Let's honour Hawke's legacy: a deregulated economy

Dear ,

One of the bipartisan positions of this election is that there is such a place as hell. And if there is, (I make no theological claims myself one way or the other) no doubt Robert James Lee Hawke will be going there. While I think he was a great prime minister, he was also a fornicator, drunkard, liar and atheist, and showed no signs of much remorse for any of them.

Which all goes to show you can be a hell raiser, and a great Australian.

If the polls are right, much of Hawke’s legacy will be trashed by an incoming Labor government that thinks central government is better placed to make decisions about your life than you are yourself. Instead of bringing people together it has been engaged in trying to push them apart: young against old, poor against rich, renters against investors, spenders against savers.

Over the last 36 days we've been trying to influence leaders in the areas where we have expertise..

Franking Credits

If anyone of you has some time this Saturday, I will be manning a booth at Bray Park State High School for the Defenders of Self-funded Retirees between 10:00 and 2:00, and could do with some help. It’s in the electorate of Dickson. Just send me an email graham.young@aip.asn.au.

The fifth of our Fact Bites was also on Labor’s franking credit policy which imposes a minimum marginal tax of 30% starting at the first dollar of income on some of Australia’s poorest and thriftiest citizens.

Free Speech

The biggest free speech issue at the moment is that of Israel Folau versus Rugby Australia. Our petition has so far garnered 5,735 signatures. If you haven’t already signed the petition please click here. And make sure you spread it around your family and friends again.

I had an article in The Australian about free speech, based on our research on the subject. Seems some of our fellow citizens think that free speech is good, as long as it only supports our position. They see someone like Folau, who represents a minority, they dislike what he says, and they are happy to see it marginalised or banned. Sorry to say Scott Morrison also falls into the “He shouldn’t have said it” camp.

We will keep pushing for a more robust approach to free speech.

Publications

During the course of this election we have put out three of our Fact Bites, and conducted one major online survey. I’ve had two articles in the newspapers, and all of our papers are pushed out to media as well as members of parliament. When you read our papers you will see that some of our ideas have been picked-up by mainstream media. That is the ultimate accolade.

Here is a list of everything produce during the last five weeks. And I want to say thanks to our intern Nicholas Umashev. If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have been able to produce nearly as much. He’s only in the office for a day or two a week, but it makes a big difference.

• Fact Bite #5 ALP franking credit policy is taxation theft
  
• Polling federal election 2019
  
• Liberal housing deposit scheme: right direction, wrong policy
  
• What’s Queensland got to lose, except perhaps Adani?
  
• Fact Bite #4 Are corporations eating employees’ lunches?
  
• Folau issue leaves Libs mid-field, as free speech curbs reflect Labor’s culture war wins
  
• While the big birds fight, manufacturing jobs flee Australia
  
• Fact Bite #3 EVs not such a smart way to reduce emissions at the moment
  
• Fact Bite #2 Fact checking ALP claims on electric vehicles
  

Social media

We keep a strong presence on social media, both through my personal account and our own corporate one. My best read tweet was this one, calling attention to the fact that franked dividends have had the tax paid on them. It had 168 Retweets and 528 Likes. That tells me this has become a very hot issue. If you want to follow us our social media accounts are Twitter and Facebook. Just click on the links.

Functions

Functions have been on hold but are coming back. Put June 25 in your diaries for the launch of Giles Auty’s latest book Post-Modernist Australia – How to Create an Unholy Mess. And we will have our annual McIlwraith Lecture in July.

A final thought

This is what wind generation across Australia looked like in June last year. This is an election where many are screaming we need to do more about climate change, but when you look at a graph like this you realise the challenge involved in generating and storing the electricity needed for the times when the wind isn’t blowing.

Regards,

Graham Young
Executive Director