The Rudd Government's Cooperative Federalism Reform Agenda 2007-2010

Abstract

Prime ministerial power in the Australian federal context is somewhat constrained. This thesis investigates an Australian prime minister's power to achieve reform by examining Kevin Rudd's machinery changes to intergovernmental arrangements and his policy reform agenda in two key areas of shared responsibility. Rudd committed his government (2007-2010) to transforming the federation and pursuing a significant reform agenda using a strategy of cooperative federalism. Rudd's explicit invitation to states and territories to be partners in this reform appeared in contrast to ongoing Commonwealth centralisation of policy and recent decades of increasingly coercive intergovernmental relations. This study interrogates the notion of cooperative federalism which framed Rudd's approach to policy reform. It describes Rudd's centralising changes to the intergovernmental arrangements and examines his reform agenda in the areas of finance and health. Drawing on primary research of Rudd's parliamentary speeches and using a case study method, the research traces Rudd's reforms to intergovernmental finances and health from his pre-election commitments, through the policy development, to execution, focusing in particular on his engagement with the states and territories. The analysis shows that Rudd's policy solutions in finance and health were both centralist, but that the approach taken by him and his government differed across the two cases.