The aim of cooperation was clearly set out in the charter of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), stated in a communique of May 1992:

• increasing cooperation among governments in the national interest;

• cooperation among governments on reforms to achieve an integrated, efficient national economy and single national market;

• continuing structural reform of government and review of the relationships among governments consistent with the national interest;

• consultation on other major issues by agreement …

Cooperation—the search for common ground as a basis for joint action—is one among several ways of resolving problems of coordination. It is voluntary and 'signifies a relationship between entities capable of non cooperation—of divorce (or secession), competition or conflict' (Kincaid 1991). Thus, it is the outcome of a process of strategic choices by partners, in this case governments in a federation, who retain the capacity to resist or opt out. In this situation, even when cooperating they can still retain distinct (perhaps otherwise conflicting) purposes. Indeed, it may be more useful to think of intergovernmental relations in its ‘natural state’ as an arena of separate and mostly conflicting interests, and cooperation as an artefact that arises from conscious effort. What factors in Australia's federal system lead to cooperative strategies rather than to perpetual conflict? What sort of effort is required, and what circumstances are conducive to it?

Conflict, if unmitigated, can in practice interfere with cooperation, but the two are not mutually exclusive. In a stable federal system a measure of mutuality can be expected to evolve naturally, even in the presence of underlying conflict.