Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison has chosen a global pandemic as a suitable time to both extinguish the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and increase the level of secrecy and lack of procedural transparency surrounding decisions and actions of the federal government he leads.
COAG represented all three tiers of Australian governments - federal, state and local - and its role since 1992 was to manage matters of national significance or matters that need co-ordinated action by all Australian governments.
The President of the Australian Local Government Association had been a member of COAG since it was first convened. It was included because all parties recognised that Australia has three levels of government and that the tier with most impact on people’s daily lives in terms of the provision of local services and infrastructure is Local Government - as well as it being the most accessible form of government for citizens.
In early March 2020 Morrison created the ultra-secret National Cabinet comprising of himself as prime minister, all state premiers and territory chief ministers and, he appears to be the sole spokesperson for this body.
On 29 May 2020 Morrison announced that COAG was indeed dead. That the National Council was now going to be the centre of a new National Federation Reform Council (NFRC) and that the existing Council on Federal Financial Relations (CFFR), consisting of federal and state treasurers, will report to the National Cabinet.
According to Morrison all these bodies now fall under the confidentiality privileges of the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet which will also act as meeting coordinator. As will all the previous 8 COAG sub-councils and 32 ministerial forums, in whatever form they take after a planned review.
No minutes of meetings will be available nor will all issues discussed be made public.
According to the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet the NFRC has been agreed to by Premiers, Chief Ministers and the Prime Minister.
Local government was not consulted and now has no representative on the peak national body, as neither the National Council or the new National Federation Reform Council include a local government member.
Local government is not amused.
Clarence Valley Council. Ordinary Monthly Meeting, Minutes, p. 3, 28 July 2020:
It is not hard to see why Scott Morrison & Co do not want local government included as a member of these two national councils.
It can be seen in the titles of the six new National Cabinet Reform Committees created on 12 June 2020 as part of the NRFC-National Council:
- Rural and Regional Australia
- Skills
- Energy
- Infrastructure and Transport
- Population and Migration
- Health
Federal and state governments are not enamoured with the planning & decision-making powers which still remain with local government - only finding local councils useful as a vehicle to cost shift their own financial obligations onto ratepayers.
Mining companies, heavy industry and property developers in particular would like to see local government sidelined at policy level and, it appears that Scott Morrison is willing to oblige groups which include the Coalition's largest and most consistent political donors.
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