NORTHERN TERRITORY

The period under review in this chronicle—December 1980 to mid-August 1981—was, like 1980, characterized by relative political and administrative stability and consolidation. Such a climate of stability was, of course, to be expected as the system instituted with self-government was newly established and refined. Moreover, most of the election pledges which involved significant administrative implications had been implemented in the first months of the Third Assembly. If any major alteration to administrative structure or process is to occur (and there is no present indication of such intention by the government), it is likely to take place after the budget session in August.     

THE NORTHERN TERRITORY GOVERNMENTS CANBERRA REPRESENTATIVE

On 14 July 1980 an experiment began in Australian Federal-State relations which has been accorded little recognition. On that day the Northern Territory government opened an office in Canberra for its new "Canberra Representative". It was a step no State government had ever taken, although several had discussed such a move over the previous decade during general reconsiderations of the machinery of Federal-State relations. In particular, Sir Henry Bland's Board of Inquiry into the Victorian Public Service saw some benefits in the location in Canberra of one or more members of a proposed Commonwealth/State Relations Unit (now the Federal Affairs Division of the Premier's Department) in the State public service, although it chose finally not to recommend it