The John Hyde Archives

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

Unknown Year

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...

John Burton

Regulation 

  • Relative economic decline should be reversed by deregulation and privatisation.
Read more...

Oil Revenues

Welfare  Taxation  Fiscal Policy 

  • Revenue from the Bass Strait oil fields should be shared as widely as possible instead of being concentrated in unemployment benefits.
Read more...

Housing Interest Rates

Regulation  Monetary Policy  Interest Rates 

  • Regulated interest rates cause those that are unable to obtain regulated money to resort to hire purchase and second mortgages. They also distort housing supply.
Read more...

The Trilogy

Fiscal Policy  Budget  Taxation 

  • The trilogy promises are: 1) reduction of the Federal budget, 2) no increase in tax revenue and 3) reduction of Federal budget outlays.
  • There is a need to increase investment to meet the trilogy.
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...

The Future of Agriculture

Protectionism  Industrial Relations 

  • The two demands by the National Farmers Federation that industry protection by reduced and that real wages reflect the nation's economic circumstances are reasonable.
Read more...

Retrospectivity 3

Law 

  • When a law is interpreted in an unintended way, a new law confirming things are they are thought to be may enhance certainty and equity.
Read more...

The Opposition's I.R. Policy

Protectionism  Industrial Relations  Individual Rights 

  • The Liberal policy will give all employees the right not to join a union.
Read more...

EPAC And Gruen On Trade

Protectionism  Regulation  Business 

  • Professor Gruen says that selling below full cost in not regarded as an unfair trading practices within Australia. It smacks of double standards when it is labelled as unfair when done by foreigners.
Read more...

The Accord

Industrial Relations 

  • The accord between the Labour Party and the Trade Unions are about to be tested. A productivity award will cause unemployment to be higher than it should be.
Read more...

Grain Handling

Protectionism  Trade 

  • With all the barriers to trade, we are a banana republic.
Read more...

Lamb Board

Protectionism  Regulation 

  • The board's policies have not been helping Lamb producers.
Read more...

New Zealand

Regulation 

  • The Lange Labour government has deregulated New Zealand to great success.
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...

Cheer Up Things Are Getting Worse

Industrial Relations  Regulation 

  • Deregulation will force unionist to bear the consequences of their own actions.
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...

Holmes, Rattigan & Chaney

Protectionism 

  • Vested interests are no longer stifle debate about protectionism.
Read more...

The Federal Budget

Politics  Business 

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

Industrial Relations in The Pilbara

Industrial Relations  Trade 

  • Foreign buyers only care about the price of iron ore. It is hard to understand why employee insist on practices that reduce productivity.
Read more...

Trace

Protectionism  Competition 

  • High transport costs are crippling otherwise efficient industries.
Read more...

What's at stake at Robe River

Industrial Relations  Business 

  • The main issue is whether Robe will be allowed to increase productivity and to invest in further developing costlier ore bodies or will the unions force it out of business.
Read more...

Education and Guardianship

Education  Competition 

  • The best kind of education where a child can get is one where there is a lot of competition.
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...

Textiles, Clothing & Footwear (not in print)

Protectionism  Trade 

  • Workers that are in a protected industry must be prepared to accept modest wages that arise as a result of protectionism, if not, the economy will suffer, and riots will occur.
Read more...

Of Taxes and Superannuation

Taxation  Superannuation  Industrial Relations 

  • Democracies can slash marginal tax rates if they want to;
  • Some people are unwilling or unable to provide for themselves.
  • It is the demands of the middle class that make tax reductions difficult.
  • Union organised superannuation can be a competitive and safe alternative to high welfare payments and taxes.
Read more...

The Premier's Plan

Politics  Fiscal Policy 

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

Living with The Dole

Welfare 

  • In order to have full employment, wages must fall. However, low wages make the dole attractive; there should be a work requirement for the dole.
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...

Jackey's Marsh

Environment  Individual Rights 

  • Where private ownership over resources is granted, there usually is loving care over the property.
  • The main question is whether the area in Jackey's Marsh is logged, maintained as it is or used in other ways.
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...

