Archived publication for September 2008 in IPA Review article
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Editorial, September 2008
Free-marketeers cannot refuse to engage and critique the emissions trading scheme just because they are not happy with the science. This edition of the IPA Review focuses on the federal government's new emissions trading scheme (ETS). It does not,...
Try to remember: when you're in opposition, it's not about you anymore
‘If you don't understand the GST, don't vote for it.' That was Paul Keating's message days out from the 1993 election. It helped turn the poll around. Like all successful political lines, it was both shorthand and subliminal. What Keating...
Class and casinos
Opposition to gambling and poker machines is a confused mixture of patronising‘compassion' and political rhetoric, writes Richard Allsop. Kevin Rudd hates them. Brendan Nelson has expressed deep concern about them. Bob Brown wants huge cuts...
The Hollowmen and the sport of satire
What does our television tell us about Australian democracy? Over time, spin becomes truth. In the ABC's new satire The Hollowmen, political advisors find that they can no longer tell the difference, even to themselves, between spin and the...
Is Facebook making our kids violent?
Moral panic is never too far away from the Australian media. The widespread claims that the internet is corrupting youth and encouraging violent behaviour completely misunderstands technology, the people who use it and the nature of crime itself....
Nanny state is a poor guide to policy design
Living in a first world country, Australians are entitled to expect their governments to support the delivery of basic services and amenities-for a price. But now Australians are being told by state and federal governments that no matter the...
Building the Australian Nanny State
Free bibs Victorian Deputy Premier Rob Hulls has announced an additional $35,000 of funding for Auskick programs to provide bibs and waist bags to identify volunteers who had met working with children checks. V-chip for Australia The Senate...
The intellectual gap goes to university
Following a campaign by the Australian Liberal Students Federation, a Senate committee is investigating the level of intellectual diversity at Australian universities. It is well-known that academia-and more often than not those who are university...
Who should take the blame for the biofuels tragedy?
In Mexico early last year, 75,000 people took to the streets in protest of the increasing cost of basic grain, in what were branded the ‘tortilla riots.' In March 2008, there were food riots in Egypt. And in April, Haitians rioted over the...
Federal government ads misleading on climate insurance cost
In order to prepare the nation for the introduction of the ETS, the federal government has begun a large advertising campaign to argue that, without action, climate change will have a significant economic impact. In particular one of their most...