Hey readers don’t like The Guardian’s Robert McCrum
December 15, 2016
From Morgan Begg
The only way to “fix” section 18C is to repeal it entirely. That’s the message of the IPA’s new report, which was featured on page 2 of The Australian on Tuesday:
To read the IPA’s definitive 142-page report on section 18C, The case for the repeal of section 18C, click here.
This is the final Hey for the year. Our 20,871 subscribers have together received 935,528 emails and clicked on 173,265 links.
Here’s what you really liked in 2016:
- 1,052 of you took Charles Murray’s quiz to find out whether you live in a bubble
- 997 of you read Brendan O’Neill’s post-election piece at The Spectator explaining how sneering progressives drove voters to Trump
- And 906 of you clicked to sign Senator Cory Bernardi’s petition to reform section 18C.
But try as we might, we couldn’t convince you to click on these:
- Robert McCrum’s list at The Guardian of the 10 ways that Shakespeare changed the world – only 11 clicked on that link
- Our staff pick from May recommending people check out the book Legislating Instability, which only 13 people followed
- And Robert McCrum – again – at The Guardian on Isaiah Berlin’s book, The Hedgehog and the Fox, attracted only 14 clicks.
We know you guys don’t like The Guardian, but it’s fair to say that Robert McCrum has had a pretty tough year!
My pick of the year was Dilbert creator Scott Adams’ fantastic blog, which we introduced to Hey readers in March. Adams is still going strong – his post on the problem of non-experts and climate change science is brilliant.
One of my favourite things to see is politicians who say ‘I don’t often agree with the IPA but…’. The latest is from Labor Senator Sam Dastyari who this week got himself into trouble with colleague Doug Cameron for praising the IPA’s report, The Use of Prisons in Australia: Reform Directions.
And while I’m wrapping up the year, my favourite Doug Cameron moment in 2016 came in September when he mentioned the IPA 14 times in a 10 minute Senate speech – watch our supercut here.
The IPA is continuing to grow and with your support we will be able to make an even bigger difference to the future of Australia. I hope you will consider making a tax deductible donation to the IPA’s 2016 Christmas Appeal.
Hey will be back in February. From me and everyone at the IPA, please have a very Merry Christmas and a safe and restful New Year.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- Matthew Lesh, Censorship, trigger warnings and “free speech”: The National Union of Students meets – The Spectator Australia
- Simon Breheny, Will 18C be repealed? – PVO News Day, Sky News
- Michael Husek, Young family’s aspiration held hostage by red tape – IPA Cut Red Tape Blog
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Snoop Dogg on Castro
December 8, 2016
From James Bolt
Australia’s prison population has ballooned by 40 per cent over the past 10 years, and now costs us $3.8 billion per year. That’s from the IPA’s new report The Use of Prisons in Australia: Reform Directions.
There are better and cheaper ways of punishing non-violent offenders than prison. Here is the IPA’s opening statement to the senate hearing into white collar crime on Tuesday from Andrew Bushnell and Darcy Allen and here is The Australian’s reporting of the IPA’s report last Friday.
Italians have rejected the wishes of the European Union. Read this article in The Telegraph on Monday for everything you need to know about the Italian referendum. Brendan O’Neill called the vote the “latest ballot-box revolt against the new managerial elites” in this article in The Spectator on Tuesday.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key has announced he will resign after eight years in office. On Tuesday, John Roskam and Andrew Bushnell wrote in The Australian Financial Review that Key proved “it is possible to stand on principle and build widespread popular support for economic reform.”
Where is the next great invention coming from? You must read this important article in The Wall Street Journal why America is in an innovation slump.
Read Professor Augusto Zimmerman’s brilliant article on FreedomWatch on why “history will condemn Castro for the terrible destruction of a once prosperous and beautiful nation.” City Journal this week re-posted this fascinating 4,000 word article from 2014 on the Havana tourists were never allowed to see. But some of the best commentary on Castro this week came from your boy big Snoop Dogg.
Do you think To Kill A Mockingbird was a stirring anti-racism novel? Or that Huckleberry Finn was a novel decades ahead of its time on social commentary about race? Well, you’re wrong and apparently racist yourself. This week a Virginia school district banned both books for containing racial slurs.
This is your opportunity to have your say on section 18C. Click here to join the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance campaign and send your own submission directly to the senate inquiry into removing 18C.
The left are experts at corporate boycotts. But what happens when the shoe’s on the other foot? Here’s an explainer of what’s behind Breitbart’s boycott of Kellogg’s.
Article of the week
A fundamental problem with the concept of a European Union is that Europe is more successful when there is competition between nations. As Matt Ridley explains in The Australian, legal uniformity across Europe only ends up holding Europe back.