Not Published, Doing Business with Too Much Government

Regulation 

  • The primary cause of our economic troubles is our government.
  • Every privilege is someone's cost.
Read more...

The New Enlightenment

Politics 

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

What is Unemployment?

Economics 

  • Unemployment figures are no longer a good proxy for economic distress which must be identified more directly.
Read more...

The NFF Seeks Audience

Economics 

  • The National Farmers Federation (NFF)'s paper argues that the government's policies are unable to cope with changes.
Read more...

The Laffer Curve

Taxation  Fiscal Policy 

  • There should have been greater expenditure cuts to compensate for tax cuts on the low and middle-income taxpayers.
Read more...

Will Unemployment Ever Come Down

Industrial Relations  Welfare 

  • Reducing taxes on the lowest paid where anyone who was on unemployment benefits will be better off working is the most politically and morally right.
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...

Welfare, Targeting Need

Welfare 

  • In practice, the number who qualifies for unemployment benefits must be reduced by restricting eligibility.
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...

Health Care

Healthcare 

  • Doctors and hospital bed must be rationed, and supply must be matched to demand by queuing.
Read more...

The Rocky Horror Show

Economics  Regulation  Taxation 

  • The deficit should be reduced by cutting government expenditure instead of raising taxes.
  • The proven way to economic success is through deregulation.
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...

Of Unions, Rights and Property

Industrial Relations  Taxation  Property Rights 

  • The poorest person has no property but their labour.
  • The government's first responsibility is the security of its citizens. Does taxation extend to the right of labour of its citizens?
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...

The Fiscal Problem

Fiscal Policy 

  • Public sector borrowing requirement must be eliminated and the Commonwealth must move quickly to a modest surplus with the States coming close to fiscal balance.
Read more...

Howard III

Politics 

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

The Deficit 1987

Economics  Taxation  Fiscal Policy 

  • When governments borrow rather than raise taxes, there are several consequences: 1) The young lose, 2) investments drop, 3) The country's credit rating suffers, 4) The police are required to force people to service the debt, 5) Foreign debt accumulates and 6) The government is tempted to inflate the currency.
Read more...

South Africa

Economics  Politics 

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

Two Ways of Coping with Unions

Industrial Relations  Law 

  • Reducing the power of unions until they have to obey the law like everyone else.
  • Passing legislation to override the power of the unions.
Read more...

Transport and the Economy

Regulation 

  • Transport modes and service should compete on equal terms. The subsidies favouring LPG over petrol should be eliminated.
  • Competition between wharves, grain, sugar, container terminals and other port facilities could be greatly enhanced through implementing the Liner Shipping Report
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...

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 Darwin Water Front

Industrial Relations 

  • Militant trade unionism is not the only reason for our declining living standards and the difficulties of balance of payments but there is no doubt that both would be improve without it.
Read more...

Airline Deregulation

Regulation  Industrial Relations 

  • The less the airlines are protected from consumer choice, the less that it will pay for employees to go on strike.
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...

Corporatism and the ACTU

Industrial Relations 

  • Corporatism with its concentration arbitrary power is an evil system and Italian Fascism is the best example of that.
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...

The Budget

Fiscal Policy  Taxation  Budget 

  • The government has already implemented all the tax cuts it can afford and avoiding the real issue of expenditure. A good budget that does not achieve surplus of a billion without new taxes is a bad budget
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...

Replying to the ACTU

Industrial Relations  Individual Rights 

  • In Australia, a small wage restraint was bought by offering more power to the ACTU and the unions.
  • In Australia, the only basic human right not respected is the right to sell one's labour.
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...

The Children's Services Program

Subsidies  Welfare 

  • Should child welfare payments be directly to single parents to be self-sufficient, most taxpayers would be happy for it to be so. However, the resources are being urged to be diverted by militant feminists to schemes that will increase the child care costs per child.
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...

The Family

Welfare 

  • Today, most people believe that the state has prime responsibility for lesser familial services such as education, childcare and providing financially for the aged.
  • Most families that do meet the welfare needs of their members succeed far better than those that don't.
Read more...

