Western Victoria MP James Purcell has backed a proposal made by former Prime Minister Bob Hawke calling for state governments to be abolished.
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Mr Purcell said he thinks “Bob’s on the mark” on the issue, and reiterated comments he made in August.
The MP, representing Vote 1 Jobs, said even though getting rid of state-level government would render him obsolete, he still supported the idea to avoid duplication of resources.
“Any of the bills we go through, they’re just replicas of what other states and territories are doing,” he said. “Hopefully I do what I think is right.”
Mr Purcell applauded Mr Hawke for speaking up on the issue.
“All credit to him for coming out and saying it needs to be done,” he said.
However, Mr Purcell said he believes the proposal will never take off.
“There are too many people with vested interests,” he said. "They’re not going to change a system that’s very comfortable for them.”
Mr Hawke made the comments about getting rid of state governments as part of a plan to fix the nation.
The former prime minister – who won four elections and is considered one of the nation's most popular leaders – used what has become his regular address at Queensland's Woodford Folk Festival to once again push for a federation overhaul.
It's one of Mr Hawke's pet issues – having first made the argument in a 1979 Boyer lecture – and he said the time had come to "think big" and reform the nation's political set-up for the good of the country.
"What we have today – as I have said before – basically represents the meanderings of British explorers across the Australian continent more than 200 years ago," he said. “They wandered around and lines were drawn on a map and jurisdiction and governance followed.
"So you have 13 parliaments [including senates] dealing with much the same issues and I believe that the simple fact is the states should be abolished.
"I raised that with my own colleagues and, would you believe it, they are not overly keen on it. So many comfortable seats to put bums on in parliaments all over this country, but it seems to me that that is what ought to happen."
Mr Hawke said he would keep the state boundaries "for interstate sport and that sort of thing".
