So apparently Tony Abbott is blocking the referendum on local government http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/coalition-delivers-blow-to-local-government-referendums-yes-campaign-20130702-2p8we.html

I’m not sure that I have a problem with this.

Australian Government is built on the notion of subsidiarity. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level (ripped totally from Wikipedia).

The Rudd healthcare reforms are underpinned by the principle of subsidiarity and yet the reality is the local health districts (LHDs) control some of the decision making yet in reality the State and Federal governments control the dollars and well…you can’t do healthcare without those dollars…so despite decentralised decision making the control is still centralised.

So if Tony is blocking the referendum…think of it in this context….subsidiarity can cause as many problems as the perceived benefits…..for the KRudds of the world it might just be for appearances not substance.