Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on Federal Financial Relations

COAG has reaffirmed its commitment to cooperative working arrangements through an historic new IGA that provides an overarching framework for the Commonwealth’s financial relations with the States and Territories (the States). 

More information on this Agreement and National Partnerships is now available.

Attachment D - National Advisory Committee on the Celebration of the Centenary of Federation

Council of Australian Governments Communiqué
8-9 June 1993

Terms of Reference

The purpose is to obtain an options paper for consideration by the Council of Australian Governments which identifies possible goals for the celebration of the centenary of federation, the strategies by which those goals might be achieved, and the involvement of various levels of government, interest groups and the community at large.

In formulating the paper, the Committee should set out goals and strategies for centenary-related activities in the years leading up to, and including the centenary, and draw on the views of the community through wide ranging consultations.

The Committee should consider activities which will commemorate the events being celebrated, consistent with the significance of the achievement of federation. It should however take as an over-riding objective the building of a better sense of national identity and purpose for the next century and should give emphasis to activities that will have enduring and worthwhile results that go beyond simply marking the occurrence of the centenary.

Particular matters to which the Committee should have regard include:

  1. The achievement of nationhood by the Australian colonies, including the events leading up to the enactment of the federal constitution.
  2. The national achievements of the first hundred years of federation.
  3. Ways in which an enhanced sense of national unity, purpose and confidence about the past and for the future could be developed.

In considering the strategies for the achievement of proposed centenary goals, the Committee should bear in mind the need to recognise activities which are already in progress or planned on a separate course, for example by the Constitutional Centenary Foundation or in connection with the issue of whether Australia should become a republic, or the Aboriginal reconciliation process.

The Committee's final report should be available to the Council of Australian Governments by May 1994.

Return to COAG Communiqué - 8 - 9 June 1993

Last Updated: 1 September, 2008