Managing the Australian Federation beyond Covid-19
How to achieve long-lasting intergovernmental reform
by Dr Tracey Arklay
The news that the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) was officially relegated to the annals of history was met with subdued applause. The National Federation Reform Council (NFRC) with the National Cabinet at its centre is the replacement — a more streamlined, decision making alternative, which has been tried and tested during the COVID-19 emergency. The National Cabinet has brought decision makers together in a spirit of bipartisan cooperation to tackle a sudden and devastating health and economic crisis. Its success, according to the Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been due to the lack of ‘theatre’ and politics that were a common feature of COAG meetings.
At a recent CEDA event ‘Resetting Federation for recovery and reform’ speakers Jenny Menzies and John Brumby considered how this new intergovernmental forum would work post COVID. These speakers, who between them have vast experience as intergovernmental officials and leaders, pondered on what innovations the National Cabinet would need to implement for it to continue as a successful decision-making forum. One fact is clear. The favourable spike in opinion polling for all the sub-national leaders signal how much Australians appreciate a collaborative and cooperative approach to decision-making. While the crisis required a fairly united and quick decision-making process, which left little time for short-term politics, the question remains whether the National Cabinet can achieve anywhere near that level of consensus in the longer term. Politics is a serious business, and argument and debate are an essential feature in a democracy. Too often though policy has become embroiled in short-term, personalised politics that ends up diminishing the very institutions at its core. What needs to occur to ensure the new NFRC will succeeds was the focus of the CEDA discussion.
The apparent ability for leaders to push aside partisan interests during the COVID crisis has given some cause for hope that intergovernmental arrangements could be made less fractious. Yet as the CEDA speakers remind us, the DNA of COAG also runs through the National Cabinet and indeed provided intergovernmental structures that allowed the National Cabinet to get up and running quickly. The success of the National Cabinet moving into the future will depend in large part on the willingness of the Prime Minister to work collaboratively with his state counterparts. COAG was hamstrung by having its meetings and agendas dependent upon the whim of Prime Ministerial edict. To work, more regular meetings of the National Cabinet will be essential. Alone this isn’t enough. There is a need for an overhaul of the culture of intergovernmental meetings. John Brumby suggests a ‘Code of Conduct’ familiar enough to businesses and sporting clubs, that would curtail the bad behaviour that sometimes mired COAG meetings.
Menzies reminded the CEDA audience that the National Cabinet still suffered critical defects which included being controlled by the Commonwealth. This potentially hampered the clarity regarding who sets the agenda and what would constitute a national priority in a post Covid 19 environment. Centralised control combined with the churn of leaders that has become a recurrent feature of Australian politics, means that developing respectful relationships among the leadership group was a necessary first step. It could certainly end some of the blame-shifting that has tended to dominate COAG. Some of these problems could be overcome with more frequent meetings and by establishing clear performance indicators that are measured and reviewed by an independent body.
Leadership is a key factor here. All too often working cooperatively with the States has never been top of mind for Prime Ministers. Australia is a large, decentralised nation and this crisis has highlighted the limitations of centrally driven public policy. Yet, as Cheryl Saunders has noted ‘As the immediate crisis dies down, there will be pressures to revert to old-style intergovernmental relations, dominated by the command and control techniques that the National Cabinet process has discredited by example’.
The current crisis has shown leaders that political capital can be increased by working cooperatively. Australians trusted the facts being presented to them — facts based on scientific evidence and advice from experts. Ideological differences were cast aside, and Australia has fared relatively well so far in comparison to other federations where this level of cooperation was lacking. Yet there are many problems that remain, not least the issue of vertical fiscal imbalance that will need serious attention and broad agreement on issues relating to revenue and tax reform, climate change, indigenous affairs, poverty, education and health. The agenda is huge and leadership at all levels of government will be needed if there is to be any chance of success.
As one writer has noted while ‘the national cabinet worked well during the COVID-19 crisis … that spirit cannot be taken for granted’. In recent days we have seen the Prime Minister criticise Victoria over Black Lives Matter protests, and has attacked the Queensland Premier for not opening the State’s borders more quickly. Bipartisanship so quickly can fall by the wayside. In February 2020 the Edelman Trust Barometer reported that the level of trust Australian’s place on institutions had fallen dramatically. Following the management of the summer bushfires by the Prime Minister, Edelman reported Australians felt its institutions were unfair, dishonest and lacking in a vision for the future. Edleman Australian CEO Michelle Hutton argued that ‘Australians no longer feel in control. The new decade marks an opportunity for our institutions to step up, take action and lead on key issues that will unite Australians and instil hope for the future’ [4]
The National Cabinet has given us cause for hope, but how long will it last?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TRACEY ARKLAY
Dr Arklay is Senior Lecturer in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University and a Research Fellow with Griffith’s Centre for Governance and Public Policy.
She is the author of Arthur Fadden: A Political Silhouette (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2015) and co-author of The Ayes Have It: A History of the Queensland Parliament 1957–89 (ANU Press, 2010).
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