Australia lost a great champion for freedom on Friday. The IPA’s Simon Breheny was proud to call Bill Leak a friend, and heard the tragic news as he was about to go to air on Sky News:
To see why Bill Leak was such a treasure, read the final speech he gave last Wednesday which shows one of Australia’s greatest artists at his very best. And here are three essential items about Bill to read, watch and listen to:
- Read Mark Steyn’s tribute at SteynOnline on Friday about Bill’s courage in standing up to death threats and Human Rights Commission investigations into his cartoons.
- Watch this Bolt Report segment with Gerard Henderson, who responded to Laura Tingle’s suggestion that Bill’s iconoclasm was somehow only genuine during his earlier days when he was claimed by the left.
- Listen to this enlightening interview with Bill’s friend and Australian journalist Fred Pawle on 2GB about Bill’s consistent values, love of surfing and his three favourite songs.
This is the state of debate in Australia: Coopers Premium Light beer featured in a Bible Society video of a discussion on the definition of marriage, and social justice warriors went into overdrive. We can’t even show you the video because Coopers and the Bible Society took it down.
As John Slater explained in The Spectator yesterday this perfectly highlights the “ugly authoritarianism” underlying the so-called tolerant left. Although it’s hard to have any sympathy for Coopers after they released this pathetic apology video that Andrew Hastie MP called a “craven capitulation“.
New ACTU secretary Sally McManus doesn’t “think there’s a problem” breaking laws she believes are unjust. Does that mean McManus believes that employers should be able to pay below the minimum wage if a boss thinks it’s unjust?
Activists are travelling to India to confront Gautam Adani’s outrageous efforts to buy our coal and ship it to his country to provide electricity to homes, factories and offices. Environmentalists are fond of using section 487 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to delay major projects like the Adani mine. The IPA’s Daniel Wild explains why it must be repealed in this new IPA video released today:
You know you have a red tape problem when you can’t even count how many regulatory agencies there are. A report published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute this week finds there could be as many as 443 in the US federal government. The IPA’s Mikayla Novak estimated in May 2016 that there are 497 entities involved in designing or enforcing Australian federal regulations.
The IPA is now on iTunes! The Young IPA Podcast, hosted by fellow Hey writers Peter Gregory and James Bolt, was launched two weeks ago: I was the guest on episode 1, discussing 18C, legal rights and my favourite Simpsons episodes. Episode 2 released on Friday featured the IPA’s Evan Mulholland to talk about feminist traffic lights, stormtroopers and the ABC. The podcast is also on Soundcloud.
Article of the week:
Nate Silver might be a part of the progressive bubble, but at least he knows there is one. In this piece published on Friday at FiveThirtyEight, Silver explains how the progressive media bubble underestimated the chances of Trump and Brexit.
IPA Staff Pick:
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: Scott Hargreaves
We all know the left dominate academia, and now we have new evidence to prove it. Noah Carl at the Adam Smith Institute finds in a 23-page paper that while 50% of the British public supports parties on the right, only 12% of academics do the same. Carl also offers an explanation for why this happens, and what can be done to fix it.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- John Roskam, The Turnbull government doesn’t understand that politics is about values – The Australian Financial Review
- Simon Breheny, There is a better home for superannuation – The Australian Financial Review
- Simon Breheny, Full repeal of 18C is the only option to restore free speech – Media Release
