China
Exciting times ahead for uranium mining in Western Australia
During the 2017 WA election, McGowan’s Labor opposition campaigned hard to reinstate the ban on uranium mining. They followed through on this after winning the state election that year. Both Labor and the Greens ran scare mongering campaigns conflating uranium mining with the public’s historic nervousness regarding nuclear energy. Prior scare mongering has led to uranium mining projects being distrusted...
What should the Australian Defence Force do?
Hint: the answer is in the name The Australian Defence Force (ADF) does lots of things it shouldn’t. Restrict the trading of others The Australian Defence Force (ADF) helps to enforce sanctions. It contributes in varying degrees to efforts to enforce sanctions endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, like sanctions against North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and various countries in Africa,...
Victoria: Back in the Basket Again
Reproduced with permission from The BFD https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/05/09/victoria-back-in-the-basket-again/ I grew up in Victoria (don’t judge me, it wasn’t always the way it’s become), and lived through the dark days of the early 90s. Back then, it seemed that hardly a week went by without another economic calamity: the Pyramid building society collapse, the Tricontinental bank collapse, the State Bank of Victoria...
INTERVIEW: The CCP imprisoned him. She got him out!
If you listen to rare public forays by senior members of the security establishment, the spies and their agencies, we in the West are under threat from several fronts. Looming front and centre, they say, is an expansionary Chinese Communist Party. To be clear, Liberty Itch has no quarrel with the Chinese people. However, Liberty Itch is sceptical of government of...
Good Reasons for Suspicion
Worldwide outrage engendered by the SWIFT Affair seems rather quaint today. Operating since 1973, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication is the messaging system that accounts for almost all international financial transactions. Evidence emerged in 2006 that the United States government had been covertly monitoring SWIFT transactions since the late 1990s and in collaboration with SWIFT since 2001. SWIFT’s...
A Letter to My Kid’s Childcare Centre
Background: A few weeks ago, when dropping off my child at their childcare centre, I noticed something on the classroom whiteboard that I hadn't paid attention to before – the "Daily Routine". Amid the usual activities, one particular sticker caught my eye: “Acknowledgement of Country”. I was SHOCKED. It prompted me to write the following letter to the Centre. Dear Centre...
China’s Covert Australian Ops
The Chinese Communist Party’s public diplomacy programs in Australia look innocent enough. From the delightful Wang Wang and Funi Event at the Adelaide Zoo, to the partially CCP-subsidised OzAsia Festival, from the more recent Chinese Music Performance at the Adelaide Town Hall to the 'Chinese Singing Competition' held at a South Australian university campus. Chinese culture is on display. This is...
China’s Priority Next: Faith or Freedom?
In my previous article "China 2024 and Beyond", I argued that China, amid its troubles, is in desperate need of a visionary leader akin to Deng Xiaoping. Such a leader could rejuvenate China's economy through policies that prioritise freedom. The esteemed former senator, Bob Day, responded by emphasising the power of the Gospel when contemplating China's future trajectory. It's a...
Free Markets Work Better for Energy
Energy is again front and centre in the news with the debate over the merits of nuclear energy becoming mainstream. But then last week the Prime Minister announced a new scheme to subsidise the manufacture of solar panels in Australia. One wonders whether this is to support industry or just to close down a debating point against solar -...
Geopolitics and The Non-Aggression Principle
For an example of how libertarians philosophically wrestle, behold this exchange between the Arizona Libertarians and Australian Brett Lombardi: It is eloquent in its brevity: realpolitik confronting Rothbardian idealism. One of the foundational concepts of libertarianism is the Non-Aggression Principle. Put simply, this is the idea that violence and coercion between parties should be avoided, and that people should act cooperatively...
