RUDD MOVES TO OVERHAUL FEDERAL-STATE RELATIONS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CANBERRA 000310 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ECON AS SUBJECT: RUDD MOVES TO OVERHAUL FEDERAL-STATE RELATIONS REF: CANBERRA 305 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Since becoming Australian Labor Party (ALP) leader, Rudd has spoken repeatedly about "ending the blame game" between the federal and state governments. At the heart of the "blame game" is the funding imbalance between the federal and state governments. The federal government raises around 80 percent of total government revenue while the states are responsible for around 40 percent of total government spending. Therefore the Commonwealth provides significant funding, much of it conditional, to assist the states, who still continually complain that the federal financial aid is inadequate. In response, federal governments have argued that the states need to spend their money more efficiently. Rudd wants to "rebuild the Federation" through co-operation and incentive payments to improve services, rather than the sometimes confrontational approach of the former Howard government. The relationship between Rudd and the states has begun smoothly with a March 26 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting that reached an agreement on a national water plan (reftel) and some funding issues but this could change when Rudd starts to demand results. He has threatened a takeover of public hospitals from the states if they don't sign up to his hospital reform plan. END SUMMARY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS FINANCIAL POWER ¶2. (U) The federal government is at a considerable advantage over the states in collecting revenue because since 1942 it has had the exclusive power to raise income tax. States raise money through fees such as land tax, payroll tax (a tax on employers),poker machine tax, mining royalties, motor taxes and tolls. The federal government raises around 80 per cent of total government revenue, but is responsible for only about 54 percent of total government expenditure. In contrast, the states collect about 16 percent of total government revenue but are responsible for around 40 per cent of total government expenditure. The states' revenue shortfall is made up by the federal government distributing all the revenue raised by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to the states (around 16 percent of total government revenue) and through Specific Purpose Payments (around 11 percent of total government revenue). What this means is that the federal government transfers around a third of the money it raises to the states and that, collectively, the states receive more than half their revenue from the Commonwealth. ¶3. (U) The Commonwealth, largely due to its financial power, has increasingly involved itself in areas formerly the preserve of the states. A major mechanism for this is Specific Purpose Payments (SPPs) - under the Constitution "the Parliament may grant financial assistance to any State on such terms and conditions as the Parliament thinks fit." Introduced in 2000, the distribution of the GST (like the Financial Assistance Grants proceeding it) is based on "relative fiscal capacities" to assist states and territories provide comparable services. Therefore, it is no surprise that the Commonwealth Grants Commission has recommended that the two states benefiting most from the mining boom - Queensland and Western Australia - receive smaller shares of the GST in 2008-09 than the previous fiscal year. For the first time, Queensland joins New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia "in having an above average fiscal capacity." Under the Howard government, the larger states regularly complained that they were being disadvantaged in Qregularly complained that they were being disadvantaged in the distribution of the GST. RUDD'S AGENDA 4.(U) The intergovernmental process driving Rudd's agenda is COAG, which consists of the federal prime minister and the heads of each state and territory, meeting several times a year. At Rudd's first COAG meeting in December, he established seven working groups, each overseen by a Federal Minister. These working groups are health and aging, the productivity agenda - including education, skills, training and early childhood, climate change and water, infrastructure, business regulation and competition, housing, and Indigenous reform. These groups will play a key role in the implementation of Rudd's election commitments such as the "Education Revolution", improved hospital services, the establishment of a national infrastructure body, reducing red tape on business and addressing indigenous disadvantage. A key part of Rudd's federal/state reform agenda is modifying SPPs. On March 26, at a meeting dominated by news of an agreement on a national water plan for the Murray-Darling Basin (reftel),COAG agreed to reduce the number of SPPs from 90 federal-state funding agreements to five or six broad categories, without reducing their total value. Rudd and the CANBERRA 00000310 002 OF 002 premiers hope this will reduce duplication and yield greater administrative efficiencies, freeing up resources for frontline services. Rudd maintains the Howard Government used SPPs for short-term political pork-barreling with no national purpose. He will give the states more control over how SPPs are delivered but will put greater emphasis on them achieving results. HOSPITALS BIGGEST TEST FOR RUDD ¶5. (U) Mindful of public dissatisfaction with federal-state bickering over hospital funding, Rudd went to the election promising that "the buck will stop with me on hospitals." The state governments run the hospitals but the federal government provides around 40 percent of the funding. Under the Howard Government, the states - all of which have Labor-run governments - consistently claimed that the federal government under-funded public hospitals. The Howard government's response was that the state governments were bad administrators that had squandered the "windfall" gains from the GST. Rudd will provide the states with AUD $2 billion extra over four years if they sign up to his yet to be developed hospitals reform plan, which will include performance benchmarks. Rudd has said he will move to take over responsibility for public hospitals if the states do not make adequate progress implementing the plan. At the March 26 COAG meeting, Rudd and the states agreed to delay by a year the commencement of the next five year hospital agreement, pushing it out to July 2009. For the interim, Rudd has pledged to index the 2007-8 allocation and provide an extra AUD $500 million. He also pledged to provide 50,000 health workforce training places. COMMENT: WORDS THAT COULD HAUNT RUDD ¶6. (SBU) A federal MP from Tasmania complained in a meeting with us recently that the real problem with the current system is that no one takes responsibility. The MP charged that all too often, if you go to the state government about a problem, it will say that the federal government does not give them enough funding and if you go to the Commonwealth on the same issue, it will say it is a state problem. To his credit, Rudd is trying to change this buck-passing tradition but he also has a vested interest in this reform as the states' cooperation is essential for the implementation of some of Rudd's key election commitments. A centralizer by nature, Rudd is unlikely to reduce the Commonwealth's dominance over revenue collection but, with all state premiers from the ALP, he likely will work more harmoniously with the states than former Prime Minister John Howard. Ironically, Rudd's agenda is more a continuation than repudiation of the Howard approach. Under Howard, COAG's agenda also included regulation reform, boosting the health workforce, overcoming indigenous disadvantage and a national approach to infrastructure but COAG will be of greater importance to Rudd who wants it to be the "workhorse of the nation." ¶7. (SBU) Rudd and the states are working well together now but this may change when Rudd and the public start to demand improvements, particularly on hospitals. Almost daily, there are negative stories about New South Wales hospitals and state health minister Reba Meagher, who has been dubbed the "Grim Reba." The Opposition will remind voters that Rudd had said the "buck will stop with me on hospitals" - words that could haunt Rudd. CLUNE