A few months ago we told you the federal parliament passes around 7,000 pages of law every single year. But how much legislation in total is on the books in Australia? Chris Berg has the answer:

Only a federal government that brought in a massive new tax which raised no revenue could also design an expensive stimulus program that only increased average household spending by $1. The evidence is in on Kevin Rudd’s $900 cash-handouts, and it is nothing to boast about.

The latest IPA Review is out this week. After the big response to our 75 radical ideas for Tony Abbott in the last edition, we’ve added 25 more! And we’ve calculated some of the savings from implementing them.

Overnight in Britain David Cameron suffered a humiliating defeat over how much money his government gives to the EU. The Spectator has the background story of how the rebel Conservative MPs engineered their coup. Perhaps they would change their mind if forced to watch this wacky pro-EU propaganda music video.

The man who might replace Cameron, Boris Johnson, is doing a great job unofficially campaigning to the Tory base – check out this terrific defence of free speech against media regulation in The Telegraph this week.

Over the last week in the US everyone has been talking about this creepy new Obama campaign ad. Steve Kates on Quadrant Online thinks they got the idea from Australia.

Last week we told you Republicans were more informed than Democrats. But do Obama supporters even know about his own policies? This amusing video suggests the answer is: nup.

As part of our strategy to continue to grow the IPA, we will soon be sending out a free membership information pack. If you’re interested in joining the IPA but want to learn more about what membership involves, please send your mailing address to Rachel Leigh at rleigh@ipa.org.au.

And if you’re in Brisbane you might be interested in attending ‘IR Changes in Queensland‘ – a briefing with the HR Nicholls Society on 21 November.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

• Chris Berg, Don’t believe the Asian century hype – The Drum
• Tom Switzer, Obama and Romney heeding McGovern’s call to come home – The Age
• Peter Gregory, Destroy! Gillard Government goes all Dalek on charities – The Punch
• John Roskam, BA humbug, Mr Swan – The Australian Financial Review
  
• Julie Novak, Good mail on privatisation – On Line Opinion
• Chris Berg, Free speech is a gift…from the United Nations – FreedomWatch

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Institute of Public Affairs | Level 2 | 410 Collins Street | Melbourne | Victoria | 3000 | Australia

Looks like Occupy Canberra has a lot of work to do with the bureaucratic 1%:

That chart is from an important new report on how to really downsize the public service by IPA Research Fellow Julie Novak, released this week.

This video, of Mr Bean star Rowan Atkinson defending the right to offend, is the must-click Hey link of the year. Why don’t Australian celebrities stand up for free speech? The IPA’s Simon Breheny explains why the UK’s ‘Section 5′ is their Section 18C.

The latest edition of the IPA Review is out next week. Sadly, we learnt last week that communications minister Stephen Conroy is not a fan (but obviously an avid reader). Here’s a sneak preview of the front cover. And here is a great article from the last edition – Peter Gregory on how private schools are transforming the developing world.

A few months ago we told you it was lucky that Tim Flannery wasn’t Dutch. Well, it’s even luckier he isn’t Italian, given this court case. Europe sure is a strange place, as this insane EU poster (discovered by Dan Hannan) demonstrates.

I’d never have picked Mitt Romney as a comedian, but his speech at the Al Smith dinner last week in New York was genuinely very funny. Barack Obama’s was pretty good too. And here’s something you won’t see reported on CNN: Republicans are better informed than Democrats.

Finally, the current edition of New York magazine has a fascinating long read on the Ayn Rand-devotee who turned around AIG after the bailout.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

• Sinclair Davidson, Timing is everything: making sense of Swan’s corporate tax shake-up – The Conversation
• Chris Berg, The puritanical public health movement – The Drum
• Chris Berg, Stay tuned for the red underpants theory of bad TV – The Sunday Age
• Alan Moran, Regulations that worked in 1901 do not work now – The Herald Sun
• Chris Berg, Public health movement strays into censorship – FreedomWatch
• James Paterson, Mark Steyn and James Delingpole on Alan Jones – FreedomWatch

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Institute of Public Affairs | Level 2 | 410 Collins Street | Melbourne | Victoria | 3000 | Australia

It will take ‘a generation to recover‘ from Gillard government budget cuts to the public service according to its union.

The IPA’s Julie Novak shows what a reduction from 261,637 last year to 258,563 this year looks like. You can see all the details here – thank goodness the ABC does not lose a single job!

