Recent publications in IPA Backgrounder
Undermining Mitigation Technology: Compulsory licensing, patents and tariffs
The incentives to develop the technologies to reduce global CO2 emissions are being undermined. Internationally, a campaign is being run to undermine the intellectual property that incentivises research and development on CO2 mitigation...
Policy without Parliament: the growth of regulation in Australia
This year, there will have been more legislation and regulation imposed in Australia than any other year in history. Furthermore, federal regulatory agencies have grown dramatically in the last decade. The budget and staff of the three major...
HIV/AIDS medicines for all?
There are few more important issues facing developing nations than the HIV/AIDS crisis. HIV/AIDS destroys lives, consumes scarce resources, and provides yet another unneeded brake on the path to growth for many developing nations. The developed...
Victoria's Public Transport: Assessing the results of privatisation
In April 1997, the Kennett Government announced that Victoria's public transport services would be privatised. Based on the evidence in this landmark study, Melbourne's public transport system can be judged as a reasonable success. On the basis of...
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...
Back to Basics: Why government funding of science is a waste of our money
The notion that throwing an infinite amount of money at public research will somehow, at some time, automatically lead to some benefit is a myth. The government spends a substantial amount on public science and innovation. It is not clear that any...
Promoting Freedom and Community: Civil Society Organisations in Australia
Australian society is best served by a strong, diverse and vibrant civil society. Individual voluntary participation in civil society organisations, whether through giving or volunteering, increases individual and collective freedom. The large...
Opportunity Squandered: How the States have wasted their reform bonus
Since 2000, GST revenue distributed to the states has increased at an average annual rate of more than 9 per cent-a huge and unexpected gain. As a result, the states are awash with money at levels unanticipated by the architects of the new tax...
The empowerment agenda: Civil Society and Markets in Disability and Mental Health
The framework for social policy is basically unchanged since the 1950s. The social policy debate in Australia is dominated by experts, lobby groups and government officials. The users of the system, whether they are called clients, consumers,...
Participatory Democracy: Cracks in the Facade
Participatory democracy assumes that all citizens are political actors and will spend considerable time in defence of their interests and ideas. In fact, democracy is much more elitist - it rests heavily on the idea that people delegate most of...
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