The John Hyde Archives

Historic archive of articles and newspaper columns written by former Australian politician John Hyde OAM.

Politics

Abuses of privilege cost MPs respect

Politics 

  • Is it necessary for an MP to raise the issue in Parliament?
  • Is it necessary to identify the guilty party?
  • Has the MP done no more than address the wrong done?
Read more...

Less Haste makes for better bills

Law  Politics 

  • The Parliament passes legislation too quickly.
  • Most members understood or even read any bills, which are unnecessarily complex.
  • Only in rare circumstances, should innovative legislation be passed in less than four months.
Read more...

A Christmas Carol

Welfare  Taxation  Politics 

  • In 72, Gough Whitlam committed Labour to abolish the means test to receive welfare payments.
  • It is more important for Governments to be correct than to be popular.
  • Governments using welfare payments to buy votes.
Read more...

A Christmas Carol Strikes Back

Welfare  Politics 

  • The Liberal Cabinet is hobbled by an early election.
  • Welfare should be for those who need it.
Read more...

No Title (unpublished)

Politics  Leadership 

  • The ebb and flow of political fortunes
Read more...

Where now

Politics 

  • Party allegiance should not be built upon hatred of one's opponents but rather allegiance to an ideal.
  • Liberalism offers the Liberal Party the only hope of moral and intellectual structure.
Read more...

Unknown

Politics  Economics 

  • Political restructuring is essential and part of the process.
  • In a commercial setting, people "vote" using their dollars. It is then wrong that their votes are confiscated by limiting their choices to certain anointed candidates in a political setting.
  • If Australia is unable to accept steady restructuring of our industries in accordance to market demands, then bloody restructuring becomes necessary when we become impoverished.
Read more...

The opposition and the Mini Budget

Politics  Economics 

  • If Labour does a better job of managing the economy, then the Liberal party will be in opposition for a long time.
Read more...

Thatcher's Victory

Politics  Economics 

  • Two myths were: 1) society has a deep-seated prejudice against women & 2) elections are won by a party that espouses the middle ground.
  • People voted for hope that the economy would get better
  • A democratic government can earn the respect of its people by governing for the long term.
Read more...

Another Premiers' Conference

Politics  Budget  Taxation 

  • Premiers can make a lot of political trouble for a Prime Minister especially those that are from the same party.
  • The Prime Minister has become a convenient whipping boy for state politicians that complain about Federal taxes while saying that the Federal Government's stinginess is not helping with their state's expenditures.
Read more...

The Long Term

Politics  Economics 

  • A nation whose economy stagnates will become hard to govern.
  • Poor growth also compounds political problems that are associated.
Read more...

Where will the ideas come from?

Politics 

  • Influential thinking is now done outside of universities in independent research foundations.
  • Each successful foundation has gradually won the support of politicians, media and the community-at-large.
  • The ideas that sustain a free society are more likely to come from organisations that do not have a vested interest.
Read more...

The Budget

Politics  Budget  Taxation 

  • A good budget speech is one that discloses various interests at the first reading.
  • Liberals preach free enterprise but practice socialism.
  • Families should not be taxed additionally to provide free tertiary education where a student loan would suffice.
Read more...

To Doug Everingham

Politics 

  • Lack of agreed upon lexicon makes political debate difficult.
  • An economic stagnant society is an intolerant one.
  • Economic freedom is intertwined with freedom of the human spirit.
Read more...

Peacock's Deakin Lecture

Politics  Cronyism 

  • Without political leadership, vested interests will control the Liberal party.
  • The Deakin lecture lacks credibility as it did not confront the tough choices present.
Read more...

The Liberal Federal Movement

Politics  Leadership 

  • A country's future is dependent on the goals that are chosen by Politicians
  • To give guarantee for future performance by a politician is like an alcoholic guaranteeing his or her sobriety.
  • To govern effectively one needs a long-term strategy.
Read more...

Sir John Kerr

Politics 

  • Vilification of Sir John Kerr is irrational as he did the best he could and should be judged with more objectivity.
Read more...

Democracy & Property Rights

Individual Rights  Law  Politics 

  • Governments when they revoke property rights change the value of whatever underlying property the rights were attached to.
  • The right to trade one's efforts is as important as a right to free speech and is even more relevant in everyday life.
  • Many politicians don't understand the principles that they violate and the harm the arises.
Read more...

Hawke On Structural Adjustment

Protectionism  Politics 

  • There's a trade-off between today's protected industries and tomorrow's living standards.
  • Mr Hawke, "we need a longer-range vision".
Read more...

Uncooperative Federalism

Competition  Politics 

  • States that want more powers should be prepared to finance themselves.
  • Competition between states to offer the lowest taxes or the best services is a good thing.
Read more...

The Next Deficit

Politics  Fiscal Policy 

  • With each succeeding deficit, either interest rates or lost opportunities will be higher.
  • Easier for politicians to increase government spending rather than to decrease it.
Read more...

Aboriginal Land Rights

Property Rights  Politics 

  • Australian governments have granted special rights to various classes of peoples.
  • The nature of lands right in the NT has caused uncertainty and the government is probably harder to deal with than Indigenous Australians.
Read more...

