More than a century on and despite a population surge –there are now more people in Sydney than there were in Federation-era Australia – only those six states remain.

The rapid growth and urbanisation of our country has forced governments to become more city-centric and, in turn, forced regional centres to be consigned to poor cousins. A new state would, by definition, redress that imbalance.

It was tantalisingly close in 1967, but the separatist movement, which led to two royal commissions and ultimately a 1967 referendum in which 54 per cent of people voted no, gradually faded away. Now is the time to revisit the concept.

And Wagga, the gateway to the nation’s food bowl, should rightly be considered as the possible capital of a new state in southern NSW.

For all their lip service to decentralisation, our two major political parties are hopelessly out of touch with the needs and concerns of regional Australia.

That ignorance was writ large in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan debate and it has echoed through almost every state and federal budget since Federation. 

A new state would bring government closer to all the people, not just those in the capital cities.

The likelihood of governments gazetting a new state is slim. But it’s a debate we still must have.