Archived publication for 2009 in IPA Review article
Recent publications
The underground Australian movie renaissance
There actually are good Australian movies, and they're popular, writes Dean Bertram. You're just never told about them. Almost two decades ago, a handful of young filmmakers were revitalizing American cinema. Included in their number were Quentin...
Wowserism may be different, but it's not dead
‘I'm not a wowser but...' Those words seem to have become the standard introduction for anyone proposing a new restriction on what should be matters of individual choice. The Rudd Government are masters of it. In an interview with 4BC last...
Editorial, August 2009
2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - the moment which signalled the end of the short and brutal totalitarian 20th century. The movement had actually begun much earlier. The disintegration of Communist rule in...
What have the neo-liberals ever done for us?
The Life of Brian is not the best Monty Python film.* Its satire of religion, unlike general Python jibes against authority, looks dated. Its political satire though-‘What have the Romans ever done for us'-is an entirely different matter....
The GST is a massive fat tax
Many public health activists claim that a tax on fatty food is necessary to tackle obesity. The critics of this fat tax idea point to a number of studies revealing the limitations of such a scheme. A 2005 US study of a 10 per cent fat tax on dairy...
Not your house. Not your land.
Normally, if your house is heritage-listed, you have a problem if you want to knock it down, or renovate it. Robert Masters of Gunbower in northern Victoria is happy to leave the home his great-grandfather built in 1863 exactly as it is. So where...
Organic without redemption
It's official-you aren't being harmed by supermarket food. In July the UK Food Standards Agency released a commissioned report that found there are no additional health benefits from organic foods. The research found only a third of all studies...
Australia's lonely stimulus
Much has been made of the fact that the government has acted to shield the economy from the impact of the crisis. The Rudd government's response to the global financial crisis was to ‘Go early, go hard, go household.' Since September 2008,...
10 Worst Nanny State Policies
10: Plain packet cigarettes The argument for plain cigarette packaging is one of the most stark examples of how Nanny State regulations treat individuals as childish automatons. Plain packaging involves the complete removal of any brand logos,...
Obama's Union Mates
The 2008 election in the United States has been called several different things. Many Republicans and center-right activists called this the ‘401(k) election' due to the different tax and investment treatments the two candidates proposed....