The Problem with Big Government

Regulation  Politics 

  • Smaller government where the people have more discretion.
  • The problem with regulations is the enforcement and the more rules the less productive a society will be.
  • Government doesn't know the wants of the people and the market is better place to punish any "rule-breakers"
Read more...

Labour's style

Politics  Industrial Relations  Economics  Business 

  • Bob Hawke ceded authority to those whom should not have authority.
  • He expected big business to follow the government's lead on when and where to invest.
  • His government is a corporatist consensus of government, big capital and big union.
Read more...

The Grass Roots Against Deficits

Politics  Budget 

  • State Premiers demand increased Federal grants but called for smaller government & lower taxes
  • In the US, grass roots opinion is going towards the direction of limiting the growth of government and to impose a budget balance.
Read more...

Occam's Razor

Taxation  Subsidies  Politics  Economics 

  • It is remarkable that socialists think that the free world's financial system to blame for third world poverty.
  • There is no obligation for a liberal society to tax itself to subsidise conversation & peace movements.
Read more...

Early Retirement from the Public Service

Subsidies  Welfare  Politics 

  • Basic economics where subsidies create more demand.
  • Abuse of provision of medical certificates for civil servants who retire on medical grounds.
Read more...

Handling the Vested Interests - The Dries

Politics 

  • Governments that are strong enough to deal with powerful vested interests are themselves dangerous.
  • Politicians are followers; people don't like those that prejudice the community interest.
  • Processes ought to be as transparent as possible.
Read more...

Whither the Liberals

Politics  Economics 

  • There are three philosophical positions: 1) The Dries (Free market advocates), 2) The Wets (Keynesian Big Govt advocates) and 3) The Uglies (preservers of status quo).
  • Due to the people seeing political corruption, a demagogue may just get enough support by posing as a Dry or Wet to turn the Opposition's philosophy away from a more open, free and personally responsible position.
Read more...

Peacock's Shadows

Politics 

  • Only when a politician is in power, can he or she stay true to an ideal.
Read more...

Of Statesmanship and Architecture

Politics 

  • When politicians do not accept that there are constraints to their art, the state they built will be plagued by unemployment, inflation, poor economic growth, petty government tyranny and small country status overseas.
Read more...

Keep the Czar far away from us.

Individual Rights  Law  Politics 

  • Liberty is freedom from the only legal organisation that is permitted to use force (The government)
Read more...

New Zealand and Sri Lanka

Regulation  Politics  Economics 

  • A democrat can, given the right circumstances, successfully implement long term economic goals.
Read more...

2Parliment

Politics 

  • Democracy's most fundamental problem is the domination of vested interests.
Read more...

The Sage of a Pipe Line

Fiscal Policy  Taxation  Politics 

  • Taxpayers are slugged with the cost of infrastructure projects when the government decides to build a "monument". *Q
Read more...

The Ultimate Cost of Protection

Protectionism  Politics  Trade  Economics 

  • Australia is paying a heavy social price for a closed economy. Only by reducing border protection is there a possibility of turning things around.
Read more...

The Crunch

Industrial Relations  Economics  Politics 

  • If Bob Hawke feels that he is too weak to defy vested interests, he will sow the seeds of economic decline for everybody.
Read more...

Maintaining Direction in Government

Politics 

  • The Liberal Party must work out what it stands for.
Read more...

Of Liberals, Conservatives and Dries

Politics 

  • The ideas are more important than which political party wins.
Read more...

On Maintaining Direction in Government

Politics 

  • The Liberal Party needs to be consistent in its ideas put forth.
Read more...

A Mandate to Govern

Politics 

  • Changes which benefit the entire economy rather than just the few will only work if the vested interests understand that they tend to gain more than they lose.
Read more...

The National Party and The Farmers

Politics  Protectionism  Trade  Taxation 

  • Australia's trade barriers is costing Australian farmers on average $12,000 annually and is more than fuel taxes, capital gain tax and all other areas of rural complaints.
Read more...

Lange's Economy

Economics  Politics 

  • Mr David Lange is the man who steered the New Zealand economy to eventual recovery by using free market principles.
Read more...

Neither Left nor Right nor Half Way In Between

Politics 

  • Labels confusion and creates acrimony where none need exist.
Read more...

The WA TV Licences

Politics  Regulation 

  • The root cause of Australia's economic decline is the subtle corruption of political authority.
Read more...

Transparency II

Protectionism  Politics  Economics 

  • Industry specific councils are a menace which should not be given any standing when forming public policy.
Read more...

What Is Wrong with The Liberals?

Politics 

  • John Howard wants to remove privilege and the Liberal Party has upset some of the most powerful interests in the land. The only way is forward.
Read more...

The New Year

Politics  Economics 

  • We are still the lucky country and could use 1986 to order our affairs.
Read more...

A New Political Party?

Politics  Leadership 

  • Good political leadership is not the practice of defying public opinion but the art of changing of it.
Read more...

Parliamentary Reform

Politics 

  • Parliamentary privilege is being abused by politicians that slander each other instead of debating the merits of each bill.
Read more...

Sir Hal Colebatch

Politics  Fiscal Policy  Protectionism 

  • He stood against: 1) protectionism, 2) excessive borrowing and 3) legislation that compelled price controls.
Read more...

