One man's rare win for states' rights may ring hollow | theage.com.au:
Federal governments have long spent billions of dollars of taxpayers' money on whatever they wished. The High Court found this week that they have been wrong in doing so. The decision leaves years of past and future federal spending in doubt, and is the states' most significant High Court win in many years.
I'll be interested to see how long it takes the conservative columnists' heads to start exploding as they try to reconcile this.
On the one hand, it's a mild slap in the face for the Rudd government, with the threat of more substantial ones to follow; it highlights the increasingly shaky financial position of the predominantly Labor state governments and the perceived need for greater centralised power (or, alternatively, less government, so that the market and free enterprise can fill the services gap at the state level); and it comes at a time when the conservative commentariat will be looking desperately for something to wave about to draw attention away from their floundering economic and political alignments.
But, on the other hand, it was a decision reached by judges, and judges (as any right-wing columnist worth their salt will assure you) are the absolute last people you want making binding decisions on legality or governance.
On the one hand, it's a mild slap in the face for the Rudd government, with the threat of more substantial ones to follow; it highlights the increasingly shaky financial position of the predominantly Labor state governments and the perceived need for greater centralised power (or, alternatively, less government, so that the market and free enterprise can fill the services gap at the state level); and it comes at a time when the conservative commentariat will be looking desperately for something to wave about to draw attention away from their floundering economic and political alignments.
But, on the other hand, it was a decision reached by judges, and judges (as any right-wing columnist worth their salt will assure you) are the absolute last people you want making binding decisions on legality or governance.
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