It will take those balaclava-wearing, molotov cocktail-throwing Europeans a generation to stop laughing after the EU got the Nobel Peace Prize. For reaction there’s an embarrassment of riches to choose from: Boris Johnson and Dan Hannan in The Telegraph, and Andrew Roberts in Bloomberg.

This is how the New Yorker reported the reaction from the UK Independence Party – don’t read it if you’re Belgian or a bank clerk.

Children around the world would have cheered had France got the Nobel Prize for this bright idea – reported in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. But the bright ideas don’t stop at France. In America surveillance cameras now watch other surveillance cameras.

The WSJ has this good and understandable explanation of the work of Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley who won the Nobel Prize for economics this week. For an explanation you can’t understand without a PhD in mathematics read this in Marginal Revolution.

If you’re in the mood for more economic theory there’s this from The Washington Post last month on how currencies operate in online games. 

Bert Kelly was one of the most influential Australian politicians of the twentieth century. He was an MP for 20 years and a minister for 2 years. On Thursday, 25 October the IPA is hosting the launch of his biography The Modest Member – The Life and Times of Bert Kelly from Connor Court Publishing. Book here to attend. To find out more about Bert Kelly and his achievements go to the Bert Kelly Research Centre.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

• Alan Moran, Cost lost in the focus on climate – The Australian
• Tom Switzer, Romney finds momentum in moderation – The Age
• Chris Berg, What’s the crisis in the Cuban Missile Crisis? – The Drum
• Chris Berg, Rose-coloured glasses make for sentimental fools – The Sunday Age
• John Roskam, Australian politics gets the British disease – The Australian Financial Review
• Simon Breheny, ACMA slaps down Alan Jones over climate change ‘balance’ – FreedomWatch
• Simon Breheny, Farcical illegal logging Bill reaches the Senate – FreedomWatch

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Institute of Public Affairs | Level 2 | 410 Collins Street | Melbourne | Victoria | 3000 | Australia

Nanny Staters usually go after easy targets, like smokers or drinkers. So you know they’re really losing the plot when they target old ladies selling jam and tourists eating ice creams.

But I guess that isn’t as bad as charging kids for the privilege of playing outside, as Glen Eira Council in Victoria is doing.

If you’re feeling smug about driving a Prius, then it’s about time you read this academic study. It’s been a bad week for the green movement – even Al Gore has abandoned his investments in renewable energy!

The American Enterprise Institute has been running a great contest for the best free enterprise video. Here’s their winner. This was our favourite, and this is the cleverest. This article in the Wall Street Journal last week would have made a great topic for a video: How Capitalism Can Save Art.

At the IPA we worry a lot about America – particularly when sitting presidents facing an unprecedented debt crisis put out campaign ads like this. (If you watch that, you must read Mark Steyn’s response). But this graph in this recent Economist article shows exactly why America will bounce back long before Europe does. Soon even Cuba might be a better place to do business than the EU! (Looks like they’re following China’s lead, 30 years later).

This is an amazing long read. It’s from Vanity Fair’s November edition. It’s about an Australian who found his long-lost family using Google Earth. Really.

This month Connor Court Publishing is releasing a new biography on Bert Kelly, perhaps the most important Australian parliamentarian of the 20th century. If you’re in Adelaide you can attend the launch on Tuesday 16th October, or join us in Melbourne on Thursday 25th October.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

• Simon Breheny, Privacy impact assessment on data retention released – FreedomWatch
• Simon Breheny, 45th Alfred Deakin Lecture: the good and the bad – FreedomWatch
• Chris Berg, We do not need an internet overlord – The Drum
• Simon Breheny, Government’s creeping hand – The Canberra Times
• Simon Breheny, Facebook defamed over defamation – FreedomWatch

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Institute of Public Affairs | Level 2 | 410 Collins Street | Melbourne | Victoria | 3000 | Australia

In his column for the Australian Financial Review last week, John Roskam attacked secret deals between the government and business. In a stunning coincidence, that afternoon the IPA finally received a months-old freedom of information request from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. You can read the document – Julia Gillard’s letter to media executives proposing to restrict free speech – exclusively on FreedomWatch.

If you’re a regular Hey reader then you already know that free market economic reform has lifted 660 million Chinese out of poverty. But you might not have heard about a small group of peasants who signed a secret document that started it all.

You’d have to wonder what Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm would have to say about that. Hobsbawm passed away this week and The Guardian is gushing. The Telegraph mentions a small matter they glossed over.

