[LINK] Building the Australian National Health Network

[Jan Whitaker]

At 10:24 AM 11/03/2010, Kim Holburn wrote:
>with all these layers of government we blame it all on the top level.
>Where were the other two levels?  Federal government is supposed to do
>top level policy.  State and local are supposed to be there at the
>implementation. What went wrong with them?

I think that's a misunderstanding of federalism. It's not a top-down 
approach through all systems. There is a separation of areas of 
responsibility rather than a pure hierarchy.

The problem in Australia is the lack of the ability of states to levi 
certain kinds of taxes. So the money for social services has to come 
from Canberra. As they say, he who pays the piper calls the tune.

In your description, the feds would be the government and the states 
would be the 'departments' or executive administration of programs. 
That's not how it works.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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