The hard-right
lobby group the Institute of Public
Affairs (IPA) told the Liberal Party of Australia to jump to it……..
IPA, on 12 April 2019, the day after the
federal election date was set:
20 POLICIES TO FIX AUSTRALIA
15
policies the Coalition should implement but will not and 5 policies they should
not implement but will
John Roskam, Executive Director and Daniel
Wild, Director of Research PARLIAMENTARY RESEARCH BRIEF A research note from
the Institute of Public Affairs distributed to all Australian parliamentarians
12 April 2019
For more information
contact Daniel Wild, Director of Research at dwild@ipa.org.au
15 policies the
Coalition should implement but will not
1. Remove all references
to race in the Constitution Martin Luther King, Jr stated “I have a dream that
my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be
judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” But
Australia’s Constitution currently divides Australians by race. Section 25 of
the Australian Constitution, titled “Provision as to races disqualified from
voting’, while today redundant remains an affront to Australians’ sense of
egalitarianism. Similarly, Section 51(xxvi) of the Australian Constitution
gives the Commonwealth government the power to make laws on the basis of race.All
Australians are equal and should be treated as equal before the law. Therefore,
both provisions should be discarded and references to race in the Constitution
must be erased.
2. Repeal Section 18C of
the Racial Discrimination Act (1975) Free speech is inextricably linked to the
Australian way of life. Australians should be able to enjoy and participate in
open and unfettered discussion about issues of import to the future of our
democracy and our nation. Section 18C stops this from happening. It is an
unconscionable and egregious limitation on the free speech rights of all
Australians and must be abolished.
3. Withdraw from the
Paris Climate Agreement The Paris Climate Agreement will increase the cost of
electricity production by at least $52 billion by 2030 without making any
noticeable difference to the environment. The four largest greenhouse gas
emitters in absolute terms are not in the Paris Agreement (the United States)
or their emissions are not constrained by the Paris Agreement (China and India)
or are not on target to meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement (the
European Union). It is not in Australia’s national interest to remain party to
the Agreement.
4. Implement a flat
income tax Australia’s income tax system punishes success and discourages
upward economic mobility. Its interaction with the welfare system also creates
welfare traps through high effective marginal tax rates which keeps too many
Australians poor and trapped in a poverty cycle. To reduce poverty, expand economic
opportunity, promote equality, all Australians should face the same income tax
rate.
5. Reduce the corporate
tax rate to below 20 per cent, in line with competitor nations The top marginal
company tax rate in Australia of 30 per cent is the third highest in the
developed world, and well above the OECD average of 24 per cent and competitor
nations such as the United States (21 per cent), the United Kingdom (17 per
cent from 2020), and Singapore (17 per cent). Australia’s high corporate tax
rate is a key reason why business investment is just 11.5 per cent of GDP,
which is lower than the rate that prevailed during the Whitlam years.
6. Appointment of High
Court Justices to be rotated between the six states and the Commonwealth The
Commonwealth Government is too big, powerful, and interventionist, and state
governments have too small of a role in the operation of Australia’s
federation. A key reason for this is that the Commonwealth alone is responsible
for appointing Justices to the High Court of Australia. This has unsurprisingly
led to the appointment of Judges who favour an expansion of Commonwealth power
at the expense of state governments. To correct this imbalance, state
governments should play a central role in appointing High Court Justices.
7. Double the size of
the House of Representatives, and halve the size of the Ministry Canberra is
too detached and removed from the concerns of mainstream Australia.
This is
partly a reflection of the size of individual electorates. Almost every Federal
electorate contains more than 100,000 voters. This is too many. To get
government closer to the people there should be a larger number of electorates
with fewer voters, resulting in each voter having a louder voice. In addition,
the number of Members of Parliament who are a part of the Ministry at any point
in time has grown rapidly over the past two decades. Appointing members to the
Ministry, the Outer Ministry, and as Assistant Ministers is a deliberate
strategy to silence debate and reduce the influence of backbenchers. For
Australia’s democracy to become more robust as in the United Kingdom and the
United States, the number of Members of Parliament in the Ministry, Outer
Ministry, and as Assistant Ministers should be reduced from 41 to 20.
8. Privatise the ABC In
a free society the government should not own and operate its own media company.
The media market in Australia is highly competitive. Online platforms have
transformed and disrupted traditional approaches to media. Consumers have never
had more choice about where to source their news and opinions on current
affairs. Moreover, the ABC is unremittingly bias. Its staff are five times more
likely to vote for the Greens compared to the general population. The ABC is
beyond reform. New leaders will not fix the problem, regardless of their
experience or intention. The ABC must be privatised.
