The missing billion? Revisions to health funding not unprecedented

Part of Australian health policy folklore is the claims and counter claims about health financing that endure between State and Commonwealth governments as well as between Government and Opposition. Perhaps the most famous example was the claim in 2003-04 by the then Opposition that Tony Abbott ‘ripped one billion from public hospitals’, which still persists today.

How healthy is the Australian Federation?

Image source: City of Norwood

 It’s a resilient if somewhat lethargic beast, but a recent check of Australian federalism’s pulse suggests that improvements to its fitness are in order.

The report of the Senate Select Committee on Reform of the Australian Federation concludes that Australia has been served well by its system of government—no coups or civil war, and a history of stable and prosperous democracy. But the Committee also says that to sustain dynamic collaboration and cooperation between governments at various levels, and to prevent outmoded governance arrangements from stemming the flow of benefits potentially available to the nation, urgent reforms are needed. The changes needed do not all require constitutional amendment—which is a plus given Australia’s poor record of change through constitutional referendums. Here’s what the Committee had to say.

Distribution of GST to the states

On Wednesday 30 March 2011, the Government announced a review of how the goods and services tax (GST) revenue is distributed to the states. This post looks at how GST revenue is currently distributed using horizontal fiscal equalisation. This post also presents some of the criticisms of equalisation, the role of the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) and the scope of the proposed review.