IPA Today

5 August 2016

The National Gallery of Victoria’s exhibition Degas: A New Vision, is the most comprehensive collection of the works by the French painter and sculptor, Edgar Degas(1834-1917) since 1988. There are some wonderful individual pieces to inspect in this brilliantly curated exhibition and I urge you to see before it ends on September 18th. And as you learn more about Degas,

25 April 2016

More and more it seems that the place and importance of the individual is taking a backseat in Western societies. Symptoms of this include political discourse which regards the desire to keep and enjoy the fruits of your own labour as greedy, and which pushes higher taxes as people paying their fair share. Or when laws are enacted to restrict

5 February 2016

What is it? The emissions trading scheme, or ‘Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme’, is a ‘cap and trade’ system. This requires firms to obtain a government ‘permit’ if they emit greenhouse gases. The government caps the level of emissions by restricting the number of permits available. The government plans to progressively reduce the pool of permits made available each year-intensifying the

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

6 October 2015

The UN ratified its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a month ago. $US2.5 trillion of foreign aid spending between 2015 and 2030 will be devoted to achieving them. UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon says they are a plan “for ending poverty in all its dimensions, irreversibly, everywhere, and leaving no one behind”. He is wrong. The SDGs are inefficient, driven by politics

2 August 2015

2015 will be a year of important historical anniversaries. First, Anzac Day next year will mark exactly 100 years since the landing at Gallipoli. The First World War featured in theNovember edition of Horizons last year, and here is a piece that IPA executive director John Roskam wrote about the significance of Anzac Day and Gallipoli from 2007. Second, according to tradition, 15 June

17 July 2015

Undergraduate history degrees in Australia fail to teach fundamental aspects of Australia’s history and how Australian liberal democracy came to be. Instead, they offer a range of disconnected subjects on narrow themes and issues—focusing on imperialism, popular culture, film studies, and ethnic/race history. This report contains the results of a systematic review of the 739 history subjects offered across 34

10 May 2015

Property rights are human rights, but in order to advance them, we need to anchor them as moral and just. Throughout the second half of 2014, a national consultation looked at the human rights challenges in Australia, with a particular focus on the role of free speech and association, religious freedom, and property rights. While many people who attended the

17 December 2014

While there has been much attention and significant resources dedicated to examining the structures surrounding the attraction, training, retention and performance of teachers, there is almost no consideration of the conditions under which teachers are employed and paid. This report examines the government school Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBAs) and awards across Australia, pointing to a highly inflexible and restrictive employment

10 December 2014

The sharing economy describes a rise of new business models (‘platforms’) that uproot traditional markets, break down industry categories, and maximise the use of scarce resources. The best known services are the ridesharing system Uber and the accommodation service Airbnb. However, the sharing economy extends much further into finance, home tools, investment, and everyday tasks. The ‘sharing economy’ emerged from