At Master Coaching we like other businesses operating in different states, have a hands on understanding of the tricky State-Federal government relationship and the duplication that results due to the lack of uniformity in having clear and consistent national education standards and curriculum’s. Each States education department is bloated with career bureaucrats busy making their own syllabuses and maintaining their own fiefdoms. What we really need is a streamlined and integrated national system from the Federal level that delivers national standards, and saves 8 States and Territories from meaningless duplication and waste of taxing payer’s money. Why keep re-inventing the wheel?
To give you an idea how this effects business lets look at the tuition business. Like many sectors in this economy, the tuition business is still shackled by the remnants a bunch of independent colonies deciding to merge and form a federation a little over 100 years ago. The colonies did this for a few matters of collective national interest whilst at the same time they sort to retain and grow their own bloated bureaucracies in order to maintain their power base and continue justify their large tax base. Slowly for the sake of national interest we are seeing this system become more centralized and taken over at the Federal level like the government is attempting to do for water management, and does for Industrial Relations, Foreign Affairs, and Immigration amongst others. We encourage similar centralization for the management of Australian education as long as the appropriate checks and balances remain in place. Clearly centralization will not work if all major decisions come direct from the Prime Ministers office, like has seemingly been the case with Immigration, Defense, Foreign Affairs, Industrial Relations and Health since the Howard era ushered in the slogan of “a war on terror”.
Each time we have a new franchisee in a State or Territories that we haven’t operated in before requires us to adjust contracts, study and lesson materials and curriculum, subject criteria, so we have to re-invent the wheel every time we set-up a new centre, even if its just a token one-off centre in Queensland or Tasmania. Is this system serving business and the community to its fullest? With less hoops to jump through due to the duplication everyone’s taxes can be lower and business can be more focused on their competencies. Obviously I don’t believe taxes will ever be lower, but at least they could be better spent. Where is the sense in having each state and territory having its own departments make duplicate efforts in developing their own syllabuses?
If the government is really serious about reform of business in this country, than we also need a government that is serious about reforming the relationship between the Federal and State governments, and the responsibilities of each. Should tax payers really have to pay for such wasteful duplication? Wouldn’t uniform national standards make more sense rather than have 8 States and Territories preparing standards and charters for a small nation of only 21 million people?
This link discusses the same topic a bit more http://brucehaigh.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=33
