24 January 2016

A new poll conducted exclusively for the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs shows Australians hold overwhelmingly patriotic views. The poll was featured in the Herald Sun this morning. “Australia is a great country – and Australians agree. They are proud to be Australian, proud of our past and love celebrating Australia Day,” says James Paterson, Deputy Executive Director

15 December 2015

All current Australian Public Service Enterprise Agreements have a nominal expiry date of 30 June 2014, and are currently in the bargaining stage for the next suite of agreements. This report examines the APS Agreements of the Top 10 Commonwealth government Agencies or Departments by employee size. The APS Agreements provide that general salary levels for APS-level employees will incrementally

1 December 2015

On Saturday 10 April 1954, Robert Menzies gave an after dinner speech to the Institute of Public Affairs. The event was a private one, held in Melbourne, and Menzies relished what he thought would be the ‘last opportunity’ to speak in ‘a humane and civilised fashion about the issues before this country’ before election day, which had been set for

10 April 2015

Research conducted by Newspoll for the Institute of Public Affairs indicates that there is only moderate community support for a change to voluntary voting, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be seriously considered. The poll, which was conducted from the 8-10 October 2010 and featured 1200 adults, showed 27 per cent of voters support voluntary voting, whilst 70 per cent

24 January 2014

This article from the January 2014 edition of the IPA Review is by Editor James Paterson. Two articles in this edition of the IPA Review appear to be starkly contradictory. On the one hand, the IPA’s Julie Novak writes on page 12 that everything is getting better. Living standards in Australia have dramatically increased over the past three decades as consumer

20 November 2013

This article from the November 2013 edition of the IPA Review is by editor, James Peterson. Conventional wisdom suggests that the Republican Party’s decision to ‘shut down’ the US government for sixteen days in October was a catastrophic political blunder. Key proponents of the shutdown, like Texas Senator Ted Cruz, as well as conservative and libertarian organisations such as Heritage

23 August 2013

This article from the Winter 2013 edition of the IPA Review is written by editor James Paterson. Kevin Rudd is back. Tony Abbott defeated him once before—and he can do it again, by following his own advice. Abbott was elected leader of the Liberal Party in a party room ballot on 1 December 2009. Th at day, in his first press

30 May 2013

This article from the May 2013 edition of the IPA Review is written by Editor James Paterson. Canada’s successful effort to repeal laws that curtail freedom of speech demonstrates that restoring free speech is possible, but far from guaranteed. It’s taken their Conservative government six years to take action on an unpopular law which clearly limits free expression. Section 13

5 December 2012

This article from the December 2012 edition of the IPA Review is written by Editor James Paterson and Executive Director of the IPA, John Roskam. One of the most revealing stories in modern Australian politics comes from James Button—a speechwriter for Kevin Rudd for a short time in 2009. Button’s recent and fascinating book, Speechless: A year in my father’s

3 December 2012

This article from the December 2012 edition of the IPA Review is by Editor James Paterson. Attacks on individual freedom in Australia over the past few years have occurred in some unexpected places. Take, for instance, the unprecedented assault on civil liberties we have seen in Australia in recent years. Both the left and right of politics have in the