July 8, 2006
There are several models of federalism currently on offer---Peter Costello's model is one of greater commonwealth powers that reduces the states to administrative units; John Howard's one is a pragmatic nationalism that has incrementally marginalised states' rights to centralization commonwealth powe;r and Steve Brack's (and former NSW Liberal premier Nick Greiner) model of co-operative federalism and power sharing between Canberra and the states.
Nicholson
The Brack's co-operative model advocates a "third wave of national reform". This agenda, endorsed in principle at this February's COAG, aims to lock the commonwealth and the states into a new regime of improvements in health, education, training, productivity and work-force participation based on the national competition model: incentive payments to the states for measured results. Extra federal payments would be tied to state delivery of the reform objectives. The fiscal logic is obvious: the dividends from economic reform in terms of stronger tax revenue must be shared.
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