Fools or Knaves? The Reith Lectures

Politics  Economics  Regulation 

  • Our current politicians favour interventionism, the question is whether they are knaves or fools? *
Read more...

American Morality

Politics  Individual Rights 

  • The degree to which basic human rights are respected by a nation is the degree of its morality.
Read more...

Fraser On Howard

Politics  Economics 

  • The question facing the next Prime Minister is whether they will tackle our economic crisis without deferring to vested interests.
Read more...

Howard's Economic Statement

Politics  Competition  Business 

  • Australia's chronic condition is how uncompetitive our industries are. The supply side of the Australian economy must become more flexible.
Read more...

Party Conferences

Politics 

  • Due to the loss of trust in the Liberal Party, the WA Liberals can put their house in order by electing a president and a team that is not tainted by the past.
Read more...

A Crisis of the Spirit

Economics  Politics 

  • If Australians are to accept that there must be uneven sacrifices, we must feel that we are going somewhere.
Read more...

The Evatt Foundation Conference

Regulation  Subsidies  Politics  Business  Competition 

  • Public sector monopolies give politicians opportunities to subsidise favoured voters.
  • The public benefits the most from competition not private ownership.
Read more...

The Federal Budget

Politics  Business 

  • The government should adopt the same rigorous prudential standards as businesses
Read more...

What Is the New Right?

Politics  Industrial Relations  Individual Rights  Taxation  Fiscal Policy 

  • Our wishes are to reduce union power, unfair business privileges, balance the government budget, reduced public expenditure and taxes, stopping the middle class from being ripped off, restore competiveness and protection of the family.
Read more...

The Premier's Plan

Politics  Fiscal Policy 

  • The premiers seem to be incurring disastrous debts in order to buy votes.
Read more...

Star Wars

Defence  Politics 

  • Ronald Reagan did not have the right to trade away the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI). It is immoral to give away the ability to stop a nuclear attack in flight.
Read more...

Howard

Politics  Leadership 

  • John Howard has the perseverance to implement his view on governance.
Read more...

The Constitution and Human Rights

Law  Politics 

  • We are all underprivileged in something and none of us in everything. *
  • The most important role of any constitution should be the protection of citizens by limiting the power of the government.
Read more...

The New Enlightenment

Politics 

  • To describe people who want less state authority as "right" is slander.
Read more...

A Speech John Howard Should Make

Politics 

  • Most of the moral failures in Australian politics are a result of big government.
  • Legislation used to buy votes creates unequal classes.
Read more...

Of Bread and Circuses

Politics 

  • Governmental authority is not the equivalent of nationhood.
  • If our government gets the fundamentals of a free and prosperous society right, circuses (symbols) will look after themselves.
Read more...

Petersen et al

Politics  Economics 

  • Debt and inflation are now so serious they must be remedied with a strong and specific political mandate.
Read more...

Commerce and Government Don't Mix

Business  Politics  Regulation  Cronyism 

  • Government operates differently in that only it can legally force people to do it's bidding.
  • Market imperfections are most often caused by government interference on behalf of vested interests.
Read more...

David Heald Reports to the ACTU

Politics  Collectivism 

  • His main recommendation is that collectivists must do everything in their power to recapture the political agenda from the economic libertarians in the 'New Right' think tanks.
Read more...

The Next Prime Minister

Politics  Taxation  Leadership 

  • A leader should be strong enough to make cuts to the deficit and also be strong enough to deregulate and privatise.
Read more...

A Manifesto

Politics 

  • An attack on the new right stems from self-interest.
Read more...

A Manifesto

Politics 

  • Today's drive towards liberty and reason has been called the New Enlightenment and sounds better than New Right.
Read more...

Referendums

Politics 

  • In Australia, the public may wish to say no to a policy of the government without voting them out of office.
Read more...

Howard III

Politics 

  • John Howard cannot stop reading differences from being aired nor should he try.
Read more...

South Africa

Economics  Politics 

  • Political power is least important in a liberal free market society with a small government.
Read more...

If the Liberals Should Do Badly

Politics 

  • If the Liberal and National Parties are defeated this time, the current in-evitable drop in living standards will cause power to be returned to them.
Read more...

The Campaign Issues

Politics  Regulation  Industrial Relations  Economics 

  • John Howard's policy stances are more like Margaret Thatcher than he is given credit for.
  • The important issue is to increase efficiency without which Australia is sunk. Tax cuts matter but not so much as deregulation and industrial relations reform.
Read more...

A Liberal Liberal Party

Politics 

  • Labour leadership is unashamedly elitist.
  • John Howard has turned the Liberal Party from the control of people whose approach to governance is mirrors the current Labour party. Like Margaret Thatcher, he has been slandered and abused by members of his political party.
Read more...

When Elephants Mate

Politics  Economics 

  • Corporatism (consensus of elected elites) can produce good outcomes, Singapore, Austria and Sweden are often cited as good examples of successful corporatist governments. However, only fools expect elites to remain benevolent even if they started that way. It is in the human nature to use power to guard personal status.
Read more...

