Policy Spotlight
The Missing Ingredient – Assimilation
When Al Grassby was Immigration Minister in the Whitlam government in the early 1970s, he announced that multiculturalism was to be Australia’s future policy. Assimilation was over. There was a time when Australia actively promoted assimilation. It was the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and applied to Aborigines, varied by state and location, involved the removal of vulnerable children...
25 Provocative Predictions For 2024
With which do you agree or disagree? GOVERNMENT OVERREACH Habeas corpus will not be restored in Australia. The Australian Federal Budget will be in deficit and expenditure will increase on the previous year. ENVIRONMENT There will be at least 7 tropical cyclones or severe tropical cyclones in Australia. STOCK MARKET Woolworths’ revenue will be lower in the March 2024 quarter than in the March 2023 quarter. HEALTH There...
E-Scooters: A Two Wheeled Burden?
Since approximately 2016 there has been a rapid increase in personal and for-hire electric scooters (e-scooters) in cities around the world. Over 600 cities now have e-scooter for-hire services and, globally, the electric scooter market is valued at more than AUD $49 billion and growing at 10% per year. In Australia, there was an 800% increase in e-scooters from...
Part II:Programmable Money
Two years ago the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Sir John Cunliffe, spoke the most sinister sentence I’d heard in a long while. The menace was unmistakable: “giving your children pocket money but programming the money so that it couldn’t be used for sweets.” This statement was offered in the context of Central Bank Digital Currencies. Let me explain...
Forum Shopping for Native Title rights
The Rolling Stones were wrong: you can always get what you want if you are patient and the taxpayer foots the bill. And if you forum shop. So it was with a recent native title ‘victory’ at the High Court of Australia. The Court overturned a decision of the full court of the Federal Court of Australia. Native title holders at...
The New UAE Corporate Tax
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is famous for, among other things, zero tax. That ended this year. The UAE now has a 9% tax rate for all but a very few exempted industries. The implementation of a corporate tax is not because the UAE needs the money to build new roads, hospitals, schools or public facilities. The UAE is home...
The Misguided Quest for “Fair Share”
“Grab your torch and pitch-fork” was the rallying cry of the left in the recent debate over stage three tax cuts. And so the mob was led to follow a trail of sprinkled money to the door of high income earners to rob them of tax relief. In the debate over Australia's tax system, the concept of "fair share" has...
Lawfare
“Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime” is the famous statement attributed to Lavrentiy Beria, Joseph Stalin’s secret police chief. This is an example of lawfare: the manipulation of legal processes, civil or criminal, to serve political, ideological, or personal interests rather than upholding justice. Lawfare involves the misuse of the law by various means including selective...
Utilitarianism and the Omnipotence of Government
Welcome to the Inspection House, known as the Panopticon. Jeremy Bentham, eighteenth century political thinker, was one of the earliest exponents of the principle of Utilitarianism – the greatest happiness for the greatest number, which he considered to be a fundamental principle of morality. Managing societies is no easy task, hence, as first principles go, it seems reasonable. But what of...
The Nation State
As another Australia Day passes, it gives us the opportunity to reflect on our national identity and what it truly means to be Australian with the number purporting to opt out of celebrating our national day increasing. CHANGE THE DATE 26 January 1788 marks the landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Union Jack in Sydney Harbour. While it...
