Recent publications
Fixing the Crisis: A fair deal for homebuyers in WA
Planning policies, more than any other factor, restrict the capacity of first home buyers, and other less advantaged groups, from achieving a goal of home ownership. Current planning orthodoxies inflate urban land prices and discriminate against...
The long First World War
John Roskam reviews The Great War by Les Carlyon (Macmillan Australia, 2006, 880 pages) History is usually about ‘what happened next'. Events are important, not only because they happened, but because they lead to something else. And so it...
The Tragedy of Planning: Losing the Great Australian Dream
A house provides us with a place of rest, a place for our possessions, and a place to raise our families. Not only this, but a house is often the largest investment we make during our lifetime. However housing is becoming unaffordable for more and...
Public transport debates: more substance, less gimmicks
Planning restraints: A plague on wealth and the democratic process
Economic planning is a term as archaic as phrases such as 'peoples' democracy' or 'proletarian justice'. Yet urban planning-and land planning generally-is flourishing and dominates the evolving structure of cities.
Heritage through property
Life in the Farce Lane: The steady creep of regulatory burdens
Politicians fear large scandals, not minute inconveniences. Yet regulation is built up from minutae.
Reducing Red Tape in New South Wales
IPA submission to IPART investigation into the burden of regulation in NSW and improving regulatory efficiency. Though NSW has not been the Australian jurisdiction with the fastest increase in regulatory burden, governments in the State have...
Cutting Red Tape in Victoria's Planning Processes
Over recent years, planning in Australia and many other countries has assumed a greatly enlarged role in determining the use of land. This is a regrettable outcome and one that imposes huge economic costs onto the community, as well as undermining...
Presuming Employer Guilt: The damaging state of work safety and compensation laws in Australia
In a major report the IPA has called for the urgent development of nationally consist OHS laws. In this context NSW OHS laws must be repealed.