Australia’s political system would be better off with more ordinary people and fewer career party politicians in the Senate. It would thus be more representative of ordinary Australians, not less.
We might be ambivalent about taxation because it challenges our sense of ourselves as individuals – and we may not trust governments to spend it properly.
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Many of us are happy for governments to increase spending on public services, but we don’t like the idea of higher taxes. There are some good reasons for this.
Malcolm Turnbull can put his values into practice by calling on all members of his party to vote in favour of legalising same-sex marriage.
AAP/Lukas Coch
A vote on whether same-sex couples can get married is discriminatory because it applies a standard to them that does not apply to heterosexual couples.
Did the Roman arenas of political conflict support the common good?
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History offers countless examples of social change that is now consolidated and popularly supported, but which was only achieved through protests that were judged at the time to be extreme.
David Leyonhjelm is chairing the Senate inquiry into ‘Personal Choice and Community Impacts’.
AAP/Sam Mooy
We don’t know what will come out of the Senate inquiry into the ‘nanny state’, but we do have some idea about what Australia would look like based on libertarian principles.
Libertarians, such as David Leyonhjelm, refuse to see anything but individual liberty as having decisive moral weight.
AAP/Lukas Coch
David Leyonhjelm is a conviction politician whose positions are governed by principle, not populism. But he is exposing the disturbing moral thinness of the libertarian principles he espouses.
What we know of the harm that indefinite detention does to children underpins the case for partisan opposition to the policy.
AAP/Jesse Roberts
We should never accept that a Human Rights Commission ought to be non-partisan or depoliticised. Without both, it would be incapable of doing its job.
Jane Goodall is one of many scientists who have revealed how much there is to learn from animals about social organisation and communication.
AAP/Julian Smith
To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental about both animals and us. – Frans De Waal Some time ago I began reading scientific…
Public support for change that would enable Tony Abbott’s sister Christine (right) to marry her same-sex partner is much stronger than for ‘axing the tax’, but the PM is selectively deaf to the people’s voice.
AAP/Joe Castro
Disaffection with Australian politics seems visceral and entrenched. An Essential poll in late June found that only 25% of those polled had trust in the federal parliament. Discussing this poll, Michelle…
Treasurer Joe Hockey wants to ‘end of the age of entitlement’, but which think-tanks around the world have played a part in developing that idea?
AAP/Alan Porritt
We propose things which people regard as being on the edge of lunacy. The next thing you know they’re on the edge of policy. – Madsen Pirie, President of the Adam Smith Institute, 1987 In a speech in London…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the public funding of arts and culture will cause political strife. Reasonable people just do not agree on this, and can be surprisingly quick to accuse others…
Austerity programs were put in place after European governments bailed out their banks. But are they fair on the everyday citizen?
Ben Andreas Harding
Governments are reining in spending on welfare, education and health care right across the western world. With the Commission of Audit recommending austerity measures that seemingly point to a tough federal…
Federal attorney-general George Brandis wants to champion a ‘classical liberal’ approach to human rights, but what does this actually mean?
AAP/Daniel Munoz
Tim Wilson, Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner, has announced that he will take a “classical liberal” approach to human rights. There is a fair degree of confusion about what this means. Classical liberalism…
Treasurer Joe Hockey’s declaration of an age of personal responsibility is welcome, as long as the principle applies consistently to all.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
Federal treasurer Joe Hockey has announced that the age of personal responsibility has begun. Personally, I’m glad to hear it. I’ve often felt a swelling of pride at the achievements of CEOs or sportspeople…