The US Congress yesterday passed the most sweeping tax overhaul since the Reagan era, including slashing the American company tax rate from 35% to 21%. At home, Australia’s rate is still among the highest in the OECD as we said in September:
Back in October the legendary Dr Art Laffer argued Trump’s tax cuts could lead to America’s greatest economic boom since those Reagan tax cuts. The IPA’s Daniel Wild today noted the cuts mean Australia is an “even less attractive destination for businesses to invest in” and called on the government to cut our high company tax rate.
This is the final edition of Hey for the year – and this is what you really liked in 2017:
- 968 of you read Richard Lindzen’s fantastic letter to President Trump summarising climate change.
- 941 of you watched Simon Breheny call out Gillian Triggs for claiming the human rights commission’s handling of the QUT case was “excellent” on Q&A.
- 839 of you read AEI’s list of 18 spectacularly wrong predictions made at the time of the first Earth Day in 1970.
- 733 of you clicked on Watts Up With That’s list of the top 10 reasons Al Gore’s predictions of a “planetary emergency” 10 years ago were wrong.
- 716 of you wanted to see the great Scott Adams’ take on climate science in this brilliant Dilbert cartoon.
But you were less interested in these links:
- UK Labour’s policy manifesto for the 2017 general election received only 10 clicks (can’t say I blame you!).
- Film director Oliver Stone’s description of the game Pokemon Go as “totalitarianism” received only 13 clicks.
- And the news out of Canada that MPs there were set to loosen penalties for drinking while operating a canoe also received only 13 clicks.
Each member of the Hey team also had their favourite stories of the year:
James Bolt
The story I was most fascinated by this year was the Lindsay Shepherd saga out of Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. Hey readers might recall in November that Shepherd was subjected to a disciplinary meeting after she showed her students footage of a debate featuring the great Jordan Peterson. Shepherd recorded the meeting, which included some truly depressing quotes from the diversity officers.
Eventually the university and the teachers involved ‘apologised‘. But it demonstrates the dire state of academic freedom at universities – especially since it has emerged this month that no student actually complained in the first place!
Peter Gregory
In October we showed you a hilarious video from Campus Reform – the filmmakers asked US college students what they thought of Bernie Sanders’ tax package. They loved it… except that the measures they were reading out to the students were actually Donald Trump’s. But it’s cruel to pick on the kids – you’d get the same result with the majority of the cultural elite…
Morgan Begg
My pick of the year was the bizarre criticism by the Left directed at Taylor Swift for daring to keep her political opinions to herself during the 2016 US Presidential Election, as we shared in November. This week New York Magazine sarcastically congratulated Swift for being the ” only person who seemed to enjoy 2017“.
And if you’re looking for a reading list over the Christmas break, you can revisit the “Books you should buy for Christmas” as recommended by IPA staff in November.
The IPA had a huge impact in 2017, and with your support we will continue to make a difference to the future of Australia in 2018. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the IPA’s 2017 Christmas Appeal.
Hey will be returning in the new year. From the Hey team and everyone at the IPA, please have a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- Aaron Lane, Five questions on the size and cost of the Commonwealth Public Sector – Parliamentary Research Brief
- James Bolt & Peter Gregory, Episode 41 with Stuart Eaton and John-Michael Howson – The Young IPA Podcast
- Daniel Wild, The importance of corporate tax cuts – Sky News Politics HQ
- Evan Mulholland, What to make of the Bennelong by-election – Sky News Weekend Agenda
- Andrew Bushnell, Our work on criminal justice in 2017 – IPA TV
