leave for other states. A flat tax will be far more palatable to individuals seeking to lower their tax burden.

For instance in the year 2002-2003 NSW had taxable income of;

• 128,551,645,861 Individuals
• 107,780,949,517 Companies (private and public)

Twenty-five percent flat of that income would be $59,083,148,844. Of this amount NSW only needs 15 billion or so to top up the needs of the state, the rest it can send onward as grants to the Federal Government. See how the feds like it that way around. I wonder who will be quickly crying poor?

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While the focus has been on the Liberal Party's dominance of the federal Senate to push through bills with little care for deliberation, or parliamentary process, we see Labor passing bills with extreme haste in the NSW Parliament too.

From the article;

SOME of the most far-reaching changes to police powers and civil liberties in years - the counter-terrorism bill, which allows police to lock people up for 14 days without charge - passed through the NSW upper house at 2am yesterday, after just a day's debate.

...

Unlike the federal bill, the state laws received no scrutiny from a parliamentary committee, and Labor, independent and Greens MPs complained that the bill was being rushed through too quickly.

The Terrorism (Police Powers) Amendment (Preventative Detention) Bill 2005 was amended on the 30th of November, and on the 1st of December the Legislative Assembly agreed to the amendments. Unfortunately the NSW Hansard is busted on the NSW Parliament website, I cant go back and look at the Hansard for the 1st of December as the link is broken (incidentally the link for the Legislative Council Hansard is broken too).

So, while I can't confirm the amount of debate, it looks like amendments were rushed through the Assembly;

Second Reading: 30/11/2005
Date Committed: 30/11/2005
Reported with Amendments: 30/11/2005
Third Reading: 30/11/2005
Date Passed: 30/11/2005

I can recall when the attacks occurred on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, I went home from work and watched it on television, except the media distilled it down to a twenty second screen grab, that shows a plane hitting a tower - over and over. The plane would start a few hundred yards out, and then there was the big orange ball of aviation fuel going up. This was repeated ad-infinitum, on all channels. I turned the television off, as this constant repetition was making it into a Hollywood-style action movie, and desensitising me to the horror I felt when I realised these attacks were deliberate.

I fear I am suffering the same desensitisation with all the anti-terror laws, beating down on liberty and advancing the power of government to act in an arbitrary and silent manner. The rhetoric of "keeping us safe from violence" is constant, and parliament is so weak, the people have no voice, such that legislation like this is rammed through without debate.

Unfortunately I can't turn parliament off, or ignore it, so that I remember a time of greater liberty and prior to the dominance of the national security state and shadow state given legislative steroids by a supple and compliant parliament. There is a reason why the Federal and State Parliaments are avoiding debate on anti-terror legislation, they dont want there to be a debate on liberty. Government always loses that argument.

The NSW government passed legislation amending the Law Enforcement Act during a special sitting. This is the Hansard for the Assembly special sitting. This is the legislative amendment. It looks like populist legislation to ward off criticism of the NSW Government, both Labor and Liberal backed it, fearing that they would lose their tough on crime credentials. The Hansard doesn't claim why existing laws are not sufficient.

From the Hansard, Morris Iemma speaks;

These powers are not intended to be used in respect of peaceful protests, union demonstrations and the like. One of the most central parts of this bill is the lockdown powers. These will enable police to declare an area on the basis that large-scale public disorder is occurring or threatens to occur and then employ roadblocks and stop and search powers in or around that area. The disorder need not be constituted by one big incident, but can be constituted by several smaller incidents in different locations. This gives police freedom to nip a developing situation in the bud.

Like the anti-terror legislation, this is giving pre-emptive powers. There were police in Cronulla on Sunday. They had legal powers to arrest anyone who was under a range of infringements, drunk and disorderly, violence, etc etc. This new legislation is unnecessary. While it has oversight powers with the Ombudsman, it creates the ability for the executive to use the police force to lockdown legitimate protests on the premise of large scale "public disorders". This is described as;

public disorder means a riot or other civil disturbance that gives

rise to a serious risk to public safety, whether at a single location

or resulting from a series of incidents in the same or different

locations.

These can be done at the discretion of the Commissioner of Police, his Deputy or the Assistant Commissioner for a maximum of 48 hours. Any lockdown that is longer than that, can only be done through the approval of the judicial. A lockdown of any kind will only serve it inflame passions and indignation, more likely involving others who see this as an infringement of public rights. Violence is already covered in law enforcement, there is no need for the police to have this capability.

Search and Seizure

In addition the expectation to be free of unreasonable search and seizure is turned on its head.

