Don’t reform section 18C – just get rid of it, as Simon Breheny said on ABC News 24 on Tuesday:
You can watch the IPA’s reaction to the Parliamentary Committee’s report on 18C on Facebook Live, and you can read our 140 page submission. Simon Breheny was also in the Daily Telegraph today saying that despite the committee’s report “the case for repeal grows stronger every day.”
It’s funny how your taxes are spent telling you that you don’t care about freedom of speech, as the IPA’s Morgan Begg explained on The Spectator Australia on Wednesday.
Protecting our rights might not be in vogue, but the IPA will continue to promote all our fundamental freedoms. IPA research this week found that there are now 307 breaches of fundamental legal rights in federal legislation:
That’s from the IPA’s Legal Rights Audit 2016, which you can read here.
Tyler Cowen, author of the great blog Marginal Revolution, has a new book out – The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest For The American Dream. David French in National Review called it “one of the most important reads of the new year.”
But did La La Land win the popular vote? Here’s the behind-the-scenes story of how Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway awarded Best Picture to the wrong film. Although, if you’re into conspiracy theories I think Conan O’Brien’s has weight to it. Still, Scott Shackford on Reason says libertarians should be happy Moonlight won.
By now everyone has watched the putrid ad for the federal Department of Finance that cost taxpayers $40,000. Mumbrella has this excellent shot-by-shot analysis of just how bad it is.
Reason editor Nick Gillespie and potentially the next US Libertarian Party presidential candidate Austin Peterson are among the speakers for the can’t-miss 2017 Friedman Conference run by our friends at the Australian Libertarian Society and Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance. Tickets here. To get warmed up, read this great article from Nick Gillespie last month on how libertarians should feel about the Trump administration.
Article of the week
This week we have two ‘Articles of the week’. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has told people to avoid bus stops to protect themselves from air pollution – tough call if you catch the bus to work.
London’s air pollution is a crisis. You have to read Matt Ridley in The Times on how the EU is deliberately making air pollution worse and James Delingpole in The Spectator on why environmentalists now owe him an apology.
IPA Staff Pick:
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: Professor Jason Potts
In this classic libertarian defence of unrestricted wealth creation “How to Make Wealth” Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator (which has funded and incubated almost 1,500 start-ups, including Airbnb, Reddit and Dropbox), explains why start-ups are such a powerful mechanism for advancing human society.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- John Roskam, The Coalition hands its values to Hanson – The Australian Financial Review
- Sinclair Davidson, Immigrants boost the economy and should be welcomed – The Australian Financial Review
- Simon Breheny, Taxpayer funded submissions distort inquiry as racial hatred claims blowout – Media Release
