Nationals call for local government to have constitutional status
Nationals leader David Littleproud is calling for a referendum on local government, labelling the current power-sharing model between the states and territories “lazy and unproductive”.
He has written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese asking for support for constitutional recognition of local government, to āreduce inefficienciesā and āimprove service delivery for Australian communitiesā.
āIn designing our federation our forefathers enshrined certain functionality to our states. Fast-forward 122 years and I suspect they would be saddened to see the evolution of federation,ā Littleproud said.
āBut today the statesā and territoriesā business model is to just blame Canberra and ask for more money. It has become lazy, unproductive, and frankly we can do better.
āOur federation was at its best when competitive federalism was at its core, when states competed against one another for both population and capital investment.ā
In 1988, the Hawke government held a referendum proposing constitutional recognition for local government by the Commonwealth. It failed, with only 33.61 per cent of voters agreeing to the change.
The Albanese government will prioritise putting the āvoice to parliamentā referendum before the Australian people, having pledged that a vote will be held in its first term.
Australian Local Government Association president Linda Scott backed the move to recognise councils.
āThis is an important discussion that shouldnāt be rushed, and we support the governmentās approach of holding a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament before progressing constitutional recognition of local government,ā she said.
Littleproud said allowing local government to compete against the states would reduce duplication and improve transparency and services.
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āWhether it be in Charleville or Dubbo, local government gets it,ā he said.
āWouldnāt it be more efficient to provide them with the money directly, rather than passing it through the state governments to clip the ticket?
āTheyāre on the ground, they know their communities and want taxpayer dollars to go even further.
āThe Nationals stand prepared to sign up to this journey, and itās now time for political leaders of all persuasions to take that step as well.ā
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