DRUMMOND, Mark <br/><br/>
Costing constitutional change :  estimating the costs of five variations on Australia's federal system 

 - Oxford :  Blackwell Publishers Limited,  December 2002                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
<br/><br/> Australia's system of government is by far the most centralised of the four `classic` federations, hosting extremely centralised states, exceptionally weak local governments, and little of the substantive decentralisation and subsidiarity often presumed to derive from a federal structure. Five variations on the present structure are examined to estimate the costs of improved decentralisation, including New States models as traditionally advocated. Regional States model based on the ACT combined state - local prototype, and a National - Local models could deliver greater decentralisation while saving over $20 billion per annum compared to the present system. Generally, the analysis suggests that coherence modelling of alternative government structures may be more feasible than previously thought