The Northern Territory's intergovernment relations

Abstract

There is a tendency in academic studies and in the media for inordinate attention to be paid to the competitive and conflictual face of government and politics in federal systems. This is so for a number of reasons. Conflict is played up by representatives of governments because it is easy to blame 'the other side'. State leaders play the game of 'Canberra bashing' because their local media appreciate it, and because it rallies their constituents behind them. Conflict becomes the public face of federalism, too, because disagreement and argument are more newsworthy. This is true of most reporting of politics. The public image of relations between the Northern Territory and the Commonwealth government is certainly no exception to this general rule. In fact, it has often been said that these relations are even more conflictual than is usually the case in Australian federalism, because of the long history of 'benign neglect' and 'colonial' domination of the Northern Territory by the Commonwealth of Australia, and because of the fact that since self-government was given to the Northern Territory in 1978, the Commonwealth government has held back for itself a number of significant responsibilities. A recent discussion of Northern Territory government and politics sums up the standard view: The relations between the Commonwealth and the state governments can normally best be described as a stable condition of mutual suspicion. But relations between the Territory and the Commonwealth go beyond even that. The Northern Territory government exhibits a hostile suspicion towards Canberra that appears to verge on paranoia but in reality reflects the longer term economic and political difficulties faced by the Territory. 'Canberra' assumes an importance in Territory politics that is unique among Australian states, 'Canberra' is the fulcrum of Territory politics. This is so for both constitutional and economic reasons (Gerritsen and Jaensch 1986, 152). This study sets out to paint a fuller picture of the place of the Northern Territory in the Australian federal system. In so doing it seeks to redress the balance somewhat by concentrating not on the public face of federalism which is played out in parliament, in press releases and in election campaigns and which subsequently dominates media reports, but on the private face which is daily life for public servants and politicians. This is the world of intergovernmental relations in which representatives of the Commonwealth, states and territories work alongside one another and are in frequent contact with one another making and implementing public policies across the whole spectrum of government activities. Most of these representatives are public servants; some are ministers. Public servants as a whole do not have a high profile so much of this activity is out of the public eye, unrecorded and hence unreported. Government is a collective term for a large number of individuals: a team of ministers supported by thousands of public servants and other government employees organised into departments and agencies. Intergovernment relations means, therefore, any contact or joint activity between any part of two or more governments. In the Northern Territory's case it may be an informal meeting between the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister (Paul Everingham recalls a fleeting conversation which he had with the Prime Minister between two passing cars in Darwin); it may be a telephone call between a Northern Territory public servant based in Darwin and a Commonwealth public servant based in Canberra; it may be two such officers located in Alice Springs or one of the smaller Northern Territory towns or communities cooperating in a joint program. Some of the relations are formalised: a meeting of the Premiers Conference and Loan Council in Canberra; a workshop for technical experts anywhere in Australia; a Northern Territory Treasury submission to the Commonwealth Grants Commission or to the Industries Assistance Commission. The possibilities are endless. Intergovernmental relations encompass a web of activities, which the professional literature disarmingly calls interaction. This study is about all of these relations. The four major chapters are about the most important elements in the Northern Territory's intergovernmental relations: (i) intergovernmental meetings of many types between ministers and/or officers; (ii)the role in intergovernmental relations of the Northern Territory's central agencies: the Chief Minister's department and the Treasury; (iii) relations which take place in the Northern Territory between a part of the Northern Territory government and a part of the Commonwealth government which is located in the Northern Territory; (iv) the part played in intergovernmental relations by Northern Territory Government representatives in Canberra, including Federal parliamentarians and lobbyists. The aim of this study is to describe as many aspects of the relationship as possible and to generalise about them. As there is not one relationship but very many, generalisation is difficult and potentially dangerous. However, rather than focus on one or two departments, institutions or policy fields the study aims to explore the diversity and variety in the relationships. Where a choice has had to be made, depth has been sacrificed for breadth. Participants whom I have interviewed will all know much more about their particular field than I do, but I hope to have gained a perspective of the whole which very few, if any, participants possess.