AIP November Newsletter and Patrick Moore lecture

"We're off and running" seems the right phrase at the moment to describe the Australian Institute for Progress. We had a workshop at the Ship Inn at South Brisbane on August 3 to discuss what progress means, and three months later on November 3 progress is what we seem to be making.

While we haven't formally launched the unofficial starter's gun was fired by Des Houghton in Saturday's Courier Mail. Read about it on our website by clicking here. That follows-on from announcements in passing in other mainstream media like The Australian and 612 ABC in Brisbane.

Events

If you haven't booked to hear Patrick Moore, the high profile founder of Greenpeace who is pro-gm, pro-nuclear and skeptical of the risks of catastrophic climate change, then it's not too late. It's at the Irish Club this Wednesday, 7:00 pm and a very reasonable $20 to cover costs.

We've also run a couple of speaking events. Dan Mitchell from the Cato Institute spoke in August, and Nick Cater from the Menzies Research Centre in September.

November should also see the launch of David Martin Jones' book Sacred Violence: Political Religion in a Secular Age at a function in Brisbane. Stay tuned for details.

Publications

We've also started contributing op-eds, with my first in the Fin Review last week. Gary Johns should have one under our name in the Courier soon, and of course regularly contributes to The Oz under his own brand.

All our op-eds are collected under the news section on the AIP website.

We're also looking to gather a regular band of writers who see the world from a similar perspective. If that sounds like you, please email graham.young@aip.asn.au. Apart from our own website, and pieces in the MSM, we are also using On Line Opinion as an outlet.

Research

Current research projects include:

• Privatisation - an important effective and efficient government issue in the upcoming Queensland, New South Wales, and to a lesser extent Victorian elections.
• Economic index of progress
• Negative gearing - under attack yet again, with potential catastrophic results in the housing market
• Immigration - understanding underlying attitudes of immigrants and more established residents

More to come, but will take time and resources to ramp up our efforts.

Tell your friends

We have 157 subscribers to this email list, 49 Twitter followers and 292 Facebook likes. That's a good start, and you can make it even better by telling your friends. Please:

• Visit our Facebook page, like it, and share it on your page
• Visit our Twitter page and follow us (we promise we'll follow back)
• Forward this email on to friends and acquaintances with the suggestion they become a member by clicking here, or at least keep tabs on us by joining the newsletter list from the home page.

We're off to a good start, and of course this race never finishes. Thanks for your support, and I look forward to having a significant impact on public policy and public attitudes in Queensland and Australia.

Regards,

Graham Young
Executive Director
Australian Institute for Progress