Why We Should Oppose Government Efforts to Age Restrict Social Media
There are increasing efforts to mandate age restrictions for social media. These efforts have occurred at federal level with a proposed minimum age of 16, and in Victoria with a proposed minimum age of 14 with parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds. My home state of South Australia is also considering something similar. This legislation is motivated by concerns about...
Whose Ethics make it Ethical
When I started my business 35 years ago, very few investment funds were describing themselves as ethical investors. Some years later I joined an organisation of CEOs, business owners and senior executives that meets to share and discuss their challenges. I enjoyed our meetings right up until my group was required to listen to a speaker on ethics. When I...
The Unholy Union
Conceptually, worker unions are quite compatible with libertarian ideology. Workers voluntarily leveraging their collective bargaining power is a perfectly acceptable free-market response to what can oftentimes be an unbalanced relationship between employers and employees. All libertarians would prefer to see these kinds of voluntary associations dealing with some of the natural consequences that markets create, rather than the coercive...
Resisting centralist power – Part 3
In a speech entitled, Rebuilding the Federation, Richard Court, then Premier of Western Australia, described the tide of centralism as follows: “All the things that the States do best are under attack from the empire builders in Canberra. The bureaucracy running the Federal education system, as you know, is large but it doesn’t teach any students. There is an equally...
Resisting centralist power – Part 2
Following the Second World War, the most dramatic shift in the balance of tax power between the States and Commonwealth occurred. In 1942, under the leadership of John Curtin as Prime Minister and Ben Chifley as Federal Treasurer, all income taxing authority was handed over to the Commonwealth by the States for the duration of the war under the defence...
Resisting Centralist Power – Part 1
In 1901, when six individual British colonies came together as a federation, it was in an environment of extensive and, at times, torrid debate. While there was widespread acceptance that the colonies could achieve together what they could not achieve alone, there was also apprehension about the extent to which the power to govern would become centralised. The enthusiasm and...
25 Provocative Predictions for 2024 from the World’s #1 Political Observer
GOVERNMENT OVERREACH 1.Habeas corpus will not be restored in Australia 2.The Australian Federal Budget will be in deficit and expenditure will increase on the previous year Correct: “A deficit of $28.3 billion is forecast in 2024–25.”Source: Statement 1: Budget Overview. Page 2. https://budget.gov.au/content/bp1/download/bp1_bs-1.pdf. Correct: Forecast expenditures for 2023-24 and 2024-25 are $691,070,000,000 and $734,518,000,000 respectively.Source: Statement 6: Expenses and Net Capital Investment. Page 233....
No Headspace Evidence
Is there a pandemic of mental illness among young people? Is almost one in two young women affected by mental illness? In an opinion article in The Australian, Patrick McGorry, a celebrated psychiatrist, 2010 Australian of the Year and recipient of an Order of Australia Award for his services to youth mental health, claimed this was so. McGorry quoted a paper...
The Libertarian Perspective on the Controversy of XY Boxers
The recent controversy surrounding two boxers, Imane Khelif from Algeria and Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan, who won gold medals in the women’s events at the Paris Olympics, has ignited a worldwide debate. The key issue at the heart of this controversy is whether athletes with XY chromosomes who live as female, should be allowed to compete in women’s sports,...
Windfall?
The Guardian recently said the quiet part out loud – the Coalition’s pivot towards nuclear energy is scaring away the big money that is backing renewables. That’s right, the mere fact that the Federal Opposition (who aren’t fancied to win the next election mind you) has proposed nuclear energy for Australia is enough to put investors off backing renewable projects....