These tough new sentences send a clear message to would-be thugs and hooligans: If you tear up the fabric of our society, you will pay the price - a price that as of today just got a whole lot heavier.

Violence is violence and is already covered. This is escalation of the penalty is another Helmet vs Sanderz, same as the $700 for a speeding offence. The NSW Labor Government has successfully proved it is tougher than tougher than tough on crime by taking things to ludicrous speed. This will not stop mobs gathering and committing violence. Only a quick, and speedy police presence will do that. This solves none of the problems.

From the legislation;

The special powers include a power to cordon off a targeted area (so as to

prevent persons entering or leaving the area) or to set up a roadblock on

targeted roads (so as to prevent persons travelling by vehicle to participate in

a public disorder). In a targeted area or at a roadblock, police officers may

exercise powers to stop and search persons and vehicles, require persons to

disclose their identity and to seize and detain vehicles, mobile phones and

other communication devices for up to 7 days.

The NSW Government and Police own you.

Helmet says;

Ludicrous speed;

The final measure I want to address is changes to the Bail Act 1978. Twenty three rioters charged over Sunday's riots have been granted bail, one of whom had been granted bail days earlier for assault and destroying property. It is unacceptable that such thugs and morons are automatically granted bail, just to be given the chance to wreak further havoc. This bill will help shut that revolving door by creating a presumption against bail for riot and for any other offence that is punishable by imprisonment for two years or more, where that offence is committed in the course of the person participating in a large-scale public disorder, or in connection with the exercise of police powers to prevent or control such a disorder or the threat of such a disorder. That way the police can do their jobs knowing that they will be backed up.

This is populist legislation that will get stuck on the books for far longer than it is relevant. The populism it does nothing;

That is an important point- backing the police. The police can be assured that they have our full support to use these new laws to rid our streets of the violence, the thugs, the hooligans and the criminals who have been responsible for the actions we have seen. Front-line police should not need to look over their shoulder wondering if sound policing decisions will be second-guessed. They will not be. Police will be free to use these powers as intended by this Parliament. Good, firm, effective policing will be rewarded, not questioned.

More like appearing to do something. This is more over the top legislation by populist politicians, fearful of saying the truth, we have laws to cover these problems already. So what does the Liberal party in opposition think, over to Peter Debnam;

The Opposition supports rushing the bill through the House, but there are some difficulties about it. Opposition members do not oppose the passage of the bill but we wish to highlight a number of concerns with it. The bill simply is not strong enough in almost all its provisions.

The NSW legislative process is reduced to posturing over who can be tougher on crime, forget liberty; forget rights; such as due process, such as facing your accuser, such as protection from unreasonable search and seizures; forget property rights. Nope it is a classic Helmet vs Sanderz. Our parliament is conducting itself in the same manner as a scene from a Mel Brooks movie.

The Pacific Highway has been dodgy for forty years. All NSW state governments have known it, but none have attacked the issue with a complete solution that involved putting a dual carriageway all the way from Sydney to the Queensland border. Travellers continue to pay for that ineptness today.

My sister was heading up to the North Coast for a holiday and got caught behind the big accident outside of Buladelah. The detour took four hours and added an extra 200 kms on to their trip.

It is no secret that the Pacific Highway does not fulfil the needs of travellers. It should be a dual carriageway with one speed limit the whole way up - no traffic lights. It is an important road which connects the Brisbane and Sydney economies. It is the NSW state government's disgrace that the Pacific Highway is still dominated by stretches of windy road with room for one car running either way.

Rather than invest in much needed transportation infrastructure, we instead get politicians blathering off how they will increase punitive measures - double demerit points; even increasing fines to ludicrous levels.

I have a better idea. Build the infrastructure that is needed. Bite the political bullet and do it. If it is costly, then remove the federal government's ability to tax income, and use that to build the needed transportation infrastructure.

The US embarked on a massive transportation project in the 1950s to connect the major cities together through a highway system. Originally intended to aid the movement of military equipment from coast to coast, it has had the added benefit of integrating what were once isolated regional economies.

Now it is four hours between Washington DC and New York by car. The North-East American economy is integrated from Boston to DC. Australia is dotted by the provincial and often isolated economies of the major cities. They should be far more integrated than they are. One of the reasons is because we have such crap infrastructure.

The Eastern economy is NSW, Victoria and Queensland with Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane being its epicentres and axis. NSW, Victoria and Queensland are the biggest exporters and importers of services in the country , contributing to 85.4% of services exports and 82.8% of services imports. Matt Wade reports that NSW may have a cold, if not the beginnings of the flu .

