@ Takius: Planning Question

[Lellybaby]

Our council is the largest in Australia, and our Major - Campbell Newman is the highest ranked liberal in Australia.

Pretty sad.

[Cartollomew]

The alternative is that there's no balance of power and the government just passes pretty much what it likes.

I don't have a problem with this. This is why they were elected, to run the country. Not to have to negotiate legislation with some independant nob who got there by preferneces, who wants 5 trees saved in his back yard. In any case, if the government pwns both houses, this happens anyway.

Sure, but it's at least as inefficient (if not worse) to have the government pass whatever it likes, put up with crappy changes for 1-4 years and then vote in someone else to reverse them.

My comment was more to do with the massive waste in resources by having this middle tier (State) government. Why do both levels of government have an education portfolio? Health? It's just waste.

Because some aspects of health/education affect us nationally, and some are (and should remain) the domain of the states - it's not the federal government's job to decide the details on building hospitals or schools (they get little enough time to address other stuff as is) and it's not the state governments' job to make decisions regarding Medicare.

Certainly, parts overlap as a result of the Feds using workarounds to force the states into doing one thing or another (like blanket .005 drink driving laws), but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
And the rest of the time it's better to let states run themselves - there's a lot more detail that we can't expect a federal government to handle well, even if it were triple the current size.

I'm not saying the system's perfect, but if you abolish a level of government, you're going to need a whole new system.

[Dropdeadqt]

Major Campbell Newman, Lord of the Salad Dressings!

[Takius]

Shot answer yes.

Long answer too drunk to answer. I'll tell you later when I am less fucked.