Of Fiduciary Responsibility

Cronyism 

  • The state bails out those that are in financial difficulties and are close to the government.
  • Governmental authority should not be used to dole out favours for a selected few but for the public interest.
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...

Private Correspondence

Economics  Regulation  Budget 

  • By deregulating our economy, we will be able to pay our public debts.
Read more...

A Deregulation LED Recovery

Regulation  Economics 

  • Deregulating will do more for the economy than getting the people to reduce their living standards.
Read more...

Confessions of A Multiculturalist

Immigration 

  • The best thing that government can do for multiculturalism is to not interfere with people's lives.
  • Natural multiculturalism and cultural changes offers Australia the best hope of economic recovery.
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...

What Happened to Charity?

Welfare 

  • The reason why welfare fails is that the middle class are taxed and its recipients. Welfare does not get to the poor.
  • Largesse that places no obligation on the recipient spoils them.
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...

The Source of Union Power

Industrial Relations 

  • The power of the unions is both political and industrial.
  • A monopoly is only as effective as the barrier that holds out competitors.
Read more...

Wheat Marketing: A Case Study of Monopoly

Protectionism  Cronyism  Monopoly 

  • Monopolists argue that increasing size will allow for economies of scale but without competition that is no onus to pass on the benefits.
  • Wheat growers that keep silent about their lack of choice allow their impoverishment.
Read more...

Tax Avoidance & Civil Disobedience

Taxation 

  • Some level of tax is needed to preserve society and payments should be made to the needy.
  • When levels of taxation are high enough, the people will feel unfairly imposed upon and thus will avoid them.
Read more...

How We Talk About Aborigines

Property Rights 

  • Due to the cultural differences and even with land rights for Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Australians have not prospered in comparison with the rest of society.
  • We need stop denying the best of all our cultures.
Read more...

Micro Economic Reform

Economics 

  • Whenever there is an economic crisis, vested interests lose their hold over the government.
  • Unfortunately, some parties are prepared for the country to be destroyed rather than give up their interests.
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...

Partington

Education  Protectionism 

  • Education is predicated on objective standards and can only assessed using those standards.
Read more...

Labour Markets

Industrial Relations 

  • Restoration of personal liberties, increased productivity, low inflation and full employment should be the goals of any labour market reform.
  • However, any reform must take into account of the consideration power of the unions.
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...

Academic Accountability

Education 

  • Any paid academic must be held accountable for the value of their salary and academic freedom is best protected by an absence of government funding and a large range of sponsors.
Read more...

On Bill Carmichael's Retirement

Protectionism 

  • For any major reform to be successful, a vested interest with a major stake in the reform must carry it.
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...

The Motor Car Decision

Taxation  Protectionism  Cronyism 

  • The purpose of any protection is to allow goods to be sold at a higher price and has the same purpose as a consumption tax.
  • The protectionism affects other industries as it makes them less competitive due to the other industries subsidising the particular industry.
Read more...

Robe River Iron and The Common Law

Industrial Relations 

  • The Robe River Iron Associates (RRIA) should not be demonised for using the law to recover their company property and their poor public relations should not be used as an excuse to bully them.
Read more...

Super Unions

Industrial Relations 

  • For any society to function, there must be near consensus about fundamental rules.
  • Competition with the established rules has a better record than the protectionism imposed by ministers and union officials.
Read more...

Player or Ring Keeper?

Protectionism  Cronyism 

  • When private players enlist the government in intervening in the economy, the "ring-bearer" may become corrupt.
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...

Dawkins Tertiary Funding Proposals

Taxation  Subsidies 

  • A graduate tax is not unfair to students as knowledge is a valuable private good.
  • The nature of subsidised education creates economic rents.
Read more...

The Perils of Regulation

Regulation 

  • Socialists must decide between their abhorrence of the markets and helping the poor. Only when wealth is created, that it can then be diverted to assist the under-privileged can be help.
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...

Merrindie

Philosophy  Leadership 

  • Bert Kelly influenced the people into seeing that ideas should sometime prevail over interests.
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 Liberals IR Policy

Industrial Relations  Monopoly  Competition  Regulation 

  • To protect the public from monopolies, the best alternative is to allow competition. Any reduction will reduce the pain of getting our economic house in order.
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...