The Issues Today

Politics  Industrial Relations 

  • Labour's industrial relations policy is corporatist, Liberal's is individualist. The main issue is who will rid is to national debt.
Read more...

The Rules of The Game

Politics  Economics 

  • Economic necessity is forcing the individual to accept change and in the long run good procedures in support of good principles should generate good outcomes.
Read more...

Testing the Heroes: Liberalism Under Fire

Politics  Economics 

  • The importance of Menzies, Locke & Co for our current problems whether their insights and actions will enable us to think more effective about solving our current situation.
Read more...

Senator Walsh

Politics  Monopoly 

  • Senator Walsh made a case that a private monopoly is superior to a public monopoly.
Read more...

World Trade

Trade  Economics  Politics 

  • Everything in an economy relates to everything else. One industry's protection is always another's cost.
  • International trade is always governed by domestic politics.
Read more...

Government and The Arts

Politics  Fiscal Policy 

  • Governments are more interested in social messages than in evaluation and revelation when it comes to funding the arts.
  • Another reason why the average man who isn't interested in the arts is forced to subsidise the arts is that civil servants and politicians fancy themselves to be part of the elite.
Read more...

At the Bottom of Our Troubles Is Misinformation

Budget  Politics 

  • Informed evaluation of issues by a free and competent press is central to democracy.
  • There was no excuse for the media to not report the budget's weakness before it was pointed out by Senator Walsh.
Read more...

That Political Pay Rise

Politics 

  • It is unclear that countries such America with expensive politicians are always the best governed.
  • Centralised wage fixing will not work effectively.
Read more...

The Stock Market and History

Politics  Economics  Monetary Policy 

  • The cause of the Great Depression was not the stock market collapse but the result of poor government policies. The politicians should allow the markets to adjust accordingly instead of intervening and making things worse.
Read more...

Philip Ayres on Fraser

Politics  Regulation 

  • Malcolm Fraser was a regulator when he was in office while John Howard was a deregulator.
Read more...

Senator John Stone

Politics 

  • Public debate is essential but if Senator Stone alienates his colleagues, they can make him irrelevant and the public won't listen to him.
  • If he does not want to be made irrelevant, then he must accept that no one can be a shadow minister or otherwise without making concessions to cabinet solidarity.
Read more...

The Eternal Nanny

Politics  Cronyism 

  • A nanny government needs a big stick and thick skin.
  • The behaviour of the nanny state benefits vested interests.
Read more...

The Bicentenary

Politics 

  • Too many Australians deplore a lack of political leadership, we need to tell our leaders to follow the best worldwide examples and accept that we will need to modify our behaviour accordingly.
Read more...

Spare Us from By-Elections

Politics 

  • The job of a statesman is to articulate good policies. However, politicians being elected make irresponsible promises.
Read more...

Amending the Constitution

Politics 

  • The public has shown that given the chance, it is more liberal, fiscally responsible, less likely to pander to vested interests.
Read more...

Political Corruption

Politics  Law 

  • Legislators are above the law in that if they do not like a law they can amend it. However, they can never be above the principles of justice and equality.
  • A state that confers privileges that it cannot legitimately justify is corrupt.
Read more...

Greiner's: The First Dry Government

Politics 

  • Mr Greiner has shown that Dry Liberals can be elected; the question is whether he can resist the temptation of power and not favour vested interests.
Read more...

The WHO Conference

Protectionism  Politics 

  • The World Health Organisation is successful only in places where they have stayed out of politics.
Read more...

The National Party and Consumption Taxes

Taxation  Politics 

  • A consumption tax would encourage saving and investment, remove some distortions caused by the sales tax and reduce tax evasion.
Read more...

Criticism of Howard

Politics  Business 

  • Running the country is different from running a corporation and politicians that do not make the distinction are dangerous.
  • John Howard represents a policy change that certain businessmen resent.
Read more...

Nanny II

Individual Rights  Politics 

  • There may be nothing sinister in the Nanny state's actions, but she does not favour personal liberty, strong family ties or capitalism.
Read more...

Wealth

Politics  Welfare 

  • We should be concentrating on elevating the living standards of the poor, instead of cutting the wealthy down to size.
  • A person's moral obligation to help the less fortunate is not removed by increasing taxes.
Read more...

The Misfortunes of The Gulf War

Politics 

  • Democracy, especially in America, means that all possible technical, tactical and political errors that contributed to a tragedy will be exhaustively discussed.
Read more...

The Politics of Deregulation

Regulation  Politics  Leadership 

  • Three things are needed for deregulation: 1) A convergence of elite opinion, 2) An issue must be ripe and 3) some leadership is needed.
Read more...

Time the Nats Delivered

Politics  Protectionism  Cronyism 

  • If the National Dries do not disown any plans to strengthen the Australian Wheat Board's control over the domestic market, the voter may not have much choice except to vote for the Labour party.
Read more...

Values

Philosophy  Politics 

  • People must be responsible for the consequences of their actions. When the government intervenes, there is a cost and should therefore be limited.
Read more...

A Tale of Two Nations

Regulation  Politics  Economics 

  • The message for Australia and Fiji is that we have a choice between raising our gross national product or lower our standards of living.
  • It is either deregulate or decay.
Read more...

