Say what you want about this country – but at least ‘prawn-like’ stygofauna gets the protection it deserves! Since 1992 Australia’s federal list of protected species has increased by over 60%:
The solution to Australia’s growing and increasingly complex species protection regime that handcuffs development is to hand back the responsibility to the states. That’s the take out from Morgan Begg, Dr Darcy Allen and Daniel Wild’s new IPA report, Decentralising the Protection of Australian Threatened Species released on Monday. It was covered on page 2 of The Australian.
One such species is the mighty Boggomoss Snail, which halted the Nathan Dam Project in 2008 as explained by Morgan in Queensland Country Life on Tuesday. But don’t worry, 9 years and 500 lost jobs later, the project has been approved because experts now concede the Boggomoss population is “significantly higher than originally suggested”. Phew!
Freshly sworn-in New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern reckons capitalism has been a “blatant failure“. I wonder what she thinks of the UK’s socialist NHS then? They are introducing new rules which will ban patients from surgery unless they lose weight or give up smoking.
This video is cruel but very funny. Campus Reform 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 from Donald Trump’s tax package. Awkward:
It’s been quite a week for the UN. First the UK government asked them to take the term “pregnant woman ” out of a treaty because it’s apparently exclusionary. Then they had to reverse their decision to appoint Robert Mugabe as a “Goodwill Ambassador” for the World Health Organisation. You have to read Mark Steyn’s hilarious take on the latter debacle.
If you’re in Perth on 24 November, head along to Mannkal Economic Education Foundation and the IPA’s Western Civilisation Conference: The Sun Rises in the West II. The IPA’s John Roskam and Dr Bella d’Abrera will be speaking. Details here.
Article of the week:
Hordes of elites are packing up the Prius and are taking safaris across flyover America to find out why they were so wrong about Donald Trump. Molly Ball questions whether the elites are willing to handle the reality of the divisions still fissuring America in this excellent 4,500 word fly-on-the-wall account of one such tour in The Atlantic on Monday.
IPA Staff Pick:
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: John Roskam
On Tuesday PragerU were forced to take legal action against Google and YouTube for their extraordinary ideological restriction of access to more than 50 of PragerU’s videos. If you don’t know who PragerU are, they make wonderful 5 minute videos on economics, politics and culture that reach 100 million people each year. My two recent favourites are ‘ If you live in freedom, thank the British Empire’ and ‘How’s Socialism doing in Venezuela?’.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- Gideon Rozner, Our universities value identity politics over Western Civilisation – and here’s the proof – The Spectator Australia
- Matthew Lesh, How the cult of the expert weakens democracy – The Spectator Australia
- Gideon Rozner, Latest data shows that Aussie men are still out of work – FreedomWatch
- James Bolt & Peter Gregory, Episode 33 with Dr Bella d’Abrera and Deborah Sims – The Young IPA Podcast
- Dr Bella d’Abrera, On identity politics in universities – Bolt Report
- Simon Breheny, On superannuation and the ABC – Sky News Politics HQ
- Evan Mulholland, On the National Energy Guarantee and carbon pricing – Sky News Karvelas
- Deborah Sims, Right to try – Bolt Report
- Georgina Downer, On energy and the Japan elections – ABC News Breakfast
