The original meaning of federalism was a system meant to guarantee local autonomy and self-determination, within a context in which some limited prerogatives are allotted to a central government created specifically to deal with common problems.

Today, in Australia, federalism refers primarily to the centralization of power. A system devised specifically to guarantee the cultural particularity of the political units constituting the federation has been turned into its
opposite, where the central government increasingly regards the various units as nothing more than transmission belts to implement the center’s mandates.

This reversal of meaning is a perfect example of how the New Class exercises its hegemony in order to redefine reality in its own image.