From the article;

NSW's jobs figures add to a litany of poor economic indicators. The state has had fewer building approvals in December than Victoria, Queensland and even Western Australia. Its small businesses are the nation's most pessimistic and are demanding lower taxes and less red tape. The state's share of the national economy is down from 36 per cent in 2000 to 34.3 per cent in 2004-05 - the lowest state ratio records began in 1989-90.

NSW's jobs outlook should keep interest rates on hold for the foreseeable future, although the Reserve Bank may find it tricky balancing the needs of the state with the resource-rich states.

In the fifties we rode the Sheep's Back, and it was not until the Hawke government of the 1980s that the economy was liberalised. Today we are in the lethargy of riding the Hole in the ground economy. The Howard government has been as much economic sticks in the mud as the Menzies and Fraser governments.

Since the Commonwealth enacted Freedom of Information [FOI] legislation in 1982, the States and Territories have followed suit with their own Freedom of Information legislation in that odd homogeneous manner in which government is conducted in Australia. In NSW the Freedom of Information Act was introduced by the Greiner Government in 1989 and it has since been amended a few times to incorporate local government and to reduce wait times.

In NSW the Ombudsman deals with FOI inquiries about other departments not responding to FOI requests. This function of the NSW Ombudsman was placed under Schedule 2 of the NSW FOI act effectively removing it from the public eyes. From the NSW Ombudsman site;

Why you can't get access to some documents held by the Ombudsman

In January 1991 the Ombudsman's office was included in Schedule 2 of the FOI Act. This means that we are no longer required to determine FOI applications for information about our investigative, complaint handling and reporting functions.

Some of our documents do not fall into the categories of investigative, complaint handling and reporting functions and are therefore still subject to the FOI Act.

Which seems a pretty cynical move by the government. In the mid-90s the NSW Ombudsman's office was fairly critical of the FOI and released several reports on the FOI including; Freedom of Information - the way ahead. Which is sadly not on the internet.

There is surprisingly little information around on the NSW FOI and how it is going or being conducted. It was enacted prior to the internet kicking as an informational archive and even recent discussion of it in the NSW Hansard is pretty sparse. Though Ian Armstrong in 2003 made a speech of public importance and the following debate which describes the purpose of the FOI well;

I raise a matter of extreme importance to the people of New South Wales and point out the responsibilities of government and the Parliament. Many things are incumbent upon members of Parliament, the Parliament itself and particularly the Government of the day, irrespective of its persuasion. A primary responsibility is communication between people and those elected to power: the Government. That communication must be open, honest and in a form that is understood by the average person. Proper communication is necessary for the good conduct of business, commerce, culture and recreation. It will help to improve the quality of life, to ensure that New South Wales prospers and that people receive what they are reasonably entitled to expect.

Business cannot operate properly without co-operation between the customer and business. The art of communication is extremely important; that is, communication between a service station attendant, a butcher, a doctor, factory operators or officers of the local shire to ensure that the shire and ratepayers have a good relationship and that the system works. The former conservative Government introduced the Freedom of Information Act. Under that legislation any citizen may apply to have information made available about a particular event, legislation or responsibilities under the management of the Government of the day. The Act is voluminous and contains certain exclusions.

These exemptions are primarily matters of significance in that they may compromise the Government in the exercise of its responsibilities, such as a matter of national or local security. Also, the legislation seeks to respect the privacy of individuals who deal with government matters on a daily basis. Those matters, quite rightly, are protected through the freedom of information legislation. However, since the introduction of the Act, from time to time successive governments have refused certain applications, but only very few.

Sinclair complains about a refusal which he believes expands the meaning of confidence and internal debate on decision making. The next day there was a debate, or more accurately a 'politics as sport' spat. Ian Armstrong summates with;

I simply reinforce that the matter of public importance is clear: It is accessing government information. That allows for the canvassing of any information for which the Government might be responsible and over which it has jurisdiction. Effectively, that is all matters which affect government, commerce and industry in this State.

A research paper from 2000 states that the aim of FOI legislation is;

The fundamental aim of FOI legislation is to promote and enhance the processes of democracy and representative government by increasing access to government information. FOI legislation aims to: provide open and accountable government; increase public participation in government decision-making; ensure that personal information held by the government is relevant, accurate, up to date and complete; and enable individuals to be kept informed of government decision-making processes that affect them.

It has also been recognised that government information is a valuable public resource that is collected and created with public money for public purposes. In this sense, government information belongs to the public, and governments are "trustees" of that information on behalf of the public. It follows from this that government information should generally be accessible to the public.