Wheat Marketing: Too Much Politics

Monopoly 

  • When any vested interest creates a monopoly, the price of the product is then raised.
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...

Consumerism

Protectionism  Cronyism 

  • Organisations that should be advocating for more choices for consumers, use public money to pursue an agenda that is opposite of consumer choice.
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...

Immigration Hypocrisy

Immigration  Education 

  • Diversity is potentially a source of program but also of factionalism. Children of immigrants would seem to be integrating into Australia given their excellent exam results.
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...

Reforming Education

Education  Regulation  Competition  Individual Rights 

  • The best option to education is to deregulate it and to allow the people the freedom to make their choices wisely.
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...

What Price the Accord?

Economics 

  • The accord has delivered wage restraint at a cost which is the higher levels of overseas debt and higher account deficit.
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...

The IAC Report

Protectionism 

  • Protectionism reduces living standards.
  • The debate about the costs of protectionism has been won.
Read more...

Reagan

Politics 

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

Tax File Number

Taxation 

  • Tax laws are now so complex that no reasonable man may know his liability.
  • The Commissioner is using the threat of unknown penalties to frighten individuals into paying their liabilities.
Read more...

The Liberals Won't Tax Gold

Taxation  Economics 

  • The economic objection to an industry paying less than its share of taxation is that some other industry will have to pick up the slack and comparative advantage of each industry is ignored.
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...

Rimmer

Immigration 

  • When the government privileges some newly declared Australians over the rest of Australia, the government violates the implied authority given to it to treat all Australians equally.
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...

The OTC Sacking

Monopoly 

  • Monopolies do not go broke as they can pass on any unnecessary costs on to their customers.
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...

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...

How to Generate Poverty Without Really Trying

Economics  Welfare 

  • To alleviate poverty, most of the poor will become rich only by given the opportunity to work, save and exchanging their goods and services.
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...

The Government and The Wage Round

Protectionism  Industrial Relations 

  • The government should not be entrenching the unions. They should be doing what is right for the economy.
Read more...

The National Companies and Securities Commission

Protectionism 

  • The National Companies and Securities Commission (NCSC) should be dissolved if they are seen to be protecting certain interests.
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...

The Case Against the Tax File Number

Taxation 

  • Income tax is intrusive, penalises investment, uncertain and unfair. It should be replaced by a consumption tax.
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...

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...

Reforming GATT

Trade  Protectionism 

  • The solution to trade barriers is to measure the cost to the national economy and report to the public the cost.
Read more...

Corporate Taxation

Taxation  Business 

  • Australian investment is poor due to rules discouraging investment. The tax system should be changed to remove the penalties from investment.
Read more...

A Report Card for School

Education  Competition 

  • Teachers must be given the incentives to perform well and be disciplined by the market if they do not perform.
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...

Housing Interest Rates

Interest Rates 

  • High interest rates reduce consumption by the same amount that savings would have increased.
Read more...

One Australia *

Philosophy  Individual Rights 

  • Society cannot function without some shared values and some values are so central to our society that they are non-negotiable.
  • Those aspects of our culture that protects civil rights must be accepted by all and it would be unfair to everyone by pretending otherwise.
Read more...

Whither Florence Nightingale?

Protectionism  Industrial Relations 

  • If individual nurses could be rewarded for their productivity, union protectionism would not work, and patients and taxpayers would not be bled.
Read more...

Trade Policy

Trade  Economics 

  • The problem is that Australians are consuming more than they produce. Until that is fixed, there is no reduction of the trade deficit.
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...

Retirement Income

Superannuation  Welfare 

  • By the year 2030, we will need to allow people to work longer and have to raise the age from which people can claim government pensions.
Read more...

Foreign Debt Does Matter

Regulation 

  • Foreign debt servicing can only be possible through deregulations, only then can investments flow into Australia and the level of foreign debt reduced.
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...

Foreign Aid

Foreign Aid 

  • Foreign aid props up governments that might otherwise fall, it leads to inevitable politicisation of life and degradation of life there.
Read more...

