Why some see Aussie system of government as ‘too bureaucratic’
Centre left-right: Britain's Prince Charles, his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull attend the opening ceremony of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games at the Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast on April 4, 2018. PHOTO | ADRIAN DENNIS |
What you need to know:
- The Commonwealth Games are being held in the Queensland State city of Gold Coast.
In governance, Australia is perhaps best described as a “representative democracy and a constitutional monarchy.”
Australia has six state governments and 10 territories, two of them on the mainland.
The state governments are Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland and New South Wales.
The Commonwealth Games are being held in the Queensland State city of Gold Coast.
Of the 10 territories, two are on the mainland, namely the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory whose headquarters are in Canberra and Darwin, respectively, and these have limited rights of self government.
The six state governments can make their own laws and have their own constitutions.
Officially referred to as the “Commonwealth of Australia” and formed on January 1, 1901, Australia has a parliament headed by the Queen of England (represented by the Governor-General) and also has the Senate and House of Representatives.
A taxi driver in Gold Coast laments that having a three-tier system featuring the council level, regional and national governments makes it “too bureaucratic.”
“For laws to be passed, issues have to pass through unnecessary bureaucracy and this takes a long time to implement,” he complains.
The cab man’s complaints echo recent concerns by transport companies whose trucks had to recently wait for as long as 100 days to get road access permits to cross different states as they transported time-sensitive equipment.
In the latest news, the national government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has offered one billion Australian dollars (Sh77 billion) to improve the road from Brisbane to the Gold Coast by creating more lanes, widening others and extending bus ways to unblock the nagging traffic gridlock.
But the PM wants his offer matched, dollar for dollar, by the Queensland State Government, headed by premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, which could take some time as there could be disagreement over how much each level of government needs to contribute.
Already, the Palaszczuk government is lamenting that PM Turnbull’s allocation for the project is “too little.”
