The Resilience Compact Model for Energy, Data, and Local Governance

After 125 years of centralisation, Australia’s federal compact has become administratively efficient yet constitutionally brittle. This paper proposes the Resilience Compact Model (RCM) — a framework of cooperative constitutional instruments that operationalise Sections 51, 92 and 96 for the digital-energy age. Each compact (Energy, Data, and Local Governance) translates the moral economy of federalism into modern practice: distributed power generation, sovereign information systems, and empowered councils acting as regional resilience nodes. Using RSQS-6D analysis, the paper sets out legislative templates and fiscal pathways for re-federalising Australia without formal constitutional amendment — returning accountability and innovation to the regions while maintaining national cohesion.