The Coalition

Regulation  Monopoly  Cronyism  Politics 

  • It is in the national interest to avoid all unnatural monopolies.
  • If the National Party does not want a free wheat market, who will believe them when they call for deregulation.
Read more...

The Coalition II

Politics 

  • When the current political tensions are reduced, can compromises be made between Wet and Dry politicians? If not, there will be no loss.
Read more...

One Australia

Politics  Individual Rights  Law 

  • The state cannot give us complete legal equality. We also will not agree with the privileges afford to the different classes of Australians.
  • However, if Mr John Howard can get rid of unreasonable privileges, it will have the result of making the most of us equal legally.
Read more...

Public Sector Accountability

Politics  Economics 

  • The WA government should not have initiated public sector activity which displays the usual inefficiency.
  • The real problem is that that when Western Australian politicians introduce government into commerce, they often abuse the trust that is placed upon them.
Read more...

The Family Conference

Politics  Welfare  Philosophy 

  • Welfare has freed both men and women from responsibilities.
  • A stable and prosperous society depends on stable monogamous families.
Read more...

A Heartbeat from The Prime Ministership

Politics  Leadership 

  • Without leadership, Australians will probably not stumble out of our well-established round of slow growth, poor investment and current account deficits.
  • A vengeful man should not be entrusted with the power of the Prime Minister.
Read more...

Reagan

Politics 

  • Regan helped re-establish self-reliance and responsibility as virtues.
Read more...

On Re-reading 'The Road to Serfdom'

Politics  Philosophy 

  • The evil to be most feared is the power to force people into conformity. Concentration of power is dangerous.
  • The role of parliament is to check the power of government.
Read more...

Future Directions

Politics  Leadership 

  • The 'Future Directions' statement implies an overdue recognition that ideas have inspirational authority and is an alternative to messianic leadership which the Liberals do not have.
Read more...

In Search of Better MPs

Politics 

  • Politicians have been promoted to their level of incompetence and the only way to cure that is they are only allowed to create general conditions for the people to better themselves.
Read more...

Tariffs: The Beam in Our Eyes

Politics  Economics 

  • Even though tariffs lower living standards, politicians use them to win over some voters.
Read more...

What's Political Important In 1989?

Politics  Economics 

  • Political corruption, foreign debt and declining living standards are the big issues in 1989.
Read more...

Civility

Politics 

  • Civility often pre-empts conflict and is in decline in Australia.
Read more...

Dowding Goes to The Polls

Politics 

  • The Burke government entered into joint ventures with WA's wealthiest citizens and so damaged the financial and legal integrity of the WA state.
Read more...

Dries Must Resist Giving Up Struggle as Going Gets Rough

Politics 

  • Society is a feedback machines in that, any misfortune creates behavioural changes and the trick is to change patterns of behaviour before misfortunes become too awful.
Read more...

Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth

Politics  Economics 

  • As Dry policies are being implemented, any lags between implementation and consequences must be explained as must any mistakes or unrelated causes.
Read more...

Lessons From WA

Politics 

  • Labour has been given the message that unaccountability method of governance is unacceptable. Two other issues were interest rates and competence of our political leaders.
Read more...

Giving Authority Back to Parliament

Politics 

  • For government accountability to be present, all political parties must honour the Westminster tradition and there must be an independent press.
Read more...

What Has Happened to Political Leadership?

Politics  Leadership 

  • Political leadership is about making the connections and explaining the trade-offs.
Read more...

The Lamb Marketing Corporation

Protectionism  Politics 

  • The average producer is unaware that they are being duped and politicians have no interest in informing them.
Read more...

Policing the Media

Monopoly  Politics 

  • The limitations that government places on the media outlets are unnecessary.
  • One wonders if the government would like the media to feel obligated to them.
Read more...

Chile

Politics  Economics  Regulation 

  • Chile to become an economic success story. Reform included reducing tariffs to a flat 15% and substantially deregulating labour market.
Read more...

Not So New Federalism

Politics  Economics 

  • The Australian economy will not recover until the people who make the economic decisions face the consequences of their own decisions.
Read more...

David Kemp

Politics  Philosophy 

  • Professor Kemp is hopeful that authority is now seen to have limitations and liberal ideas flowing from government groups.
Read more...

The Winding Up of WA Inc

Politics  Cronyism 

  • The activities of WA Inc are wrong because they benefit private interests at the expense of the public.
Read more...

Of Wages and Wheat

Industrial Relations  Regulation  Politics 

  • The Liberals must establish the few important principles now. Continual deregulation is one of them.
Read more...

The Politics of Hope

Politics 

  • It is now the time to again make the case for social reform in terms of opportunities instead of costs.
Read more...

Citizen-Initiated Referendums v Corruption

Politics  Cronyism  Protectionism 

  • If effective sovereignty were returned to the people, politicians would no longer be protecting vested interests.
Read more...

The Potential Cost of PICL

Cronyism  Politics 

  • The greatest danger for the Western Australian citizen is that Petrochemical Industries Company Limited (PICL) is that the state government purchasing a large amount of PICL shares and any inefficiencies in the way that the company is run is then covered up by subsidies.
Read more...

