Overpopulation isn’t a problem. We are not running out of resources. In fact, the earth was 518.98% more abundant in 2018 than in 1980. Look at how much less working time it takes to afford 50 basic commodities – for example, it takes the average person 80.6% less working time to afford cotton in 2018 than it did in 1980:
That’s from Human Progress’ Simon Abundance Index 2019 released last month.
The AFP raids on journalists last week were disgraceful – and I’m glad that left wing journalists all of a sudden care about press freedom. But if we’re going to have an inquiry into press freedom in Australia, it has to also deal with “laws which infringe on the freedom of speech of all Australians, such as Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act” as Gideon Rozner said yesterday.
Unelected regulators are imposing red tape on businesses and the community with little democratic oversight. The IPA’s new report on ‘regulatory dark matter’ found that just five agencies in the finance and banking sectors piled on 75,976 pages of regulatory dark matter (that page count is 52 times larger than War & Peace!)
Jordan Peterson has finally revealed his long-rumoured new social media website. ‘Thinkspot’ is an “intellectual playground for censorship-free discourse” to rival the platforms that just ban people they disagree with. You can sign up to the waitlist to trial the beta version now.
So is fact-checking just dead? Two weeks ago we had Naomi Wolf get told live on air that the executions that underpinned her latest book never actually happened. This week Paul Dolan’s work (which went viral) showing that married women were miserable has been found to be based on a complete misinterpretation of what ‘spouse absent’ means.
She’s conquered The Young IPA Podcast and The Looking Forward Podcast, and now she’s looking internationally. Dr Bella d’Abrera went on Delingpod with James Delingpole last week to talk about the political culture in Australia and the divide between the elites and mainstream Australians.
I guess some pigs are more equal than others. Grunt the Pig has been banned from walking in Wangaratta Council lands for fears of community safety and will be fined $806 if he does it again.
Tickets are now available to the Samuel Griffith Society’s 30th Annual Conference in Melbourne in August, with speakers including Alan Jones AO and Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC. Click here for more details of this unmissable event.
It’s the IPA’s End of Financial Year Appeal! Your support will be devoted to our three strategic priorities: Producing research of outstanding quality, communicating with young people about freedom, and using digital technology to communicate the IPA’s research. Support our research here.
Article of the week:
On Sunday over a million Hong Kongers marched through the streets in protest of a controversial extradition law with mainland China. Playwright and Hong Kong-born Jingan Young in Spiked on Tuesday explains how “the millions marching in the street prove that Hong Kong’s people have spoken – and we will not live in fear of China’s authoritarian shadow.”
IPA Staff Pick:
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: Evan Mulholland
If you have been watching the HBO series Chernobyl, then the accompanying podcast series is a must. Communist regimes cause misery and murder to humankind in more ways than just sending people off to gulags. Take a look behind the series everyone is talking about.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- Morgan Begg & Daniel Wild, Race has no place – The Spectator Australia
- John Roskam, Business needs to ‘mind the gap‘ – The Australian Financial Review
- Peter Gregory and James Bolt, Episode 113 with Daisy Cousens and Steve Baxter – The Young IPA Podcast – now on YouTube!
- Renee Gorman, Do we become more conservative with age? – ABC Radio National Drive
- Daniel Wild, Delayed Adani approval highlights Australia’s red tape crisis – Media Release
- Andrew Bushnell, Rising costs of incarceration compromising community safety – Media Release
