Policy Spotlight
A Digital Dark Age (part 2)
The only currency that matters is power – getting it and holding on to it. Attaining power these days involves denigrating and silencing your opponents in any way possible: censoring them, branding what they say as misinformation, disinformation or malinformation, with the primary aim being to prevent them getting their message out. As has been observed, ‘When ideas are bad, censorship...
A Digital Dark Age
Step into my parlour, said the spider to the fly,'Tis the prettiest little parlour, that ever you did spy,Oh no, no! then said the fly, to ask me is in vain,For who goes up to your winding stair, Can ne'er come down again. Mary Howitt’s old poem could well be describing another web, the one that ensnares us all – the...
Pro-Natalist Policies – The Jury is Out
“By 2050, over three-quarters (155 of 204) of countries will not have high enough fertility rates to sustain population size over time; this will increase to 97% of countries (198 of 204) by 2100.” Global fertility in 204 countries and territories, 1950–2021, with forecasts to 2100: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021, Lancet. Fertility rates...
The Rise of Citizen Journalism and Independent Media
Shortly after 4pm on the 27th of March, the X account @churPanic commenced a live broadcast on a mobile phone from the streets of Gisborne, New Zealand. Against a backdrop of community outrage at taxpayer-funded Rainbow Storytime in the local library, a pedestrian crossing had been whitewashed. Residents of this small North Island town were protesting at the repainting of...
Another Brick in the Wall
Libertarians don’t argue a lot about education policy. And yet, ‘school choice’ and ‘decentralised education’ are ideas that unite us with conservatives generally. Empowering parents to homeschool forms a branch of this policy, and indeed many parents have become more interested in homeschooling as Australia’s education standards have slipped and an ideological agenda has emerged within its curriculum. But the...
The Mask Is Off, Now
Reproduced with permission from The BFD https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/04/06/the-mask-is-off-now/ It must be such a relief for him. Finally, Anthony Albanese doesn’t even have to bother pretending any more: he’s finally got the excuse he’s been itching for, to rip the mask off and show what he really thinks. Or, more correctly, what he knows will win precious votes in Western Sydney. Perhaps Albo isn’t...
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...
The Rule of Law is Being Ignored by Conservatives
The High Court recently ruled that: - if immigration detention is not a practical step towards a person being removed from the country, the detention amounts to punishment, and - governments can only mete out punishment if they are sentencing someone for a crime. This ruling led to the release of around 140 people who were in immigration detention but not on...
No, Men are not OK
As a society, we generally do not like to talk about suicide. And when we do, we tend to avoid a key issue – why do so many men take their own lives, and why are so many of them middle-aged? The statistics are stark: of 3,249 Australians who took their own lives in 2022, 2,455 were males. That’s more...