Ian McLachlan

Economics  Leadership 

  • Mr McLachlan's H.R Nichols Society address was significant in that it addressed waterfront work practices and he is a future Liberal MP with leadership potential.
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...

On Not Subsidising Ansett

Protectionism  Industrial Relations 

  • Since the Prime Minister cannot subsidise every everyone that has been disadvantaged by a strike, he should not subsidise the wealthy that have the ear of the government.
Read more...

Senator Walsh

Politics  Economics  Regulation 

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

Youth Employment

Industrial Relations 

  • Many government programs subsidise employers to hire apprentices. This is admitting that young, unskilled employees are overpriced due to the minimum wage.
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...

Des Moore

Economics  Monetary Policy 

  • Des Moore of the IPA had two recommendations: 1) debt does matter 2) monetary policy must be tightened.
Read more...

The Annual Convention of The Industrial Relations Society of WA (Inc)

Industrial Relations 

  • The fundamental reason why the labour market deregulation has not proceeded was indicated by a trade union official belief that most of society cannot get along. Unfortunately, he did not believe that most of society would appreciate directing their own affairs.
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...

Those Vietnamese Refugees

Immigration  Economics 

  • The immigration of any group that is willing to integrate into Australian society is good as the group will enrich the economy and society.
Read more...

Howard Back

Politics  Leadership 

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

Joining East Asia

Economics  Trade 

  • The most important lesson that we can learn is the export orientation for the most successful countries is high and even going to the extent of subsidising exports.
Read more...

Victory Without Blood

Politics 

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

Healthcare, Unions, Solidarity and Conflict

Industrial Relations  Healthcare 

  • One characteristic of a protected industry is that few of the decision makers have to bear the consequence of their decisions.
  • Another characteristic is that authority is used to set prices instead of demand and supply determining prices.
Read more...

What Right to Strike?

Industrial Relations 

  • Any strike is a collusion by employees to raise the price of their labour and there is no inherent human right to do so.
  • Sanctions that clearly subtract from other people's rights should be illegal.
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...

Business Ethics

Business  Competition 

  • We tend to think the bankruptcy causes unemployment and loss of assets, by bailing out bankrupt companies, we subvert the ethics of the free market in redistributing over-valued assets under new management.
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...

The Greens Crying Wolf

Environment  Regulation 

  • Even with land degradation being a serious issue, most cases can be avoided by individuals managing their own affairs in an orderly manner. We do not need a totalitarian organisation telling farmers what to do with their land.
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...

Hospitals

Healthcare 

  • The reform of healthcare insurance is difficult because people are afraid of big medical bills and a lack of knowledge about their options.
Read more...

Trade Policy: The Litmus Test

Industrial Relations  Trade 

  • Free trade has always been in Australia's best interests. The Liberal's trade policy has called for Australia economy to be integrated internationally by the year 2000.
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 Election and The Debt

Economics 

  • The incoming government must deal with the problem of excessive foreign debt. Increased productivity is the only way to go.
Read more...

Some Budget Cuts

Budget  Economics 

  • We might have more confidence in the political parties if they would face up to economic problems instead of just promises to spend more.
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...

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...

Mr Greiner's Environment

Environment 

  • Mr Greiner's 'Earth Day' speech outlined an approach to environmental management that doesn't prevent the achievement of other values which most people hold dear.
Read more...

Wool Again

Protectionism 

  • Buffer stock for any protected industry fails and it gets strong nations into trouble.
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...

Immigration and The Environment (requested by David Armstrong)

Environment  Immigration  Collectivism  Property Rights 

  • The average collectivist greens person does not want to increase immigration either because of greed or prejudice. However, a larger population will preserve the environment if a system of private property rights is maintained.
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...

Sharabhron Ardeshiran v Robe River Iron Associates

Industrial Relations  Business 

  • The legislation enshrines anti-business prejudice even though it was intended to address prejudice.
Read more...

Our Sort of Culture

Immigration 

  • The ultimate purpose of the immigration/refugee policy should be to permit as many people as possible to enjoy liberty and prosperity as Australian can offer them.
  • The selection criteria can be improved by making it as objective as possible.
Read more...

