[ozmaniac6558]

Having 3 tiers of government is incredibly wasteful and inefficient . We currently have 8 (or perhaps 9) Health Departments instead of 1; 8 (or 9) Education Departments instead of 1; 8 Police services and the list of duplications (multiplications) goes on and on. I'd get rid of state governments and beef up local government to some extent. That way, the Feds would look after all the things they already do plus all health, education, housing, police and prisons, infrastructure including all main roads, ports and dams, aboriginal affairs, transport except for local services and anything else aside from purely local affairs. Local government would cover wider geographical areas and handle things like garbage collections, local roads, local transport (buses, city trains, ferries etc.) and local amenities.Removing the states would cause a massive upheaval and I don't imagine for a moment that the states will ever allow it to happen but it's nice to dream. The state politicians and bureaucrats will fight to to death to keep their jobs and won't care in the least that the country would be better offIt could be done however: the federal government already funds pretty well everything from our taxes and hands vast amounts back to the states to be distributed (and often wasted) by them. State governments don't actually raise much in their own right and stamp duties, which were supposed to be replaced by the GST contribute a large proportion of what they do raise. Ah well, it's nice to dream.For sport and other things where competition is desirable, simply replace the states with regions determined on a population basis. It would be fairer than having a large population state like NSW competing against say, WA. It wouldn't take long before new rivalries replaced the old.