Macphee

Politics  Economics 

  • Since 1974, both the Labour and Liberal parties have adopted freer market policies, but Mr Macphee has not changed his positions.
Read more...

Of Honour and Politics

Politics 

  • Friction is in the nature of politics, there is a need to conduct the party's affairs well.
Read more...

The Dropping of The Pilot

Politics 

  • John Howard's greatest achievement was to develop a party that would not be in bed with special interests.
Read more...

Howard III: Return of The Drover's Dog

Politics 

  • Is question facing Australians is that how will we regain access to John Howard's talents?
Read more...

What Are EFIC And the Wheat Board Up To?

Protectionism  Politics 

  • When a statutory authority is created that does not act in the public interest, it becomes almost impossible to dismiss the organisation.
Read more...

Applying the Fitzgerald Principles

Politics 

  • The Fitzgerald report recommended that systematic corruption is set in place conditions that will prevent future corruption.
Read more...

Parliament Is Not A Waste of Time?

Politics 

  • As long as parliament continues to rubber stamp cabinet and caucus decisions, there will not be rational debate.
Read more...

Greenhouse and All That

Environment  Politics 

  • Before we give governments that power to do damage to the world economy, we need to be reasonable sure that there is a crisis in the world ecosystem and that any action proposed as net benefits.
Read more...

Of Ethics and The Economy

Economics  Politics 

  • In this current climate, our government places electoral interests ahead of policies that will benefit society overall.
Read more...

The Pilots and The Libs IR Policy

Industrial Relations  Politics 

  • The whole point of the Liberal policy was the salary of pilots should be market driven but the leader of the Liberal party missed the opportunity to educate the Australian people on the least painful way to bring the current account into balance.
Read more...

Senator Walsh

Politics  Economics  Regulation 

  • Until we deregulate and privatise, our economic growth remains modest.
Read more...

WorkCare And the RSI Epidemic

Subsidies  Politics 

  • Any illness, where the treatment is free or subsidised, tends to record a higher level of occurrence.
Read more...

Principle of Limits

Politics 

  • Politicians that do not accept limits to their power, tend to be corrupted as they turn public authority to benefit themselves.
  • Power tripping has done immense damage to our economy and to the standing of our political institutions.
Read more...

The Liberal's Tax and Spending Policy

Taxation  Fiscal Policy  Politics 

  • The overall thrust of the policy is pro-employment but falls well short of solutions for the problems outlined. Nevertheless, it is a step in the right direction.
Read more...

Political Corruption

Politics  Cronyism 

  • If there had been proper parliamentary disclosure, there would not have been case of political corruption such as WA Inc.
Read more...

Howard Back

Politics  Leadership 

  • The Liberal Party's trouble is that it has bad faith not a lack of talent.
Read more...

Victory Without Blood

Politics 

  • With the collapse of communism, millions of people gained a measure of freedom without bloodshed.
Read more...

Roger Douglas' Way

Politics 

  • Mr Roger Douglas, the New Zealand Finance Minister has implemented radical market reforms to make a prosperous New Zealand a distinct possibility.
Read more...

Roger Douglas II

Politics  Economics 

  • To fix the economy, our political leaders may look to New Zealand's former Finance Minister who has led market reforms to their economy.
Read more...

Wheat Market Deregulation

Regulation  Politics 

  • Wheat market reform was due to the persistence and courage of a Labour Party Minister, Mr John Kerin.
Read more...

The Dries 10 Years On

Politics 

  • Most dries hoped that difficult questions went away so that they stopped costing the Liberal Party votes.
Read more...

The Good Fight

Economics  Politics 

  • Austin Stewart Holmes was one of Australia's finest civil servants and a true servant to democracy.
  • Mr Holmes was an honest true servant to democracy.
Read more...

Competitive Federalism

Politics  Taxation 

  • The public suffers a bigger government than it would had the States be willing to raise their own tax revenue as the Federal government is able to raise more taxes than the individual States.
Read more...

Shack

Politics 

  • Peter Shack was the fall guy for the Liberal Party leadership and in his dealings with the Liberal Party was honourable.
Read more...

The Tortoise and The Hare

Economics  Politics  Leadership 

  • The fundamental fact of democratic politics is that any support for change must be generated by the leadership explaining the changes to the people.
Read more...

Carmen Gets Supply

Politics 

  • For Dr Carmen Lawrence, the new premier to restore trust she has to:
  • Ensure that her party members understand the real nature of past indiscretions.
  • Publicise an accurate accounting of the current state of affairs.
  • Restore the professionalism of the civil service and be frank with parliament.
Read more...

The Worst Possible Election Result

Politics  Cronyism 

  • The general thrust of the Democrats policy is extremely irresponsible. Anyone considering voting for the democrats should study their policies, which pander to vested interests.
Read more...

Dick Klugman

Politics  Leadership 

  • Dick Klugman, a Labour MP is retiring this election, he has been a voice of sanity and his greatest success according to him has been influencing his colleagues to look more critically at commonly accepted propositions.
Read more...

The Small Business Lobby

Economics  Politics  Business 

  • The corporatist style of government has failed, and the best thing of small business owners is to have a level playing field.
Read more...

For Whom Do We Vote?