The best thing about US elections would have to be the ads. Experts are calling this brutal new ad from Republican Congressman Allen West one of the most effective ever. This (profanity-laden) pro-Obama ad featuring Samuel L. Jackson has Democrats excited too. Here’s the back story on the political action committee that put it together.

Last week we told you America has cheap beer. But which way do Corona drinkers vote? As a Sam Adams drinker I’m very pleased with this graph. Turns out you can also pick the way people will vote based on their names. No prizes for guessing which party people named Gwendolyn prefer.

The ice cream truck is fast becoming a thing of the past in Britain, partly thanks to the Nanny State. But at least the Poms aren’t requiring dogs to wear seatbelts, like New Jersey, or banning children from wearing sporting jerseys with “gang numbers” like one Colorado public school.

Two great reads this week – Dan Hannan in The Daily Mail on why the left hates Margaret Thatcher, and a fascinating long look at what life is like living under a fatwa, by Salman Rushdie in last month’s New Yorker.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

• Chris Berg, Don’t just tinker with government – reduce it – The Drum
• Tom Switzer, It’s not about ‘cranks’, it’s about tax rises and high spending – The Age
• James Paterson, Should the government restrict super-sizing junk food? – The Herald Sun
• Chris Berg, Geert Wilders gets a visa – FreedomWatch
• Simon Breheny, Alan Jones guilty of racial vilification – FreedomWatch
• Chris Berg, Judge and jury found in breach by bigger judge and jury – FreedomWatch

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Institute of Public Affairs | Level 2 | 410 Collins Street | Melbourne | Victoria | 3000 | Australia ]]> http://hey.ipa.org.au/2012/10/pms-department-reads-roskams-columns/feed/ 0 http://hey.ipa.org.au/2012/10/pms-department-reads-roskams-columns/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HeyWhatDidIMiss/~3/nJKh9jVNhmg/ http://hey.ipa.org.au/2012/09/the-debt-is-high-but-the-beer-is-cheap/#comments Thu, 27 Sep 2012 04:01:43 +0000 Chris Berg http://hey.ipa.org.au/?p=796 From James Paterson

I thought we had problems with free speech in Australia. But just try accusing someone of having the “charisma of a damp rag” and the “appearance of a low-grade bank clerk” in the EU parliament and you’ll be in serious trouble. We wonder how long Winston Churchill would have lasted given these classic insults. (The Clement Atlee ones are my favourite).

Perhaps we should just be thankful the EU isn’t proposing a global ban on criticising religion, like the UN. The IPA’s Simon Breheny responded to this crazy idea yesterday on The Punch. It’s nice to see even Barack Obama agrees with the IPA. Well…mostly.

Last week we told you Australia outranked the United States in economic freedom. But on one important measure they’re way ahead – how much work it takes to buy a beer. Aussie Nanny Staters probably think that’s a great thing – but it isn’t if you’re worried about surviving a nuclear war.

The second instalment of the Atlas Shrugged movie trilogy is out in the US next month. You’ll love the trailer. And this interview with the producers explains why America needs to watch this movie. (If you think America’s doing fine, try this amazing debt-calculator. US Debt increased by $428,674,564 in the time it took us to write Hey).

Here’s some great long reads: this month’s New Yorker on the invention of political consulting and the October edition of Vanity Fair on how the $5 billion James Bond franchise was created. (The latest Bond, Skyfall, is out in Australia this November).

And finally for some good news. Hayekians are winning the ideological war in China says The Economist, India is embracing free market reform and a new private city in Honduras aims to be the “most economically free entity on Earth“.

If you’re in Melbourne next Thursday you might like to attend the launch of Kevin Andrews’ new book with special guest Andrew Bolt.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

• Julie Novak, Romney had a point: shift balance from takers to makers – The Age
• Chris Berg, A crackdown on illegal immigrants. Interested? Anyone? – The Drum
• Simon Breheny, Only real threat is to our online privacy – The Herald Sun
• Chris Berg, McMansions a sign of our country’s wealth, not a lack of taste – The Sunday Age
• Alan Moran, Stagnation flows from our banana republic laws – The Herald Sun
• John Shipp, Voluntary voting will have its day in court – FreedomWatch
• Simon Breheny, ASIO: ASIO needs more power – FreedomWatch

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This does not make happy reading for Americans – the US has now dropped to 18th in the world for economic freedom. On Tuesday the Cato and Fraser Institutes released their Economic Freedom of the World report. Australia does better overall at 4th freest, but not on one measure – by size of government we rank 53rd (page 33).

