Mind games

I was just thinking today as to what a better form of government in the 21st century might be.

Then I had a brainwave. We could hand over taxation to the unelected Reserve Bank and thus make taxation non-political. They could decide how much structural debt makes sense (or otherwise) and tax according to some simple and articulated fairness principle. Step one would be to get rid of all the ridiculous hand-outs and complexities in the taxation system and move them elsewhere – more on this below.

Then we could get rid of the federal and state governments and create a bunch of sub-governments with specific expenditure roles in the following areas:

1. Defence, International Affairs & Public Order
2. Education
3. Health & Hospitals
4. Social Security & Welfare Services
5. Infrastructure & Housing
6. Industry and Regulation

The rest could be left to the free markets.

Rather than having two parties compete for control of the whole she-bang, we could have multiple parties competing for oversight of each of the 6 areas, based on their credibility. Once elected by an e-voting system, each of these sub-governments would effectively act as company boards in their area of management. They would work by hiring the CEO of the relevant public service and then influence and monitor the performance of their portfolio via the board process.

The boards of each sub-government would each have to tender to the Reserve Bank their budget for their term of office and the taxation money would be divided up in a competitive fashion according to the quality of their plans, economic impact and track record.

There would be an independent authority to monitor for fraud and incompetence amongst the 6 sub-governments and the Reserve Bank, with the freedom to sack any of these if required.

Reserve power would be held by the GG, elected unanimously by the leaders of 6 sub-governments and the Reserve Bank.