Education: An Outsider's View

Education 

  • Schooling fails to educate because it is often banal. Most students and teachers are bored by the syllabus.
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...

Inflation

Economics  Currencies & Commodities 

  • To prevent inflation, people must be given reason to expect that prices of things they buy will stop rising.
  • Currency management should be done independently from the government by the Reserve Bank and the board of the Reserve Bank held to account.
Read more...

Telecom

Monopoly 

  • Telecom is Australia's biggest state-backed monopoly. It should be broken up and privatised. However, the biggest opposition to such a plan is political not economic with 85,000 employees.
Read more...

Dr Bruce Ames

Environment 

  • Dr Bruce Ames is a scientist that has specialised in carcinogens and he has indicated that we consume trace amounts of deadly chemicals and we should vary our diet to ensure the exposure is remains small.
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...

Colebatch's Return of The Heroes

Leadership  Philosophy 

  • The average Australian will still defend freedom.
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...

What Do We Want from Privatisation?

Protectionism  Regulation  Subsidies  Business 

  • The reason why Government privatise public companies is to make them more efficient. The reason why they don't is that they fear the wrath of employees and the subsidised consumers.
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...

Risk

Currencies & Commodities  Business 

  • Although new technologies bring risks, they also confer benefits and the two cannot be separated. Nuclear power generation is the cheapest form of power generation and would elevate the pressure on coal and oil supplies.
Read more...

Wool Again

Protectionism  Economics 

  • The demand for wool is elastic due to substitutes, there is no reason why the wool industry should have price controls in place.
Read more...

The Uruguay Round: A Fool's Dialogue?

Protectionism 

  • Policies that increase living standards are called "sacrifices". Fortunately, not every country does so all the time.
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...

Australia's New Protectionism

Protectionism  Competition 

  • Control over exports is reserved to the Federal Government. There is much it can do to improve competitiveness without creating more privileges.
Read more...

Doomsaying

Economics 

  • Markets provide feedback for us to correct past mistakes and embrace new opportunities. By taking what doomsayers at their own value, if we implement policies that restrict opportunities, we place our society in real danger.
Read more...

The Wrigley Report

Budget  Defence 

  • The Wrigley Report questions the way that Australia spends on its defence forces. It raises questions that no one has the answers to.
Read more...

Rural Inconsistency

Protectionism  Economics 

  • It is hypocritical for Liberals to advocate for a free-market approach yet refuse to abolish the reserve price for wool.
Read more...

The Family in The Welfare State

Welfare 

  • We should not be discriminating between separated and divorced families the same as intact families.
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...

What Sort of Immigrants?

Immigration 

  • If we do not improve our immigration policy, we will become more worried about emigration than immigration.
Read more...

Compassion

Welfare 

  • The meaning of Compassion has been corrupted to mean the sort of blame assignment instead of helping others without expectation of reward.
Read more...

Income Tax

Taxation 

  • Although a consumption tax is a better tax base than income tax, it is difficult to administer. The best solution would be to minimise government spending.
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...

The Education Problem

Education 

  • The issue with education is that it is a monopoly which is compulsory for children to attend and which parents have limited power.
Read more...

The Welfare Monopoly

Welfare 

  • Governments find it hard to advocate welfare reform without being accused of abandoning the welfare system itself.
Read more...

Appeasement Does Not Work

Defence 

  • War should not be avoided at all costs, had Hitler been stopped early, we might have avoided a world war.
Read more...

Of Debt and Protection

Economics  Trade  Competition 

  • If Australia is to become internationally competitive, we need to reduce tariffs as well as our debt levels.
Read more...

Anti-Competitive Behaviour in The Health-Care Industry

Protectionism  Healthcare  Competition  Welfare 

  • Politicians must face the political problem posed by wealthy, high-risk users of Medicare who would be worse off should the system be made more competitive and fairer. Politicians cannot compensate all and will have to decide who cannot afford to lose Medicare benefits.
Read more...

Re-regulating The Banks

Regulation 

  • The market should help investors distinguish between high-risk investments masquerading as low-risk investments, however, regulations and public ownership is not the answer.
Read more...