IPA Staff Pick
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: Morgan Begg
Back in June I accused Niall Ferguson of selling out to the EU for his article in The Boston Globe warning against the Brexit vote. Well, I’m happy to say he’s back on the side of the angels, as Fraser Nelson explained in The Spectator on Wednesday.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- John Roskam, Democracy is not populism – Australian Financial Review
- Father James Grant, Green-left legerdemain doesn’t make religion relevant – The Spectator Australia
- John Roskam, Why we don’t need Australian of the Year – Sunrise, Channel 7
- John Roskam, Are Australians racist? – Luke Grant, 2GB
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History lessons with the KGB
December 2, 2016
From Peter Gregory
There are lots of reasons why Fidel Castro was reprehensible. This is another one:
That graph is from Cato’s Dan Mitchell’s post on International Liberty on Saturday. He also noted that slaves in Cuba in 1842 received larger daily food rations than ordinary people in Castro’s Cuba in 1962.
But a tyrant is dead so let’s be positive. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s glowing eulogy sparked the amusing #trudeaueulogies. While The Spectator’s Douglas Murray gave ex-KGB man Richard Gott a history lesson in this very entertaining interview.
Cato’s Human Freedom Index 2016 was released this week. Australia moved up two spots to 6th – our country profile is here (page 32).
China fell four spots to 141st (page 58). They will be even lower when the government introduces its terrifying new scheme to give each of the 1.372 billion Chinese citizens a score based on behaviour such as spending habits, fare evading and fidelity.
Last week, Morgan told you that the “French Thatcher”, François Fillon, was poised to win the French Republicans’ presidential primary. Well, on Sunday he won. Time even thinks he’ll become President and laments that it’s all a huge surprise to the political and media establishment. Hmmm… where have I heard that before…
Speaking of Trump and the media, last Friday in the National Post Conrad Black wrote that post-election, the US media hasn’t yet acknowledged that they have been condemned by the public they are meant to serve.
And the latest way NSW Premier Mike Baird is making young people’s lives worse? Banning them from using map applications on their phones whilst in their cars. It doesn’t really matter I suppose – most of the good places to go in Sydney have closed anyway.
Some long reading – this 10,600 word interview with Robert Caro on ‘The Art of Biography‘ by James Santel in the Spring edition of The Paris Review is utterly engrossing.
Article of the week
The best piece on Castro was by Paul Bonnicelli in The Federalist on Monday on why some eulogised him despite all the evidence to the contrary.
IPA Staff Pick
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: John Roskam
Deirdre McCloskey’s towering 6,000 word essay on Marx for the American Enterprise Institute essay series, ‘Economic Freedom and Human Flourishing’, is a must-read. Her thesis is that Marx was the greatest social scientist of the 19th century, but that he was wrong about almost everything. This is because he, and his followers, misunderstood (and still misunderstand) the link between economic liberty and human flourishing.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- Bella d’Abrera, Castro’s Cuba – Generation Liberty
- Morgan Begg and Simon Breheny, Treaty – IPA Review (forthcoming)
- Simon Breheny, Frequently asked questions about Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 – Media Release
- Daniel Wild, Australia should follow the United States and cut red tape – The IPA Cut Red Tape Blog
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The French Thatcher
November 24, 2016
From Morgan Begg
Australia will soon be in an even worse position on global company tax competitiveness:
We showed you a version of this graph in September, and now we’ve added the company tax reforms proposed by US President-elect Trump and UK Prime Minister May. The Australian government’s proposal to cut company tax rates to 25% in 10 years is looking even more tame.
At least we’re still ahead of France. But for how long? On Sunday, conservative François Fillon won the first round of the French Republican’s presidential primary election. Bloomberg published a profile of Fillon on Monday, describing him as “offering voters an economic-policy revolution inspired by Margaret Thatcher“.
The Labor party is attempting to collect 20,000 signatures for a petition against changes to section 18C. I think lovers of freedom can do much better. Sign the petition by Senator Cory Bernardi in support of free speech here.
You can also watch Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm’s speech in the Senate yesterday on the importance of freedom of speech, and why 18C needs to go.
The American left was repudiated at the US election, and of course this is not because of the Democrat’s alienation of working class Americans, but because of something called “fake news“. As Barton Hinkle wrote at Reason yesterday, the fuss about “fake news” is itself fake news.
The IPA’s Evan Mulholland wrote in The Spectator Australia yesterday about how he could no longer be a member of the Australian Republican Movement. I’m so glad my colleague has finally seen the light!
Rowan Callick in The Australian last Thursday wrote a fascinating piece on the nature of “Chinese democracy” – which means that only those who are sufficiently loyal to the ruling Communist Party are allowed to participate. Just see what happens when Western journalists attempt to speak to non-party candidates.
Article of the week
Mark Steyn’s brilliant article on his website last week explains how the behaviour of the US election losers endangers the very idea of representative government. Mark also has a new “nightly television extravaganza” – more information here.
IPA Staff Pick
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: Andrew Bushnell
This excellent article by the demographer and conservative Democrat Joel Kotkin at The Daily Beast on Sunday argues that Trumpism is a rejection of the “new feudalism” in which a class of technocrats preside over increasingly alienated middle and working classes. The essay clearly describes the forces shaping the ongoing global political shift, and is a strong contender for best post-election Trump think piece.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- John Roskam, Donald Trump vote was all about voters having a different choice – Australian Financial Review
- Matthew Lesh, Sugar tax leave a bitter taste – Daily Telegraph
- Brett Hogan, Social responsibility cuts many ways – FreedomWatch
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