Politics 

  • While it is unfortunate that our votes cannot change the balance of power within the political parties but that does not absolve us from choosing wisely.
Read more...

The Dreadful Campaign

Politics 

  • It is ironic that some communist countries are enthusiastically embracing democracy while we are making of a mess of it.
Read more...

Where Do the Liberals Go from Here?

Politics  Philosophy 

  • The underlying issue in the Liberal Party is that it's members do not believe in anything.
Read more...

What Was the Green Vote Worth to Labour?

Politics 

  • It is unlikely that the Greens gave the victory to the Labour Party, we need to wait for the party professionals to report.
Read more...

Protection: The Politics of Privilege

Politics 

  • The essence of a Banana Republic is privilege and poverty is the symptom of that disease.
Read more...

The WA Auditor General

Politics  Cronyism 

  • There needs to be an extra-parliamentary inquiry so that the real lessons of WA Inc will be taught to future administrators so that future governments will know how to conduct themselves.
Read more...

By the Year 2000

Politics  Economics  Philosophy 

  • The most significant changes will be our own attitudes and the sort of society we have in the 2000s will be of our own making.
Read more...

The Governor General's Speech and The OECD Report

Politics 

  • The Governor General's speech committed the government to economic reform but did not give the impression that the Government had policies to deal with urgent issues.
Read more...

Responsible Government

Politics 

  • Ministers ought to be removed for breaking policy, lying to Parliament and if they fail in area of competence.
Read more...

Tiananmen Square

Politics 

  • Democracy is not concerned about political succession compared to totalitarianism. As a nation's citizen become wealthier, they tend to demand democracy.
Read more...

Wool Yet Again

Protectionism  Politics 

  • The people responsible for raising the floor price are now blaming everyone else but themselves for the injury done to the woolgrowers.
Read more...

Supply

Politics 

  • Parliament's most vital task is the election of the principle minister and to withhold or grant the supply of government funds.
Read more...

The Defeat of Political Power

Politics 

  • The more we embrace the trend towards openness, the more we become free from constrains by the government.
Read more...

Ad Hominem Attack and Politics

Politics 

  • Ad Hominem politics has it place, we should seek to establish that place and have rules that will keep it within the bounds of decency.
Read more...

The Underclass

Politics  Welfare 

  • It is necessary to distinguish between the battlers and those that do not want to work hard and change their environment.
Read more...

Strong Government

Politics  Philosophy  Law 

  • We should not slavishly follow any other country, but we can learn from some. The legal and moral restrains that support a free-market economy should be reformed to make them better.
Read more...

Donald Trump Must Be an Australian*

Politics  Law 

  • One possible consequence of current corporate troubles is new laws that constrains the honest, enables the dishonest and raises inefficiencies. Donald Trump might consider emigrating to Australia.
Read more...

The Liberals Show Some Guts

Politics 

  • One test of an Opposition party's relevance is the degree to which the Government adopts its policies.
Read more...

Privatisation

Politics  Competition 

  • As New Zealand and New South Wales have shown, it is possible to make enormous public section efficiency gains by rigorous accounting and management practices and by allowing private firms to compete with the public sector.
Read more...

Oh! Where Have All the Industries Gone?

Taxation  Politics 

  • The lesson is blatantly obvious. Businesses and skilled labour are mobile and are increasingly becoming more so. Governments that do not offer a commercial environment that are attractive as any other state stands to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Read more...

Modest Members

Politics 

  • Ideas are not caught, they are given. Political Ideas can have powerful consequences and a club-like activity is one effective means of propagating ideas.
Read more...

SGIC

Politics  Law 

  • Civil authority relies on trust and the true cost to WA society is the potential damage to legislative authority.
Read more...

Privilege

Politics 

  • The attacks on liberal policy are dishonest; those that are unable to discredit the ideas often obfuscate and misrepresent the ideas and confusing even Liberal Party members themselves.
Read more...

The New-Right Think-Tank

Politics 

  • Think-tanks are able to advocate for policies which politicians cannot. Think-tanks exist because of a weakness inherent in politics.
Read more...

The Green's Vote

Politics  Environment 

  • The Coalition lost the chance to win the votes of ordinary sensible environmentalists, it could have announced the best possible combination of environmentalism and jobs.
Read more...

How Did We Get into This Mess?

Protectionism  Politics 

  • Voters defend privileges. The only way to prevent a slide into to Banana Republicanism is for voters to recognise that it is improper to have privileges.
Read more...

Interest Rates

Interest Rates  Politics  Monetary Policy 

  • It is impossible for the control the supply and price of money, by trying to control the price, the government lost control of the quantity.
  • Paul Keating has been a stricter adherent of monetary policy than Malcolm Fraser.
Read more...

Getting to The Centenary

Politics  Protectionism 

  • Both side of politics are responsible for industry protectionism. Instead of facing reality, Australians are taking economically unsound popular policies seriously.
Read more...

Tripartitism Examined

Politics  Industrial Relations 

  • Tripartitism is used to describe arrangements between government, trade unions and employer councils. Tripartitism uses committees as an alternative to deregulation and privatisation.
Read more...

What We Should Expect of The New Government?

Politics  Economics 

  • There is a rough consensus about what needs to be done to restore dynamism to the economy, what is lacking is the political will.
Read more...