Further, it has been recognised that inappropriate government secrecy can allow corrupt practices to flourish, and that FOI and other accountability mechanisms help to protect against corruption.

One of the questions is whether it has achieved those objectives, Abigail Rath's research paper;

There appears to be consensus that the FOI Act has worked well in relation to providing access to personal information. More controversial is the question of whether the Act has achieved the objectives of open and accountable government and public participation in government decision-making. Many commentators, including the Ombudsman, Auditor-General, politicians, journalists and academics have expressed the view that too much government secrecy still exists.

Lee Rhiannon of the NSW Greens recently released a statement which stated that over the last ten years the percentage of documents that have been released in full has dropped from 84% to 63%.

So it looks like on the open and transparent government side of things there could be improvement.

More Information

• NSW Council for Civil Liberties - Freedom of Information
• NSW Research Paper: Freedom of Information and Open Government

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With Guy reminding us that last year's violence in Cronulla is looking like an aberration, it is also worth reminding ourselves that the emergency police powers bill that NSW passed immediately after the incident remains on the books.

The special powers include:

The special powers include a power to cordon off a targeted area (so as to prevent persons entering or leaving the area) or to set up a roadblock on targeted roads (so as to prevent persons travelling by vehicle to participate in a public disorder). In a targeted area or at a roadblock, police officers may exercise powers to stop and search persons and vehicles, require persons to disclose their identity and to seize and detain vehicles, mobile phones and other communication devices for up to 7 days.

In the 19thC Australians knew their convict heritage as 'the stain' and did all they could to prove they were loyal to crown and above such social and genetic bottom-dwelling. For modern Australians the fear of 'the stain' is more curiosity than any deep cultural resentment.

Halily apparently said on Egyptian television:

Anglo-Saxons came to Australia in chains, while we paid our way and came in freedom. We are more Australian than them. Australia is not an Anglo-Saxon country - Islam has deep roots in Australian soil that were there before the English arrived

Which is ignorance really and the same issue that conservatives face in trying to tie some Anglo-Briton history into the current Australian psyche. The modern Australian personality and state has little to do with such historical curiosities.

Halily is making the same mistake that conservatives do and arguing that historical events inform the modern pysche such that a negative event is a permanent chain. This is obviously false.

Recently my father in law gave me Thomas Keneally's A Commonwealth of Thieves . My father in law is American, and apologised when he gave me the book, meaning, he didn't intend to imply I was a convict or a thief. I laughed, Australia's modern founding is a curiosity for me, nothing more. It does not inform who I am, nor do I get upset if someone called me a convict and brought Australia's national honour into disrepute by slurring all Australians as the sons and daughters of whores and thieves - whatever.

My father in law and I have more in common than Thomas Kenneally's book would suggest. His family came out from Wales to work in the coal mines of the Pennsylvanian Mountains. One side of my family came out at from Scotland about the same time to works the coal mines of Helensburg in the mountains surrounding Wollongong.

Interestingly his family moved into New Jersey in World War II following the work that was available in the aircraft engine factories. The Scottish side of my family moved to Balmain during the depression.

I cannot say I am very interested in the convict era of Australian history. Other than a rebellion and a coup, politically the first fifty years was more one of trying to establish European civilisation in an alien landscape, though in Keneally's book Arthur Phillip comes off as a man of the enlightenment. The relationship between Phillip and Bennelong, and the allegory its serves as the connection between European and Eora, is a fascinating narrative. Keneally is a fast paced and interesting read anyway.

The 19thC is where Australian politics gets interesting as currency lads started plotting self-government: and many innovations as well as bad decisions were made. Two of the big currency lads of the 19thC, Dan Deniehy and William Wentworth were products of convicts and in the case of D'Arcy Wentworth - a free/bonded/acquitted transportee. Those two currency lads were to clash with highly competing views of what NSW Government should take - Wentworth a monarchist, and Deniehy a Republican.

Wentworth and Deniehy both became respected statesmen in NSW and leaders of competing political movements. For them the stain probably was a deep chip on their shoulder and an affront to their desire to be seen as respectable and inherently moral. For me - it is a historical curiosity, it carries no personal weight.

I think it is safe to say however, Halily is no republican.

Update

Irfan Yusuf has an article which documents early muslim convicts and sailors during the first few fleets of Australian settlement. The British were not too concerned who they sent to Australia as convicts, and it included native South Africans, Indians and even Canadians and Americans (America by that time was an independent nation, not a British colony!).