Senator David Leyonhjelm was our guest on The Young IPA Podcast this week. Listen to the full interview on iTunes, SoundCloud and our website.
Here’s some of what Senator Leyonhjelm had to say:
On energy
“No one cares about poor people [in this debate]”
“There are bound to be deaths…as a result of higher electricity prices and people not keeping warm in the wintertime [as a result of rising prices].”
On free speech laws introduced surrounding debate over same sex marriage survey
“I actually feel a bit guilty that I didn’t kick up more of a fuss about that.”
“I hadn’t even looked at the Bill until Monday morning in the Senate [when I saw it included] harassment and vilification…so I wasn’t too happy about it.”
“It went through with no opposition whatsoever…and I thought ‘well, what hope have I got of doing much about it?’”
“It’s a crack in the door for anti-vilification and anti-blasphemy laws”
On libertarianism in Australia
“Not many people are prepared to apply [the harm principle]. They might say ‘well, I’d like to have lower taxes because I’m better at spending my money myself, but on the other hand I’m too stupid to ride a bicycle without smashing my head or knowing when to fall off, so therefore the law should make me wear a helmet.’”
“A lot of people equate disapproval with the law. You can disapprove of people riding a bicycle without a helmet, and that’s fine… but when you invoke the law, that’s when you step over the line. And then you go from being a libertarian to an authoritarian.”
When non-libertarians debate libertarians on free speech “they omit the fact that there’s no obligation to listen. You can turn your head, or walk away, or block on Twitter…but you shouldn’t invoke the law to prevent a person from saying something [offensive] in the first place.”
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