June update

Dear ,

“Make Australia Great” was the teaser. We all knew it was coming, and still couldn’t quite believe it, but it is official, mining magnate Clive is back in the political game with his own senator, stolen from Pauline Hanson, and plans to run a team at the next election. He might even run himself.

It’s a sign of the times. Mineral prices are up, good times are starting to roll, and no one takes the future of the country too seriously, least of all voters. It’s Bring in the Clowns rather than Make Australia Great.

Not that I want to pick on Palmer specifically, he was just today’s most available hook. But it’s hard being a think tank when everything seems to be going well. Clive’s antics are a symptom, not the cause.

Which just means we have to work harder. And for that we need funds. Which leads me to the next item.

Sir Thomas McIlwraith Lecture

This year our lecturer is Sir Leo Hielscher AC. If anyone can claim to have made Queensland great, it is Sir Leo. As Under-Treasurer and Deputy Under-Treasurer over 24 years from 1964 to 1988 he oversaw the transformation of the state from a backwater into a modern powerhouse.

Leo will share the past as well as the future when he addresses the subject “Queensland: Where From, Where at, Where to?”

The McIlwraith lecture will be on Wednesday July 18, 7:00 for 7:30 pm at Tattersall’s Club. Cost is $165 for AIP members, and $185 for others. (But organise a table of 10 and everyone comes for $165 a head).

To book click here. Seats are filling quickly, so please book early. (I know they always say that, but our organising team has been putting together table captains, and we already have more than 50% of the seats spoken for).

This is a major fundraiser, so please consider attending.

Past activities

Events

Bettina Arndt

On Wednesday May 3, Bettina Arndt spoke to a group of us at the Alliance on the topic “Men are their own worst enemies.” Unfortunately the first segment of her talk was corrupted in the recording device so you can’t watch it online, but she touched on a lot of issues where men are disadvantaged. It sounds strange to be talking about men in terms of disadvantage and minority status but when you have a Liberal Prime Minister blaming all men for the terrible rape and murder of a young woman, you realise the truth of what Bettina is arguing.

Advocacy and Outreach

Property developer donation legislation

This has been a major concern for us. The state government’s legislation which bans “property developers” – defined as people who regularly make town planning applications and their close family and associates – is a major attack on democracy.

It’s ironic that many of the same people who rightly attacked the Bjelke-Petersen excesses, in particular the gerrymander, have been completely silent on a measure which is worse. Under the guise of tackling corruption the legislation robs the LNP of substantial financial backing (we estimate $519,524.45 in the last election alone) necessary to fight and win elections.

Disgracefully the CCC has been part of this process with the CCC Chair, Alan MacSporran justifying it on the basis of public perceptions. An organisation which should be devoted to the idea that someone is innocent until proven guilty has decided that in this one instance – property developers who donate to political parties or candidates – guilt must be assumed, even if innocence is proven!

We commissioned polling to see whether, and to what degree, the public was suspicious of various types of donors; whether they believed in punishing a group for the possible sins of a few individuals; and whether organisations or people who constantly break the law should be allowed to donate to parties and candidates.

The results undermined the CCC position, finding that while 73% thought property developer donations were likely to be corrupt, it was 76% for gaming and 63% for trade unions. Lawyers got the best rating, but still 51% were suspicious of their donations.

60.5% thought that criminals should be caught and prosecuted, rather than penalising a whole industry, and 83% would ban companies that committed significant illegal acts.

You can read in more detail by clicking here.

Peter Ridd

We continue our support for Peter Ridd and anticipate he will come to Brisbane to do a range of functions for us. Please keep a look-out for this. Peter Ridd’s issues are not just to do with unfair dismissal and genuine academic integrity, but the way that much research is currently conducted. The “irreproducibility crisis” where much research cannot be replicated, and therefore cannot be true, perhaps more than 50% of it, is real, and it is costing the community huge amounts of money.

The federal government has just dedicated $500 million to the Great Barrier Reef, but if Peter Ridd is right, we don’t have the data to know what to do with this money. It’s possible we don’t even need to spend it.

Power Generation

The mad rush to renewables in Queensland continues, with the opposition apparently joining in with the government. Our position is clear. The renewable target is set by the federal government, not the states, and the states should work within that target. If other states rush ahead of the federal government, then Queensland can take advantage of this and provide surplus baseload power into the grid for sale to other states. This would be made possible by a new baseload power station, plus at least a doubling in the interstate connector.

We are technology neutral, but recognise that so-called “renewable” power faces very high cost and practicality hurdles once it penetrates more than 20% into the network. I say “so-called” because wind and solar both consume non-renewable resources in construction and storage, and there are currently difficulties disposing of those resources once they are used.

In response to news reports showing that New South Wales almost had blackouts last week we renewed our calls for the interconnector to be expanded.

Queensland State Budget

We have done some preliminary analysis of the Queensland state budget. Just like Clive Palmer, the state is riding high again on mining royalties, and there seem to be more than a few clowns lurking around encouraging us to make financial mistakes.

The state government is planning to continue spending money that it doesn’t have, raising most of it by increasing state debt. This is at a time when interest servicing costs are likely to rise, and some of the assets, such as power stations, which are supposed to amortise some of the debt, are likely to become redundant.

At the moment the state budget is being saved by high coal prices, but mining is a boom and bust industry, and these won’t continue for ever. However, instead of using the coal royalties to permanently reduce debt, the state budget effectively uses them to just service the interest on the debt.

You can read our initial analysis here.

Banking Leadership and Integrity

I was asked to participate in a roundtable discussion on banking and leadership integrity by The Australian Leadership Project. It was moderated by Professor Charles Sampford from Griffith University. While this is not a core area for us, I do think that there are issues with corporate Australia and how it conducts itself which impact on issues which are core, such as tax reform.

In particular I think a lot of public companies have been hijacked by their executives arrogating the privileges of ownership to themselves, which, combined with the managerial power they already have, leads to complacency and arrogance. It also leads to executives being paid extraordinarily well for often mediocre performance.

Friedman Conference

The 2018 Friedman Conference was held over the weekend of May 26 and 27. This was the fourth annual Friedman Conference, which was started by Tim Andrews, of the Australian Taxpayers Alliance, and John Humphreys (one of our fellows). I spoke at the conference in a panel on the Overton window (which is a term referring to what defines acceptable debate) and how to widen it.

I’m trying to convince the organisers that next year’s conference should concentrate on a variation on that theme and look at “marching back through the institutions”. As the reluctance by the ANU to partner with the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation shows our institutions have significant incursions into them of academics who are openly hostile to our culture. Free speech has been metastasising inside the educational sector, and under the guise of “academic integrity”, fights to destroy the elements that make real free speech possible.

Newman and Beattie

During May I also appeared on Newman and Beattie. This was to discuss the polling that we conducted on public attitudes to property developers.

Polling

March Omnibus Poll

We’ve published the political results of our March Omnibus Poll. We still have to properly analyse the other half of the poll which deals with attitudes to electricity and generation.

Conclusion

I look forward to seeing you at the McIlwraith Lecture. I’ve been devoting much of my time to securing funding for our various programs. We appreciate your interest in the institute, and attending the lecture is one way of ensuring that our work continues.

Regards,

GRAHAM YOUNG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR