Comment: When state borders are used as tools against us it's time to consider scrapping them
Australia has always erred on the side of caution – usually for health reasons. We have always tried to keep out international infection. Our planes have been sprayed, fruit has been confiscated. We have kept our pristine condition as free from infection as we know how.
The system is particularly notable with the state borders. Why are Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia allowed to close their borders to each other? Is this more political than anything? How wrong-headed has the Federation become when people travelling from Victoria through NSW to the ACT cannot move for days beyond Victoria because of bureaucratic malaise in NSW? Something is very wrong. Borders as we know them are a real problem.
What has become glaringly apparent is that this is the time to reform aged care. Surely we must change a system that allows the regulator to be federal, the administration to be a state responsibility, while the great bulk of the day-to-day carriage is with the private sector. Surely this is not what the founders of Federation intended? A clear line of responsibility, particularly funding responsibility, and full accountability should rest with one body.
This is the chance to attempt more fundamental reform. Radical change is now a possibility. Maybe we should be looking at the way we are governed.
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