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Budget deflects attention away from constitutional change referendum
Tuesday's federal budget has been treated with the disdain it deserves. Probably the funniest part of the night was when the Treasurer, Wayne Swan,...
Labor's bid for local control
Last week Julia Gillard announced a referendum to amend the Constitution allowing the federal government to fund local government directly. The...
Advocates of a nanny state assume we are all children
Nanny state critics understand that incremental attacks on our freedom to choose are single steps down a longer road to remove individual choice...
Regulating supermarkets does not checkout
The failure of the ACT's supermarket competition policy is further evidence that government cannot plan competitive markets. They have to evolve...
Sport and betting have always been teammates
Victorian Greens senator Richard Di Natale has drafted a bill to ban betting odds being aired during sports broadcasts. No, let's rewrite that....
Sale means cash for state and better power for people
Privatisation has never been popular electorally. There is a range of reasons for this. Many people believe a business that is under political...
Tough task to rein in spending and regulation
Tony Abbott is fleshing out his policies for government. Hard on the heels of repealing the carbon tax and mining taxes, he has nominated spending...
Plenty of fat to trim if leaders get real
Over the past 60 years, Australia, like most Western countries, has seen a very rapid growth in the size of government. Whereas 60 years ago...
Indifference to regulatory price rises a problem
To protect consumers the government should probe the ACCC's approach to competition before it starts regulating. In Monday's Australian Financial...
Censorship standards come from a personal place
The United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart gave this famously ambiguous definition for what constitutes pornography: "I know it when I...