morrison

18 February 2022

In the same way former Attorney- General George Brandis caused freedom of speech to be redefined as “the right to be a bigot”, so too has the Prime Minister derailed his religious freedom agenda by allowing it to be rebranded “the right to discriminate”. Even if the Morrison government had not withdrawn its religious antidiscrimination legislation from parliament altogether last

31 March 2021

Brisbane has been plunged into another snap lockdown after COVID-19 slipped into the community through an inexplicably unvaccinated doctor and nurse. Australia’s borders remain closed and tens of thousands are trapped overseas. Winter, with a higher transmission risk, is coming. Australia is stuck in COVID purgatory: lockdowns and domestic border closures at any moment, lives and livelihoods at risk, and

12 February 2021

Less than two years ago, Scott Morrison won the so-called “climate change election”. His victory was due in no small part to the Coalition’s successful attacks on the ALP’s climate change policies, including Labor’s commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. In 2019, the Coalition labelled Labor’s targets as expensive, job-destroying, and “reckless”. In 2020, Morrison said the aim of net

9 October 2020

“Insouciance” is a word Australians don’t use very often. Maybe we should. It perfectly describes the popular reaction to this week’s federal budget and the news the country faces more than a trillion dollars of government debt. Australians are also insouciant about the jobs of a quarter of the nation’s workforce now being dependent on wage subsidies from the government.

8 October 2020

Australia is unlikely to be debt-free until 2080 as a result of the lockdowns implemented in response to COVID-19. The much anticipated 2020-21 Budget does not even attempt to highlight a path out of debt and deficits, leaving mainstream Australians with little hope that the bill for the largest public policy failure in the nation’s history will be paid off

7 October 2020

Modelling by the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, based on data from the Commonwealth Government Budget and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, estimates that: Gross Commonwealth government debt will peak at $2.05 trillion in 2045. Gross Commonwealth government debt will not be paid off until the year 2080. A Budget Surplus will not return until 2046.

31 July 2020

An article on these pages last weekend by this newspaper’s economics correspondent, Matthew Cranston, titled “We need reform like we’ve never seen before” revealed everything that’s wrong with what Australians are told about economics. And it reveals why many people were apoplectic when Treasurer Josh Frydenberg dared suggest there were lessons to be learnt from the success of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald

24 July 2020

Free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs has congratulated the National Cabinet for agreeing to a single touch approvals process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. “Devolving environmental approvals to the states will give Australian states a stake in their own post-coronavirus economic recovery,” said Cian Hussey, Research Fellow at the IPA. The IPA’s submission to

4 June 2020

As Scott Morrison eyes consensus-based industrial relations reform, he must not commit the ultimate sin for any Liberal leader and forget Sir Robert Menzies’ forgotten people. As part of his carefully branded ‘jobmaker’ plan, the prime minister has called on big business and unions to come together at the negotiating table for the sake of our shared economic future. The

11 July 2019

The principle that all Australians should not be divided on the basis of their race or skin colour is a cornerstone of our freedoms and the rule of law. This clear principle — that race has no place in the Australian Constitution — is being ­undermined by a bipartisan campaign to divide Australians in our nation’s founding document by ­establishing