Of Uranium and Wool

Protectionism  Currencies & Commodities 

  • Australians have learnt that we cannot control the behaviour of the rest of the world and we would be better off selling uranium that we produce to parties that are strictly vetted.
Read more...

Of Rural Industry and The Economy

Economics 

  • The reason for our relative economic decline is the failure to seek out areas where we have comparative advantage.
  • For the moment, primary industry such as farming, and mining is where we are efficient.
Read more...

The Real Exchange Rate

Currencies & Commodities  Monetary Policy  Economics 

  • The solution to our problems is to raise productivity by deregulating and privatising and encouraging saving.
  • The coming devaluation of our currency will increase inflation can be prevented by increasing wages and other costs as long as necessary.
Read more...

The Wool Corporation's Stocks

Protectionism 

  • By allowing the Australian Wool Council to build up buffer stocks and to control prices, we are allowing them to ride a boom into a recession as managers of such schemes cannot be trusted.
Read more...

Wheat Market Deregulation

Regulation 

  • Deregulating the wheat market has brought many benefits such as the freedom for the producer to set prices and cheaper prices and better products for consumers.
Read more...

Environment in The Bush

Environment  Property Rights 

  • Private property is best for the environment where owners safeguard the value of the property by taking care of their land.
Read more...

Making Full Employment Legal

Industrial Relations  Individual Rights 

  • The Coalition promise to de-criminalising individuals selling their labour will improve our living standards and pay off our foreign debts.
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...

Taxing Investment

Taxation 

  • To reduce our foreign debt, we need to increase our savings. However, the government subsidises those that don't save by providing pension and penalises those that do by increasing the tax rates.
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...

Cutting Government

Budget  Fiscal Policy 

  • Any expenditure cuts should be done in a timely manner by people who are familiar with budget outlays.
Read more...

What Right to Strike?

Industrial Relations  Competition  Individual Rights 

  • A competitive labour market works only if both employers and employees are competitive. Union sanctions affect the rights of individuals.
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...

Education

Education  Taxation  Competition 

  • Education is a private benefit which the government subsidises by using taxpayer's monies. It is time we allowed all schools to compete on equal financial terms and allow parents to select their child's education.
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...

Every Galah in The Country Is Parroting Micro-Economic Reform

Economics 

  • The relevance of micro-economic reform is that reduction in foreign debt leads to a more productive economy and an increase in living standards. However, it tends to be resisted by those that need it the most.
Read more...

How to Create an Oil Crisis

Economics  Business  Currencies & Commodities 

  • If you stop oil companies from making profits, they will stop delivering fuel to our vehicles, the situation would be made worse.
Read more...

Wool III

Protectionism 

  • The reserve price scheme is preventing consumption from increasing, reduction of production and the costs of storage of the wool stockpile.
Read more...

Farmers' Woes

Protectionism 

  • Wool is the industry where unwise government intervention has exacerbated the farmers' problems.
Read more...

Greenhouse

Environment  Politics 

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

The Davis Report

Protectionism  Regulation  Taxation 

  • Statutory Marketing Authorities (SMA) has the power to tax producers. If the minister intends to regulate the market to make it efficient and just, individuals must be able to opt out of SMAs and SMAs also be subject to the Trade Practices Act.
Read more...

But for The Government's Help

Fiscal Policy  Currencies & Commodities 

  • The McCoil Report estimates a saving of at least $10 per tonne of wheat if there was no government intervention.
Read more...

Defence

Fiscal Policy  Defence 

  • Defence is an area where government activity cannot be privatised. Defence can be made more efficient by privatising some support services.
Read more...

Property Rights and The Environment

Environment  Property Rights 

  • There is an exchange of rights between environmental goods such as clean air and water and between non-environmental goods such as food and medicines.
  • Owners of private property have the ability to choose between the both and are the first line of defence for the environment.
Read more...

Families and The Welfare State

Welfare 

  • We cannot turn away from the needy. However, the growth of the modern welfare state has increase poverty.
Read more...

Some Wool Industry History

Protectionism 

  • There has been a previous referendum in December 1965 a reserve price scheme for wool but was rejected by the growers. The politicians still implemented the scheme without taking their views into consideration.
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...