Policy Capacity Within a Federation: The Case of Australia

Abstract

The Australian federation began with strong states and a coordinating federal government with a constitutionally prescribed and minimal list of responsibilities. Over the last century, with both public and high court support, the federal government has assumed more and more financial control and an expanding range of responsibilities. Many recent prime ministers have continued to encroach into areas of traditional state responsibility, aided by populist rhetoric such as ‘ending the blame game’ in shared areas of responsibility and a largely unchallenged belief that centralization will lead to improved service delivery and greater accountability (while partly relieving state government budgets). However, it is uncertain whether the federal government actually has the capacity, beyond the financial resources, to be able to deliver major social services such as health and education. A further complication is the involvement of an ever-increasing range of non-government actors. This study considers how the policy capacity of different tiers of government can be determined, strengthened and shared in order to improve service delivery. Against the backdrop of a federal government review of federalism and various reform proposals, it offers a new framework for allocating policy responsibility between tiers of government, as opposed to existing (more hollow) approaches such as trying to achieve subsidiarity.