Nanny State
Ideas & Liberty / Nanny State
A core focus of the Institute of Public Affairs is examining paternalist government regulation. Much contemporary social regulation is designed to shield individuals from voluntary risk-taking behaviour. However, having the government assume the role of risk manager is damaging to the principle of individual responsiblity.
News
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...
Fat chance scare tactics will trim us
In yesterday's Courier-Mail, a senior Queensland health bureaucrat proposed graphic health warning labels be put on sugary, fatty and salty foods...
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...
Both sides of politics should cease nanny-state meddling
Stopping the assault on people's freedom requires an attitudinal change to the role of government. Last week Nick Cater wrote on this page, in...
Grandstanding about mobiles won't reduce the road toll
It's an old principle of policing - if you can't enforce the laws on the books, demand more laws. More than 55,000 people in Victoria were booked...
Should the government restrict super-sizing junk food?
There's a lot of competition for the most stupid Nanny State proposal. But if forced to choose, plans to restrict serving sizes would have to take...
Should there be a minimum price for alcohol?
Minimum prices for alcohol are a tax on the poor and won't deliver better health outcomes. Public health activists claim we need minimum prices...
Defend nannies to oppose the nanny state
The Australian Childcare Alliance wants to get its hands on all Australia's children. Currently, their expressed gripe is with nannies, who they...
Nudge nudge, wink wink, nanny soaks the poor to fatten the budget
As the "beer up, cigs up" headlines of yesteryear illustrate, governments have long imposed taxes on consumer products as a quick fix to plug...
Convergence Review is clever, subtle ... and worrying
One pregnant sentence in the Convergence Review says, "It is important to note that the current Australian Press Council regime where members can...
