Gold, gold, gold as Victoria wins in treachery, lying and incompetence

After one of the worst ever years for Australians, our state governments are lining up for medals for collectively delivering the nation’s worst public administration since Federation.

The performance of the states — taken together — calls into question the very capacity of our federation to exist in its current form and confront the challenges of the 21st century. All politics may be local, but issues that really matter tend to be national or global.

The difficulties in making the National Cabinet fully functional is a testament to the idiocy of parochial politics. It underscores what we all know to be the petty-minded nature of junior governments in being unable to agree on anything of consequence in voters’…