States are ‘past their use by date’ and must go: Barnaby Joyce.
By Sky News
The current federation system and the existence of states are past their use by date amid ongoing disruption between state governments and their federal counterparts, according to Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce.
“States are kind of irrelevant,” Mr Joyce told Sky News host Chris Kenny.
It comes amid a growing border feud between Victoria and South Australia with the latter shutting its borders as Melbourne’s COVID problem continues.
Meanwhile, Victoria and the federal government continue to battle over the issue of aged care facilities and whether the ADF was on offer to Victoria.
Mr Joyce said this crisis has shown how states are “past their used by date” given they were designed back in 1901.
He said it’s time to properly de-regulate government which means abolishing states and giving more jurisdiction to local government.
“If we have larger local government areas with real responsibility for what happens in the area, I think that’ll work better,” Mr Joyce said.
“Good state politicians will become good federal politicians, and good state bureaucrats will become good federal bureaucrats.”