The NFF

Politics  Trade 

  • The National Farmers Federation (NFF) has made intellectual integrity a source of political power and has done much to improve the trading environment for Australia's exports.
Read more...

Technology in Government Committee

Politics  Business 

  • Appropriate technology is technology that produces at the least cost to the common environment. Technology should to produce a more productive and profitable Australia.
Read more...

Social Trends

Philosophy  Politics 

  • The tendencies of our social environment should have the same amount of attention as our physical environment.
Read more...

Waste in NSW

Politics  Economics  Regulation 

  • The NSW government run on the platform of deregulation and privatisation.
  • Micro-economic reform is eliminating waste and failure and is always opposed by people who lose their benefits and seldom praised enough by those who gain from the new efficiencies.
Read more...

Local Government

Politics 

  • There is a strong case for giving local government more authority at the expense of the State government. It would be easier to move between local government districts than between States.
Read more...

Greenhouse

Environment  Politics 

  • There has not been enough evidence that justifies public policies with huge economic costs.
Read more...

How They Will Govern

Politics  Economics  Business 

  • There is a trend of deregulation and privatisation where the skills of a producer are rewarded over that of a lobbyist. This is Australia's only hope.
Read more...

The Environment

Environment  Law  Regulation  Politics 

  • Governments thinking of using regulations to protect the environment should take into account any externalities them proceed with caution and having respect for the rule-of-law and democracy.
Read more...

Democratic Imperatives

Politics  Business  Philosophy 

  • Free enterprise values will only adopted by Australian politics if the public wants the values implemented.
Read more...

Hayden's Pearls

Politics  Fiscal Policy  Monetary Policy 

  • Lax fiscal policies lead to tough monetary policies. There should be a balance between sufficient profit and employment. OECD countries need to exercise caution in subsiding trade and trade credits with Eastern European countries.
Read more...

A Basic Right to Work

Industrial Relations  Politics  Individual Rights 

  • Trade Unionists, Industrial Judges and Politicians are being unfair to our weakest citizens by denying them their basic human right to sell their own labour.
Read more...

Budget Headaches - Burke and Hawke

Budget  Industrial Relations  Politics 

  • The best thing that can be done for the unemployed due to the recession is to reduce the wages of those that are closest to unemployment.
Read more...

OECD Approach to Unemployment

Industrial Relations  Business  Politics 

  • Unemployment levels are kept artificially higher than which an employer can hire a potential employee.
Read more...

17% Holiday Loading

Politics  Industrial Relations 

  • Abolition of holiday loading could have been the greatest job creation scheme of it was not set aside due to misguided notions of equity.
Read more...

Who Is the Most Socialist?

Politics  Economics 

  • The ranking correlates with capital payments to the States by the Federal Government. The States have spent the payments increasing the size of state governments instead of compensating the private sector.
Read more...

A Lesson from Argentina

Economics  Politics 

  • Australia and Argentina are similar in many ways. We have not made major mistakes in handling our economy but have been careless about long term growth.
  • If we mismanage our economy, we will not be able to escape problems similar to what Argentina faced.
Read more...

The Politics of Hatred

Politics 

  • We need more good-natured reasoned disagreements from our public figures. Disagreements should be made with civil discourse.
Read more...

A Quiet Revolution

Politics  Individual Rights 

  • The fastest way to a freer society in Australia is through the many little things done by the State and Local government, when the people have a taste of freedom, they will demand more.
Read more...

The Legislative Council

Politics  Individual Rights 

  • The traditional role of parliament is the protection of the citizen from the government and seems to be often forgotten in these days of disciplined party politics.
Read more...

Sex Discrimination Legislation

Politics  Individual Rights 

  • Senator Susan Ryan's Sex Discrimination Bill makes the fundamental error of not distinguishing between free choice and prejudice.
  • Employees will be more reluctant to employ women if they fear a third party such as the Human Right Commission stepping into a private employment arrangement.
Read more...

Greenies, Peaceniks and All That

Politics 

  • We should never attempt to silence views that are different from ours. A liberal society however, is under no obligation to tax itself to subsidise peace and conservation movements.
Read more...

John Stone and All That

Politics 

  • John Stone's Lecture, 1929 and All That outlined his outrage against effects of vested interests and protectionism on Australia.
Read more...

The Election Result

Politics  Budget  Taxation  Economics  Fiscal Policy 

  • The election campaign extracted three promises from Bob Hawke: 1) no tax increases, 2) no increase in government expenditure without economic growth and 3) reduction in the budget deficit.
Read more...

After WA Inc.

Politics  Cronyism 

  • WA Inc affected Western Australia in four ways: It cost a lot of money; it set in place a lot of structures and practices; it seriously injured the public service; it cost our good reputation in important places such London, Tokyo and New York. The most basic error was ethical in nature, our political and business leaders had a problem recognising that the circumstance and actions were not truthful and fair to all parties.
Read more...

Who Will Govern Us?

Politics  Philosophy  Regulation 

  • Why concentrated vested interests will prevail over general interests is due to public choice theory. However, Australia is moving towards a liberal direction and it will depend on how fast we can liberalise our economy compared to other countries.
Read more...