Take Tony up on his suggestion

A Labor Party not overcome with conservative caution would be rushing today to take up the suggestion by Liberal frontbencher Tony Abbott for a change in the Constitution to to empower the national parliament to make laws generally for the peace, order and good government of the commonwealth. Mr Abbott's proposed amendment to section 51 of the Constitution would not abolish the states, just ensure that in the event of disagreement the national government calls the shots.
The proposal was put forward this morning in a column written for The Australian and shows there is merit in encouraging MPs who are not ministers to supplement their income by a little journalism on the side. Tony Abbott knows that to keep getting the earn he needs so his lifestyle does not suffer too much from the loss of the perks of office that it is necessary to have something to say other than cheap political point scoring. His analysis of federal-state relations does that and is a reminder that he is one of the brighter men to serve in the House of Representatives.

Should Victoria be able to veto reform of water use in the Murray-Darling Basin? Should NSW be able to opt out of an education revolution? Should all the states bar Western Australia be able to stymie a national bid to provide more disability accommodation? I doubt it. Should modern Australia consider itself bound by the intergovernmental arrangements of a previous century, even as adjusted by the High Court? Or should matters in dispute be settled by the national parliament as the highest democratic authority in the land? On this, I think we all have a clear sense of where the public really stands.

Of the three options for fixing the federation, mere tinkering, on the grounds that this is about as good as it can get, is really a cop-out. Giving more authority and commensurate revenue powers back to the states is possible but implausible. So why not give the national government constitutional authority to match people's expectations about who should really be in charge? Let's amend section 51 of the Constitution ...
Tony Abbott believes change will come once the Rudd version of co-operative federalism fails, as it inevitably will, so people had better all start thinking about the best ways to make it happen.
Kevin Rudd would be wise to agree and a House of Representatives committee chaired by Tony Abbott would be an excellent way to get things started.

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