The Federalism Project at Griffith University commissioned Newspoll to ask 1201 people nationally to rate the performance of their state governments. NSW performed worst, with 61 per cent rating it quite poorly or very poorly, double the negative figure for the other mainland states.

Tasmania was the next worst, with 48 per cent; less than a third of Queenslanders, Victorians and West Australians were dissatisfied with their state governments.

In NSW just 9 per cent thought state was the most effective level of government - half councils' score and a sixth of the Commonwealth's; health, transport and education were identified as the main problems.

The poll had grim news for Tony Abbott's idea of amending the constitution to give the Commonwealth a specific power to take from the states whatever it likes. The Opposition frontbencher told yesterday's Herald he would argue for a constitutional amendment to allow Federal Parliament to override state laws "where it so wishes" as a way to fix the "dysfunctional federation".

While 79 per cent of poll respondents thought the Commonwealth should step in to solve issues the states had not, most thought it better for decisions to be made at the lowest possible level of government.

The project director, Alexander Brown, said that meant such a constitutional amendment was unlikely to succeed. To pass, it must win a majority nationally and in a majority of the states. "It would probably fail without state governments campaigning against it. The reality is that state governments would campaign against it … and it would even fail in NSW," he said.

"I think it's extremely unlikely, and for good reason," he said, pointing to the "fiasco" of the Mercy Hospital takeover in Tasmania during the federal election campaign. "I think it would be bad policy and wouldn't be electorally successful."

Instead, Dr Brown said federal takeovers - either by collaboration or Work Choices-style seizures - showed the pressing need for long-term structural change to the federation.

The poll showed two-thirds of Australians agreed something needed to change, but showed no consensus as to what.

Thirty per cent wanted to abolish the states (NSW was a little higher), and about the same number wanted to abolish councils, or introduce regional governments.

About half wanted to keep three levels of government, a quarter wanted two levels and 12 per cent wanted four. And 7 per cent believed the Commonwealth should be dissolved.

Dr Brown said a similar study in 2005 in NSW found state public servants were more likely to favour abolishing the states that employed them. "People feel like they are fighting the system just to get the job done," he said.