How is this not the biggest issue in Australian politics? The percentage of young Australians who are unemployed or underemployed is at its highest level since 1978 – higher than the early 90s recession or the GFC:
That’s from a Brotherhood of St Laurence report featured in Simon Breheny’s article, ‘Penalising the unemployed‘ in the upcoming IPA Review (in mailboxes later this month). One of the barriers denying young people the dignity of work is penalty rates – this week the IPA’s Gideon Rozner and Aaron Lane released ‘Penalising work: A historical account of penalty rates in Australia‘.
The best piece on US President Trump’s speech in Poland last week was by David French in National Review who said it was a triumph for western values and a “rejection of universalism“. Vox slammed the speech as an evil alt-right manifesto because Trump said “for family, for freedom, for country, and for God”. GASP!
The excellent Watts Up With That? picked up what the mainstream media missed at the G20 last week – that it was a victory for America’s new energy policy of prioritising energy security and affordability. In The Spectator Australia last week, the IPA’s Brett Hogan said Australia should follow America’s lead.
What would 97% of scientists think about how a temperature of -10.4 degrees gets “adjusted” by the Bureau of Meteorology to be -10 degrees? If you want to know, read the IPA’s Jennifer Marohasy in The Spectator Australia today.
And it looks like the BOM’s data homogenisation is spreading! This week it emerged the Riddell District Football League was capping the scores of junior games up to the age of U16 to limit the size of losing margins.
Here’s a Scandinavian economic policy we can get behind – Norway’s centre-right government has introduced a voluntary tax after being criticised for cutting spending. Since being introduced in June, it has raised USD$1,325.
Article of the week:
In Spiked last week Brendan O’Neill points out that many young Corbyn supporters might be surprised to find out that far from being radical, Corbyn has the Nanny State instincts of a neo-Victorian, Blair-style paternalist.
IPA Staff Pick:
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: Morgan Begg
The Epoch Times has a 7-video interview series with Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson on postmodernism and cultural Marxism. In Part 1 (6 minutes), Peterson draws a line between Marxism, postmodernism and identity politics. He also explains how activist professors inculcate students in these theories with the express aim of those students infiltrating the bureaucracy.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- John Roskam, Why should conservatives support Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberals? – The Australian Financial Review
- Matthew Lesh, No, Mr. Turnbull, Robert Menzies didn’t move to the centre. He created it – The Australian Financial Review
- Deborah Sims, Laws should be changed to allow patients right to try experimental lifesaving drugs – The Herald Sun
- Daniel Wild, Cut red tape to launch five-step recovery plan – The Australian
- Chris Berg & Sinclair Davidson, The South Australian Major Bank Levy: Arbitrary, unjustified, and harmful for South Australia and the rest of the country – Research Paper
- James Bolt and Peter Gregory, Episode 18 with Darcy Allen and Deborah Sims – The Young IPA Podcast
