The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 740 - 555: New Administrative Division

While the struggle between the United Kingdom and Ireland was in full swing, the political arena in Australasia was also bustling, with even the common people discussing various issues.

Of course, the main focus of the Australasian political scene was not on the UK’s civil war. Compared to the civil war, the people of Australasia were more concerned about the government’s new decision concerning the redivision of administrative regions in Australia.

The issue of administrative divisions in Australia has been an old topic, and the current divisions, which were inherited entirely from colonial times, are now quite irrational.

In terms of land area, West Australian State and South Australia State together occupy more than half of Australia, but the population is less than one-third of the country.

On the other hand, the smaller Victoria State and New South Wales State together have more than half of the Australian population, making management quite troublesome.

The facts have told the Australasian government that continuing with colonial divisions is unreasonable, and a new administrative division is needed to balance the disparities in land area and population between states.

Of course, when Arthur and the government redivided the administrative regions, they did not do so blindly.

Arthur had sought public opinion on the redivision of administrative regions many years ago. At that time, more than 60% of the over 100,000 Australasian people surveyed supported the redivision, and 20% were indifferent.

According to the latest survey results, 70% now support the redivision of administrative districts. This is the real reason Arthur is determined to promote the re-layout of the administrative divisions.

Since public support has been obtained, it is time to put the issue into cabinet and House of Representatives discussions.

The process of redividing the administrative regions is divided into three steps. First, various media, newspapers, and the government will solicit opinions from the public and collect design proposals for the administrative divisions.

Afterward, voting on the many design proposals will be held in the House of Representatives, selecting divisions with higher support rates, and then submitting them to the cabinet for final voting.

The final administrative division with the highest support rate will be the new administrative division of Australasia.

After the announcement of this process, the public’s enthusiasm for redesigning the national administrative divisions was quite high.

After all, this was an opportunity to participate in the nation’s affairs, and with good fortune, even decide the country’s future administrative divisions.

Of course, designing administrative divisions is not based on empty talk. It has to take into account the distribution of cities, mountains, rivers, and the population size of the area.

Therefore, planning the divisions cannot overly rely on the public’s design. All members of the House of Representatives must present their own ideas, as well as designs from relevant experts. It is a nationwide design competition.

The changes to the administrative divisions are all concentrated in Australia, with no significant changes for New Zealand and New Guinea, so there is no need to modify these areas.

Of course, for accuracy in designing, the location and details of the new capital have been fully announced in the news, ensuring people do not forget its existence.

The discussion on administrative divisions will last for five months, during which the public can submit their proposals to newspapers or the House of Representatives at any time.

However, what the government and the House of Representatives really value are the guesses of administrative divisions by officials and corresponding experts.

Most of the public’s considerations are impractical or do not consider comprehensive factors, making the final divisions unreasonable.

Reasonable administrative divisions rely on those who have experience in politics and professional knowledge about each state’s specific situation.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Arthur also assigned William a task, which was to design an administrative division for the Australian region.

William had enjoyed an elite noble education for over a decade, and it was time to examine his attainment and thoughts over these years.

What Arthur did not expect was that within a few days, William had submitted his administrative divisions for the Australian region.

William’s plan was to establish a new Capital Territory around Saint Arthur Castle, similar to the previous Capital Territory, independent from the rule of New South Wales State.

At the same time, the territory containing Sydney was changed to the Sydney Territory, together with the Capital Territory, forming two Special Administrative Regions in the east and west. Discover hidden tales at empire

However, for the division of New South Wales State and Victoria State, the young man was somewhat puzzled.

In the end, he decided to split off part of the border area between the two states to establish a new state and alleviate the management pressure they both faced.

Overall, this design had some merit, but it could only be considered as imitating the previous Capital Territory.

Such division would not bring much change to the current administrative divisions in Australia and could not be considered a good plan.

However, designing administrative divisions is indeed not easy. Even for professional experts, relevant comprehensive considerations need to be made to divide seemingly reasonable administrative areas.

But whether it is rational or not depends on the impact of the new divisions on people’s lives, and whether it will facilitate the new state governments to manage their territories accordingly.