In the year ahead there will be a national discussion about the future of our taxation system. It will have important implications for economic growth and social policy. The discussion will only be productive if all options are on the table, and if participants don’t resort to what Robert Kennedy called “obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans”.
Topic: News
Don’t go too far in advocating constitutional recognition for Aborigines
“Not ready to vote” is the phrase the government has been advised to use as the excuse to delay until 2017 a referendum to recognise Aborigines in the Constitution. Could it just be conceivable that, no matter how much of our money governments spend telling us otherwise, Australians will never be ready for further constitutional recognition?
Nick Cater speaks at AIP’s first public event
The Australian Institute of Progress was honoured to host author and MenziesResearch Centre executive director Nick Cater as the guest speaker at our first public event in Brisbane on Thursday night, September 18.
It’s Clive’s party and his Puppies don’t have voting rights
I THINK my colleague Hedley Thomas is on to something. The Palmer United Party is not a party. Members of the Palmer United Party are, in effect supporters, not members.
Rule D13 of the PUP constitution determines that the six Foundation members are Clive and family. Rule D26 determines that a majority of foundation members can throw out any ordinary member.
Rule W1 determines that the six foundation members exercise all of the powers of the executive until December 31, 2016.
Finally, rule W3 determines that the chairman (and federal president) is fully authorised to exercise all the powers of the interim executive committee.
Nice work, Clive.
Renewables and Fair Work Act stand in the way of employment
AUSTRALIA’S unemployment rate, 6.4 per cent, is at its highest in more than a decade. Suddenly, politics became a whole lot more real, but not necessarily tougher, for the Abbott government.
Brainstorming for a think tank
Today we had 29 people gathered together at the Ship Inn, South Bank to talk about the meaning of progress and future projects for the Australian Institute for Progress. The start of something big!
Becoming a parent is a privilege, not a workplace right
IT is the clear responsibility of an employer to intervene in a worker’s decision to have a child. They must remove all impediments to a parent’s return to work, including holding open a job, and preserving previous pay and conditions. Oh yes, and throw in free childcare.
If these do not happen, it must be discrimination.
This is the world inhabited by the Australian Human Rights Commission. Start with a privilege, make it a “right’’, and convince government to pass laws to shift costs to the employer and taxpayers. Great work. The ACTU would be proud of you.
Abbott must keep calm and cut power prices
THE British government in 1939 created the phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On” to prepare Brits for German attacks during World War II. The Abbott government should adopt it, and take heart.
Of course, the slogan belied the preparedness to assemble the immense power brought to bear by the Allies in 1944 against the fascist forces.
The Abbott government has to go on the attack. It is under siege from Red, Green and Yellow forces, which are unlikely to relent in the near term.
Piketty split – why soaking the rich won’t help anyone
It’s not Joe Hockey’s “leaners” Australians need to fear, it’s the new breed of economic “levellers” who believe that to make an economy work better you just need to dial down levels of inequality.
The equality industry conveniently overlooks progress
PROGRESS is found in human ingenuity, and concomitant success and failure. Strangely, reference to progress rarely appears in public debate, or in the literature.
One reason is that egalitarian ideology has displaced progress. It seems that for some, there can be no progress until we are equal.
