Other things

Now that Kevin's Health deal is done - its time to move on to other things.

And depending on which side of the divide you are on things could be easy or hard.

If you are a State Premier then you will want to quietly cruise through this period and make sure that the Feds aren't in a position to threaten your existence with anything else - at least not for the next term or two. And so the Premiers will be doing their best to ensure that their education portfolios are humming along nicely. None of them will want to lose another 30% of their GST money - because if they did then they would look like complete dills and that wouldn't do at all - would it?

Imagine a state government that had responsibility for sewerage and police and - well not much else? Actually that would work in Victoria because it could be the same department ;-)

So state education systems should be well looked after for another term or two. Especially if Julia keeps the pressure up.

If you are associated with Kevin then you will want to be seen as a hero on health and be looking after the interests of those people who actually live in the states. Yes it is good to know that our federal government is looking over the shoulder of those lazy and incompetent state governments - looking out for we citizens - isn't it?

They saved our health system from certain decay and they will save our education system if needed. Or at least that is how my thinking is going ;-)

Politically it’s a big win for the Feds. What I can't work out is why the states haven't yet worked out a plan that gets them back in the game?