Merry Christmas

Dear ,

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from us at the Australian Institute for Progress.

2015 was our first full year of operation and we have established a base to build on.

Highlights of the year were the debate around privatisation of Queensland power assets, our report on Australian attitudes to immigration, the launch of Campbell Newman’s biography, the inaugural Sir Thomas McIlwraith lecture and a series of evening functions focused on book launches and policy.

I’ve listed them all at the end of this newsletter.

Next year we will be pursuing our research into immigration, pressuring both federal and state governments to take a more responsible approach to tax, spending and governance, and developing policies in a range of other areas.

In particular we will continue our approach of celebrating those people who have contributed to Australia’s progress and telling their stories. Too often those on our side of the argument are very good with cold facts and figures. But we miss the opportunity to sell the romance of the struggle to reform society, taking on established opinions and institutions to advance the cause of the individual and their rights and responsibilities, their freedom of choice and the ability to realise themselves as fully as possible on their own terms.

Freedom and progress are more threatened in Australia than I can remember at any time during my lifetime. There is a grouping which not only opposes the views that we represent, but is trying to change the mores and language of society so that those views cannot even be expressed.

This grouping exhibits many of the tendencies of fascism in the sense that it is only democratic when it suits; is corporatist, with governments co-opting corporations, trade unions and NGOs for political ends; and has no regard for the impartial rule of law, being prepared to punish specific individuals or industries when it suits.

We see a web of funding. Governments fund NGOs which then run political campaigns favouring the government. Unions extract money from businesses, either through extortion, or collusion, which again is used for political purposes. Supporters have careers where they move seamlessly between government, political parties, unions and corporations, helping to reinforce the corporatist approach.

Thuggery is deployed to intimidate opponents using boycotts, protests and threats rather than persuasion, to try to impose conformity.

Government legislation, such as Section 18c of the Human Rights Act in the Andrew Bolt case may be one high profile example of how this grouping tries to silence dissent, but there are many more. We have Catholic bishops being hauled before tribunals for merely expressing their faith’s traditional opposition to homosexuality. Or the chief of ASIO blasting critics of Islam for blasphemy. Television stations refuse to take lawful advertisements, Twitter mobs threaten to damage businesses because they have a policy of which they disapprove, or try to organise boycotts of whole industries, such as coal mining.

We see the same fascist behaviour in many areas of industry, with unions using force and coercion to try to destroy businesses that stand up to them.

Then there is the standover money paid by industry to NGOs who certify that certain products, such as timber, are environmentally sound, after they themselves have determined what the standards should be. No certification, no trade.

I would like to see us more involved in this issue of governance over the next 12 months: highlighting the linkages within this grouping, and the illegitimacy of this approach to governing a society.

Before closing I’d like to thank the board of the Institute for their support during the year, particularly Chair, Bob Tucker and Gary Johns. Dan Ryan, Amanda Stoker, Glenn Ferguson and Carol Cashman have also played a significant part in organising functions and rustling up ideas. Others who have played a part are our Director of Communications, Malcolm Cole, our Director of Events and Membership, Roderick Schneider, and Director of Projects, Andrew Cooper. Special thanks should also go to Andrew Smith who has done audio and visual of many of our events.

I should also specially mention Ida Mörk Larsson who interned for us during the year and produced some of the research behind many of the op-eds that I wrote for the Courier Mail and others.

Have a great break, and if you have some time, don’t forget to look us up on social media and like or follow us. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Kind regards,

Graham Young
Executive Director
Australian Institute for Progress

Highlights of the year
Month	Activity
January	Campaign in favour of privatisation of power assets. A Labor victory means that the assets remain in government hands, but we were successful in ensuring that no mainstream journalists bought the union line that privatisation would put the price of electricity up. Polling and election analysis. Our polling panel provided unique insights into voter thinking. To an extent we were in competition with the ABC’s Vote Compass, and our methodology proved to be better than theirs. AIP Executive Director Graham Young was the only analyst to pick a Labor victory, while the Vote Compass predicted an LNP victory.
February	Polling and election analysis of New South Wales election. We predicted this election, again on the basis of our polling. Analysis of the result shows how privatisation can be successfully sold to electors. Queensland 2015 and Beyond. A seminar involving some of Queensland’s best thinkers about where the state goes after the last election and what needs to be done in health, education, development and economics.
July	*Launch of The Charity Ball.* Gary Johns latest book examines the way the charity sector thrives, often on government money, and often in its own interests, rather than those of the causes it professes to care for. Inaugural Sir Thomas McIlwraith Lecture. John Wagner was asked to talk about the Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, a visionary, private enterprise project, built in record time, which is transforming the Darling Downs area.
August	Greg Sheridan Book Launch. Hosted jointly with the IPA, Greg Sheridan launched his book When We were Young and Foolish at the Hilton.
October	*Launch of cando: Campbell Newman and the challenge of reform.* This attracted great media coverage and was our first lunchtime event. Campbell Newman has achieved more than most in his lifetime, and it was a privilege to be asked to do the Australian launch of his book.
November	Life: it’s a gas…all the rest is hot air. Richard Cottee, CEO of Central Petroleum and the man who as CEO of Queensland Gas virtually created the Queensland CSG industry talked about the challenges of getting gas from fields in the Northern Territory to markets which will run out of gas without it in a couple of years.

Merry Christmas

Highlights of the year

Month

Activity