Governance This second article on the Aged Care Royal Commission[1] discusses the governance structures for the aged care sector canvassed in the Commission’s report. The Commissioners differed on the issue. Commissioner Briggs’ model was a ‘stewardship’ model vesting governance responsibilities with with the Federal Department of Health and Aged Care: One presumes that a ‘stewardship’ [...]
The Government has received the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (the Royal Commission).[1] A Split Royal Commission The Commissioners divided on governance and funding issues. This is an extremely unusual outcome. Royal Commissions tend to provide unanimous recommendations. At the very least, there is usually an odd number of Royal Commissioners to [...]
Australia has what is known as a ‘executive federalism’ system of government. As Brian Galligan has said: Federalism that divides government between separate spheres, especially when such division is heavily concurrent as in the Australian case, requires extensive inter-governmental relations and arrangements. The resultant system of 'executive federalism' entails dealings between the Commonwealth and State [...]
The previous article introduced the Conran report[1] and identified some issues requiring further consideration. These are now discussed. The National Federation Reform Council held on 11 December 2020 established the priorities of the National Cabinet Reform Committees (NCRC) for 2021: As Conran says: National Cabinet will stand up and task these NCRCs with high priority [...]
The Government has published the Review of COAG Councils and Ministerial Forums[1] otherwise known as the Conran Report (Conran) and its associated Guidance for Intergovernmental Meetings[2]. As Conran said at the beginning of the report: The intention is to bring implement the change of intergovernmental arrangements arising from the abolition of COAG and subsequent adoption [...]
The Budget was handed down on 6 October. The broad nature of the document is by now well known: the Government has total current liabilities of 1.6 trillion dollars[1] with real GDP to fall by 3.75% in calendar year 2020[2], and total gross debt projected to stabilise at around 55% of GDP in the medium [...]
The Council on Federal Financial Relations (CFFR) has a lot of heavy lifting to do under the new National Federation reform structure. Not only does it have to revise and rationalise National Partnership Agreements, it is at the front and centre of taxation and regulatory reform. In relation to deregulation, as it happens there is [...]
As the Victorian Parliament’s Federal-State Relations Committee observed in 1998, Prime Minister Hawke expressed a commitment to improving intergovernmental decision-making, following a particularly acrimonious Financial Premiers Conference in June 1990. The first step was to propose a number of procedural changes to the Premiers Conference itself, with the intention to reduce its ad hoc nature, [...]
The Prime Minister, amongst others, has expressed the view that COAG is a place where good ideas go to die. On 29 May 2020, the PM said: COAG is no more. It has been replaced by a completely new system and that new system is focused on the success that has been yielded by the [...]
As the Prime Minister told the press club on 26 May: An educated and highly skilled workforce that supports not just a thriving and innovative services sector, but a modern, competitive and advanced manufacturing sector. The skilled labour businesses need to draw on, the affordable and reliable energy they need, the research and technology that [...]