In the US this week they’re talking about two things: Mitt Romney’s 47% gaffe (he was sort-of-kinda-right – he might have based his comments on this graph from the Heritage Foundation released earlier this year) and this long sympathetic profile of Barack Obama by Michael Lewis for the October edition of Vanity Fair. If you read it make sure you read this great response by Andrew Ferguson in the Weekly Standard. (Whilst we’re talking about Obama, one lobby group is very unhappy with Republicans highlighting his enthusiasm for golf).

But in his Australian Financial Review column last week John Roskam argued maybe it would be a good thing if Barack Obama was re-elected!

Everyone is also talking about freedom of speech. HotAir lists ‘The eight dumbest things said about free speech this week‘ in response to the anti-Islam movie. It’s an amazing list.

You heard it here first! We teased the Victorian government last month for looking for big cats. Well, you’ll be pleased to know your taxes were well spent – they can’t find any.

You’re probably aware that we are very concerned by a federal government proposal to force internet service providers to store two years’ worth of your data in case the police might want to access it one day. And that was before we learnt the ACCC wants to access it too! Read these excerpts of the IPA’s Simon Breheny and Chris Berg testifying before a parliamentary committee against the plans.

Chris Berg is the keynote speaker at an excellent conference on freedom of speech in Perth next month – RSVP and further information available here.

And finally, this would be pretty cool if true: archaeologists might have found the skeleton of King Richard III, under a car park in England. But probably not as cool as this – ‘warp drive’ (like in Star Trek) might be feasible.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

• Tom Switzer, Foreign policy rates barely a mention as US turns inward – The Sydney Morning Herald
• Chris Berg, Assange circus takes the steam out of WikiLeaks’ whistle – The Drum
• Tim Wilson, Pollies just trawling for votes over super-sized ship – The Punch
• Sabine Wolff, ID scanners the latest privacy infringement for Kings Cross patrons – FreedomWatch
• Simon Breheny, Myki: ticket or tracking device? – FreedomWatch

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Institute of Public Affairs | Level 2 | 410 Collins Street | Melbourne | Victoria | 3000 | Australia

The NBN is really great and definitely not a waste of taxpayers’ money at all!

(Disclaimer: that sentence may or may not have been ghost-written by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. Here’s the article they wanted us to publish in the IPA Review. And here’s their email suggesting we should pretend we wrote it ourselves).

This is probably the most depressing chart you’ll ever see about America. It’s from this great essay in the Wall Street Journal recently on entitlements in the USA. Charles Koch’s article this week in the WSJ on crony capitalism is also a great read.

There’s nothing Hey readers like more than a good Nanny State story so here’s ‘18 examples of the Nanny State gone wild.’ This article in the New York Times about all the stuff banned in California is pretty amusing too.

Why am I not surprised? Apparently there’s no evidence that having your phone on during landing and take-off in a plane endangers anyone. (Which you would know already if you read Chris Berg in the IPA Review in September 2005).

Jay-Z’s ‘99 Problems‘ was ranked by Rolling Stone as the 2nd best song of the 00′s. But is it good legal advice? This law professor has the answer. (Warning: it’s a rap song, some bad language).

I wish all academic papers were that practical. But I guess it also is important to know that some music videos feature alcohol – and that pop songs are getting sadder. And these academics aren’t even sure if a longer life expectancy is a good thing.

Our 75 ideas for Tony Abbott continue to stir debate. The Courier-Mail admits we have ‘some eminently sensible ideas‘ and The Punch kindly labels us as ‘smart’ and ‘relatively influential‘. We’ll be adding 25 more in the next edition of the Review – so make sure you join as a member to read them first!

The IPA is currently fundraising to support our research on climate change. Read the email James Delingpole sent to IPA members and supporters this week explaining why we need your donations.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

• Chris Berg, Is navel-gazing our fastest growing industry? – The Drum
  
• Julie Novak, States shrink at culling bloated bureaucracy – The Australian
  
• Chris Berg, Privacy to be sacrificed as Roxon takes liberties with our freedoms – The Sunday Age
• John Lloyd, Fair Work Act has unleashed mob rule and it’s spreading – The Australian
• Chris Berg, Troll debate officially out of hand – FreedomWatch
• Simon Breheny, When the government panics, the rule of law gets trashed – FreedomWatch
• Simon Breheny, Roxon under pressure after severe public backlash – FreedomWatch

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Institute of Public Affairs | Level 2 | 410 Collins Street | Melbourne | Victoria | 3000 | Australia

Australian households pay twice as much for electricity as Americans. The Australian Financial Review said today we paid 22.57c per kilowatt-hour in 2010/11 compared to 11.80c in the US.

