IPA Review- December 2017

IPA Review- December 2017

[The complete December 2017 edition of the IPA Review can be downloaded here.]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial

Darcy Allen

The Future of History

Western Civilisation is being neglected in Australian history courses, but there is hope for the future.

Dr Bella d’Abrera

Lighting Up Australia’s Energy Future

If government intervention can create our energy crisis then policy reform will also be able to fix it.

Daniel Wild

The Ten Worst Constitutional Mistakes

Parts of our Constitution have undermined state sovereignty, increased the size of government, and centralised power in Canberra.

Morgan Begg and Simon Breheny

The Citizenship Saga

A sensible originalist reading of the Constitution would have avoided the parliamentary citizenship saga.

Morgan Begg

The Blockchain Revolution

Economists explain the far-reaching implications of blockchain technology on society and on how we are governed.

Dr Chris Berg, Professor Sinclair Davidson and Professor Jason Potts

A Platform To Work

How does work in the sharing economy fit into Australian labour laws?

Aaron Lane

Development Done Right

Economic development must come through restoring economic rights to the poor.

Peter Gregory

Freedom to Climate Change

Scientific debate about climate change has been silenced.

Simon Breheny

The Right Way to Debate Religious Freedoms

Both sides in the religious liberty debate might give up the debate altogether in return for state privileges.

Morgan Begg

Paths to Democracy

Democratic transitions from around the world teach us about the future of free markets and free people.

Georgina Downer

How Europe Forgot Itself

A new book reveals how Europe has forgotten who it is.

Matthew Lesh

Understanding the Deplorables

A new book examines ‘class cluelessness’ in America.

Gideon Rozner

The Deakin Puzzle

A new book deciphers the enigmatic life of Alfred Deakin.

Richard Allsop

 

Editorial - Gideon Rozner
Editorial - Darcy Allen

Understanding The Deplorables

The Future of Reform

Featured Articles


Development Done Right: The Atlas Foundation’s Anti-Poverty Program
Peter Gregory

Development Done Right: The Atlas Foundation’s Anti-Poverty Program

This article was first published in the December 2017 IPA Review. As Harvard development expert Lant Pritchett says, ‘There are no poor people. There are people living in poor places’. This is demonstrated by the fact that when poor people relocate to countries where they have economic rights—property rights, access to a transparent legal system, protection from corruption, minimal barriers
Read
How Europe Forgot Itself
Matthew Lesh

How Europe Forgot Itself

This article first appeared in the December 2017 edition of the IPA Review: The world is coming into Europe at precisely the moment that Europe has lost sight of what it is,’ Douglas Murray writes. ‘And while the movement from other cultures into a strong and assertive culture might have worked, the movement of millions into a guilty, jaded and
Read
The Ten Worst Constitutional Mistakes
Simon Breheny

The Ten Worst Constitutional Mistakes

This article first appeared in the December 2017 IPA Review.  The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act was passed into law by the British parliament in 1900, received royal assent, and became the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. While the Constitution has served Australia well on the whole, several sections—either by their drafting or through the expansive interpretations
Read
A Platform to Work: The Sharing Economy
Aaron Lane

A Platform to Work: The Sharing Economy

This article appeared in the December 2017 IPA Review: An increasing number of Australians are turning to sharing economy platforms to work independently. Airtasker’s (a popular sharing economy platform) 2017 survey on the ‘Future of Work’ reported that 10 per cent of respondents earned income from sharing economy platforms, and 58 percent would consider earning income from a freelancing platform
Read
The Deakin Puzzle
Richard Allsop

The Deakin Puzzle

When Alfred Deakin quit politics in early January 1913, the initial press assessments of his contribution to public life were not particularly effusive. This even applied to The Age, the newspaper that had done so much to promote Deakin’s career. His hometown newspaper acknowledged his earlier achievements, but had not forgiven him for taking his Protectionist Party into ‘Fusion’ with traditional
Read
The Right Way to Debate Religous Freedoms
Morgan Begg

The Right Way to Debate Religous Freedoms

Both sides in the religious liberty debate might give up the debate altogether in return for state privileges, writes Morgan Begg. The federal parliament’s bipartisan Marriage Law Survey (Additional Safeguards) Act, introduced in September, was a watershed moment in the religious freedom debate in Australia. The Additional Safeguards law implemented a range of measures to regulate communication during the Australian Marriage Law
Read
Freedom to Climate Change
Simon Breheny

Freedom to Climate Change

Debates over climate change science have been silenced, writes Simon Breheny. From government officials using their positions to academics using the law, there are many ways in which proponents of interventionist policy are attempting to shut down the climate change debate. In resorting to these means of silencing others, they reveal their lack of confidence in their own position and
Read
The Blockchain Revolution
Chris Berg

The Blockchain Revolution

Economists explain the far-reaching implications of blockchain technology on society and on how we are governed. A blockchain is a digital, decentralised, distributed ledger. This year saw a meteoric rise in interest in cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technologies that power them. Even the government is now interested. There’s now a Commonwealth Parliamentary Friends of Blockchain group, and one blockchain energy
Read
The Future of History
Bella d'Abrera

The Future of History

Western Civilisation is being neglected in Australian history courses. But there is hope for the future, writes Dr Bella d’Abrera. As part of its Foundations of Western Civilisation Program, this October the Institute of Public Affairs released its latest research report, The Rise of Identity Politics  – An Audit of History Teaching at Australian Universities. We systematically reviewed all 746 history undergraduate subjects taught at
Read
Doing Development Differently
Peter Gregory

Doing Development Differently

As Harvard development expert Lant Pritchett says, ‘There are no poor people. There are people living in poor places’. This is demonstrated by the fact that when poor people relocate to countries where they have economic rights—property rights, access to a transparent legal system, protection from corruption, minimal barriers to entry—they prosper. The story of top-down government to government ‘development
Read

All IPA Review- December 2017 Articles