16 September 2022
More Harm Than Good
A cost–benefit analysis clearly shows far more harm than good came from Australia’s oppressive COVID lockdowns, economics professor Gigi Foster has found. It is possible that lockdown[s] will go down as one of the greatest peacetime policy failures in modern history. – Douglas Allen, Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University The world has been shaken by the response of
16 September 2022
Unrealistic Unreliable Unaffordable
The big plan that Australia can build enough wind farms, transmission lines, and back-up storage to power a renewable energy future is deluded and unachievable at any realistic cost, argues IPA Executive Director Scott Hargreaves. As a modern industrial economy with a growing population, affordable and reliable electricity is central to everything Australia does. It allows our cities to work,
16 September 2022
It Was China Built The Wall
Those blaming Australia for problems with China should examine Xi Jinping’s destructive changes in direction, as we carefully weigh our response, argues author and history scholar Paul Monk. The past two years have seen a series of developments in Australia’s relations with China which have upended long-standing hopes and assumptions. It’s important that we not only ride out the current
1 September 2022
Ok Boomer, Is That It?
The gap between Boomers and Millennials is as wide as the one between idealism and reality, writes IPA Membership Officer Claire Peter-Budge. Journalist and author Helen Andrews is already interesting as a self-proclaimed conservative in a very woke era, leading from the front in her role as editor of the American Conservative (co-founded by the paleoconservative and former Nixon speechwriter,
1 September 2022
Time To Try Freedom
David Kemp chronicles how an ascendant utopian socialism dragged Australia down, until believers in freedom regrouped and fought back, writes IPA Senior Fellow Richard Allsop. It is rare to be able to say when a task is 80 per cent complete that it is already a classic, but that is certainly the case with David Kemp’s landmark five-volume historical study
1 September 2022
A Stand For Free Speech
Modern hate speech laws have their roots in a strange form of modern Puritanism and must be opposed, argues political science professor David Martin Jones. … hate is the verb that to me is superb, And love just a drug on the mart. Any kiddie in school can love like a fool, But hating, my boy, is an art. –
30 August 2022
Spies Who Loved Us
Threats to our national security remain as real right now as they were last century, writes IPA Future Leaders Program intern Jacob Watts. Spies and Sparrows: ASIO and the Cold War attracted my interest because although I was not even born when the Cold War ended, I am keen to learn more about Soviet spies in Australia and work done
30 August 2022
Teal We Meet Again
The ‘teal’ phenomenon highlights the contest of values within Australia’s liberal tradition, argues IPA Research Fellow Andrew Kemp. On the election night of May 21, 2022, I like to think that a ghostly chuckle quivered down the upper hallway of the Auburn Hotel, above the euphoric roars of Monique Ryan’s victory party as the independent candidate claimed the federal electorate
30 August 2022
Barrier To Prosperity
Scares over carbon emissions and the Great Barrier Reef are driving red tape that hits regional communities across Australia, reports IPA Research Fellow Kevin You. Red tape has rightly been described by the IPA as Australia’s biggest industry, costing this country more than 10 per cent of our national output every year. Our analysis shows that in only one year
30 August 2022
Our Election (Campaign) Was Stolen
This is the first IPA Review since the recent Federal Election. The result was of course a source of joy for the ALP and a deep disappointment for the Liberal and National Parties, who lost office after three terms. The election campaign generally was a disappointment for us at the IPA, too. We were ready to play a role in