In fact our electricity prices are about the highest in the developed world. No wonder Julia Gillard wants to have a fight about it.

Yesterday the IPA’s Chris Berg and Simon Breheny told the federal parliamentary inquiry into national security reforms it was bad and dangerous for the government to want to keep track of what you do on the internet. This 6 minute rap video about it is pretty good.

The IPA’s got form fighting Orwellian ideas – here and here is what we said about the Australia Card…in 1986.

Talking of Orwell…I was on the ABC’s Counterpoint on Monday with Professor James Allan talking about freedom of speech in Australia. Hey – I love the ABC! – I still think it should be sold though. Last night on Lateline Tony Jones asked the new ABC chairman what he thought of my suggestion.

The most interesting thing from the Republican Convention last week wasn’t Clint Eastwood’s speech – which Mark Steyn loved – it was this in the Wall Street Journal about the gold standard.

The WSJ also has had this about a book published in 1975 which everyone is now talking about.

And this funny (and extraordinary) video from Peter Schiff is hot off the press from the Democratic Convention yesterday – of course profits should be banned!

You realise everything you’ve ever been told about Enron is wrong don’t you? This 2,000 word piece by a former employee explains.

And Boris Johnson (Bojo to his friends) is warming up to be British PM by telling Croatia they shouldn’t join the EU.

If you’re in Melbourne tonight you can see the IPA’s Tim Wilson debate the future of the ALP.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

• Chris Berg, Australia’s unfounded foreign investment fear – The Drum
  
• Tim Wilson, EU carbon link just more hot air – The Australian
  
• John Roskam, Unions will get just desserts – The Australian Financial Review
• John Shipp, A vote for voluntary voting – The Herald Sun
• Julie Novak, Newman could do better – Online Opinion
• Simon Breheny, IPA appears before National Security Inquiry – FreedomWatch
• Chris Berg, Licensing and Leveson – FreedomWatch

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This has got to be the understatement of the week:

“The officer concerned had misinterpreted the law involved regarding the definition of a vehicle.” That’s how WA police explained why a woman was fined for talking on her mobile whilst…pushing a pram.

I wish I could make up fake Nanny State stories as crazy as that real one. I also wish I could think of more ridiculous examples of political correctness than a school in Nebraska telling a deaf three year old boy to change his name because of their weapons policy, but…I just can’t. (See if you can guess his name before you click the link).

And I really wish I could think of a more creative reason to take personal leave from work than the suggestion in this real submission to a real government inquiry. It’s from the Cat Alliance of Australia.

But here’s some really serious policy suggestions. The cover story for this month’s IPA Review contains 75 radical ideas we want Tony Abbott to take up as prime minister.

A fascinating report into philanthropic giving in the United States was released this month. The list of the most generous cities in America might surprise you. But not once you’ve read this great post from Cato scholar Dan Mitchell, ‘Left-wingers are only generous with other people’s money’.

It turns out American conservatives don’t just give more to charity – they also read more. This amazing infographic from Amazon is depressing viewing for an Obama supporter – if Americans vote the same way they buy books, he’ll only win five states!

The Republican National Convention is underway this week in Tampa, Florida. Vice-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan just delivered his acceptance speech – watch it here.

Some excellent longer reading: Amir Taheri in the latest edition of Standpoint on why we should be optimistic about Iraq, and this piece from the Guardian last week on the scary new generation of Conservative MPs (they actually support free markets!).

Next Monday is Australian National Flag Day. Here’s some interesting facts you probably didn’t know about the flag.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

• Alan Moran, Somersaults and a belly-flop: carbon tax fails on all counts – The Australian Financial Review
• Chris Berg, WorkChoices demon used to fire up the Labor base – The Drum
• Tim Wilson, Should there be a minimum price for alcohol? – The Herald Sun
• Richard Allsop, Taxi reform may put passengers in the driver’s seat – The Australian
• Alan Moran, Electricity users cop the renewable energy bill – The Herald Sun
• James Paterson, Nanny State Debate – ABC24
• Simon Breheny, Misguided call to establish racial vilification crime - FreedomWatch
• Chris Berg, The Press Council’s contortions over opinion – FreedomWatch

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Institute of Public Affairs | Level 2 | 410 Collins Street | Melbourne | Victoria | 3000 | Australia ]]> http://hey.ipa.org.au/2012/08/whats-in-a-name/feed/ 0 http://hey.ipa.org.au/2012/08/whats-in-a-name/