In a landmark High Court decision, the High Court of Australia threw out a century of progress and signed the death warrant of the Australian States which form the Commonwealth of Australia
The States are dead
By Tim Dunlop
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 01:01pm
No matter what you think of the IR laws that were the basis of the High Court case decided today, the ruling is a blow to anyone who believes in the Australian Federation and the liberal principle that government power should be as dispersed as possible. Today’s decision, granted by a 5-2 majority of the High Court, is yet another way in which political power in Australia is being centralised in the Federal Government. So while I have no opinion on the specifics of the legal argument—there’s no arguing with a 5-2 majority on that score—the net effect is not something I’m particularly thrilled about.
And when I say that power is being centralised in Federal Government, I mean the Federal Government, not just the Howard Government. As much as his boosters are loathe to admit it, one day there will be no Howard Government, there will be no Coalition Government, there will be a Labor Government in Canberra, and Mr Howard’s actions, which have precipitated this court case in the first place, have just handed that future Labor Government an enormous amount of power.
The issue, then, ultimately goes way beyond party politics.
To illustrate that, it is worth noting that two the dissenting Justices, Kirby and Callinan, are what you might call ideological opposites, but this issue has united them. Justice Kirby makes the point:
615 ...this is such an important case for the content of constitutional power in Australia. The majority concludes that not a single one of the myriad constitutional arguments of the States succeeds. Truly, this reveals the apogee of federal constitutional power and a profound weakness in the legal checks and balances which the founders sought to provide to the Australian Commonwealth.
Justice Callinan noted that, “The act in its present form is well beyond, and in contradiction of, what was intended and expressed in the constitution by the founders.”
I well remember all those Coalition politicians at the time of the Referendum on Australia becoming a Republic endlessly spouting the mantra that, “The States created the Commonwealth; the Commonwealth didn’t create the States,” a mantra designed to stave off what they thought of as the centralising, anti-State tendencies of becoming a Republic. It is more than a little ironic that the Prime Minister who killed that referendum dead, partly on the back of the states’ rights argument, has just been the birthing partner to a decision that arguably does more harm to states’ rights than a Republic ever would have. Having helped God save the Queen, he has just helped hand a future Labor Government enormous power.
Beyond that, well, the ironies continue. Given that Labor is traditionally the party that wants to take power away from the States, as well being the ones keen to fight the next election in large part on Mr Howard’s draconian new industrial laws, I can’t imagine that they are too upset about today’s decision. |
