Collaboration: a solution to inter-jurisdictional strife?

Abstract

A persistent feature of Australian politics has been the ongoing conflict between both different branches and different levels of the state.2 The allocation of scarce resources to provide essential services and infrastructure plays a central role in this conflict. Various collaborative governance regimes have been proposed to alleviate the problem. In 2004 the ARC began funding a three year project to explore this area that involved Griffith University, the University of Queensland, and Central Queensland University, that had developed a linkage partnership with the Queensland Departments of Main Roads, Transport, Natural Resources and Mines, and the Local Government Association. The focus of the research was a set of central Queensland case studies that were analysed to determine when and under what conditions collaboration between different parts of the state worked most effectively. The project has recently entered its final year and some interesting preliminary results are now emerging. This paper explores the results and implications of this research to date from a political science perspective.