20 December 2022
Tomorrow Never Knows
If educator and novelist John Marsden agrees our kids should be free to take risks; why not also adults?, wonders IPA Adjunct Fellow Cian Hussey. How ironic for a book called Take Risks to come out at the height of the panic-driven response to COVID. As former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on numerous occasions, we adopted a ‘safety only’
20 December 2022
Crowning Glory
Support for a republic fades as people better understand the role of the Crown in upholding democracy and good governance, argues author and mathematician Nigel Greenwood. During eight years researching my book on the Crown and its reserve powers, I spent a lot of time in libraries in Oxford, London, and Brisbane examining the monarch’s responsibilities as ultimate guarantor of
20 December 2022
A Question Of Character
The most important challenge facing Australians today is personal rather than political, argues Sydney-based psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed. The worsening mental health of young people became a sensitive topic during the pandemic lockdowns. In the battles over safety, children became political footballs. In the early days of lockdowns, public health authorities claimed they were protecting children from harm. Meanwhile, doubters pointed
20 December 2022
Time To Learn The Lessons
Knowing more about historical events helps up make a better tomorrow, but lots of forces in our society seem determined to bury, malign, or misrepresent the past. Establishing the correct perspective from history and from values is essential to understanding and addressing very current issues such as inflation, social cohesion, democratic dysfunction, and the rising levels of anxiety and depression
21 November 2022
Colombo Picked The Wrong Plan
The self-inflicted ruin of Sri Lanka provides salutary lesson for other countries including Australia, warns IPA Research Fellow Kevin You. Sri Lanka became independent, not in the aftermath of a bloody revolutionary war, but after a prolonged period of careful planning. From the British it inherited a mature democratic tradition, well-established Western-style public institutions, a Westminster system of government, and
17 November 2022
Living Together
Australia’s continued success as a ‘nation-state’ depends on maintaining the political will to prioritise social cohesion, argues IPA Senior Fellow Sherry Sufi. In his victory speech on 21 May 2022, incoming Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised to “bring Australians together” and “to seek our common purpose and promote unity”. Party leaders from both sides tend to espouse such inspiring sentiments
16 November 2022
Australia’s Ancient Democratic Roots
In 2022, Australia ran an exemplary democratic election in Federal politics. It removed a conservative Coalition government and replaced it with an ALP government. That this was accomplished peacefully, legally, without censorship, police interference, or any kind of physical confrontation should be celebrated. The fact the defeated government immediately and gracefully ceded office, that the new government stepped in and
16 November 2022
Big State, Big Problems
Government responses to COVID widened the chasm between productive workers and their ‘professional’ overlords, argues historian and IPA Adjunct Fellow Bradley Bowden. The arbitrary actions of Big Government during the COVID-19 lockdowns highlighted a wider problem: the ever-growing reach of the modern State. I advanced the original argument in ‘The Rise and Rise of the Modern State’ (IPA Review, Summer
3 November 2022
Remember The Victims of Communism
The seventh of November each year has been designated ‘Victims of Communism Day’ in the US state of Florida through State legislation sponsored by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. This is the Gregorian calendar date of the storming of the Winter Palace in 1917 by the Bolsheviks (Julian calendar 25 October, hence the so-called October Revolution). The November date was celebrated
3 November 2022
Inflation: An ill wind
The spectre of inflation now scares most around the world. Predictions by some economists and central bankers that it would be temporary are proving wrong. Money is losing value at an accelerated pace. Even economies where the authorities are engineering a recession are heading into a sustained inflation wave. Stagflation—inflation while growth stalls—is back. Relearning the lessons of history is