9. Re-introduce the debt
ceiling Gross government debt is currently $546 billion, all of which must be
paid back by today’s young Australians via higher future taxes. One approach
policy-makers can take to reduce government debt, or at least reduce its
growth, is to re-introduce the debt ceiling. A debt-ceiling places a limit on
how much the Australian government can borrow. Raising the debt ceiling
requires an Act of Parliament, which ensures the issue will be debated and
receive the public attention it deserves. A debt ceiling was implemented by the
Rudd government in 2007 and it was set at $75 billion. With the support of the
Greens, the Abbott government with Joe Hockey as Treasurer abolished the debt
ceiling in 2013 as debt approached $300 billion.
10. Hold a Royal
Commission into the Bureau of Meteorology’s tampering with temperature and
climate data The Bureau of Meteorology appears to have tampered with
temperature and climate data and to have re-written history to make it appear
as if the temperature is higher than it actually is, and that is has risen
faster than it actually has. Australians deserve to know the truth about their
public institutions. The only way to find the truth about potential temperature
data manipulation is to hold a Royal Commission into the Bureau of
Meteorology’s activities.
11. Abolish compulsory
superannuation Compulsory superannuation is a tax on workers’ wages which is
coercively redistributed to the Unions. Australian workers should be free to
decide how much of their own income they are willing to defer until retirement,
and how much they need in the present to spend on items such as housing,
education, and health care. For more information contact Daniel Wild, Director
of Research at dwild@ipa.org.au
12. Abolish the
Renewable Energy Target and end all subsidies to wind, solar, and
hydro-electricity generators Subsidies to renewable energy generation in
Australia are expected to reach $60 billion by 2030. The Renewable Energy
Target at the Commonwealth level, as well as state-based targets, have been the
main contributors to this subsidy blow-out. Because renewables are
uncompetitive, expensive, and unreliable, Australia’s electricity prices have
increased by 120 per cent over the past decade – around double the rate of
inflation. This has a disproportionate effect on the lowest income earners who
spend a higher portion of their income on energy than others. Moreover, this
cost comes at no noticeable benefit to the environment. For example, over the
period of 2001 (when the RET was first implemented by the Howard government) to
2014, the RET resulted in 0.005 per cent fewer carbon emissions globally from
human sources which in turn account for just three per cent of total
emissions.
13. Introduce a
one-in-two-out approach to reduce red tape Red tape is the single biggest
impediment to business investment, job creation, and economic opportunity in
Australia. Each year red tape reduces economic output by $176 billion, which is
equivalent to 10 per cent of GDP.12 This cost represents all of the jobs which
are never created, the wages which never rise, the businesses never started,
and the dreams which go unfulfilled because of red tape. Governments should cut
red tape by repealing two laws for every new law introduced.
14. Repeal the Fair Work
Act The Fair Work Act denies hundreds and thousands of Australians the dignity
of work. There are currently 1.7 million Australians who are either unemployed
or unable to work the number of hours they want. This is largely due to the
Fair Work Act which prevents employers and employees from reaching mutually
beneficial employment agreements. The Fair Work Act is too complicated and
broken to reform. It must be repealed in full. 15. Legalise nuclear power in
Australia Australia has 30 per cent of the world’s uranium deposits, some of
which we export to the rest of the world for power generation. Yet we forbid
ourselves from using nuclear power for domestic energy generation. Meanwhile,
Australia has the fourth highest electricity prices in the world. Section
140A(1) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999)
states there is to be “no approval for certain nuclear installations” including
“a nuclear power plant”. These four words – “a nuclear power plant” – should be
removed from the Section to legalise the development of a nuclear power plant
in Australia. For more information
contact Daniel Wild, Director of Research at dwild@ipa.org.au
5 policies the
Coalition should not implement but will
1. Do not hold a
Referendum to divide Australians by race The proposal to establish the
Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Peoples
would irrevocably undermine national unity and is a regressive throwback to the
days when race played a central role in Australia’s Constitution. Similarly,
the proposal to establish a separate entity in the Constitution to be ‘The
Voice’ of Indigenous Australians is divisive and false - all Australians are
represented by the Commonwealth parliament and are equal before the law. Race
has no place in Australia’s Constitution.
2. Do not raise taxes
Australia is a high tax nation and workers and families pay too much tax. Over
the past decade real taxes per capita have risen by 11 per cent. According to
the Reserve Bank of Australia, over the past year taxes paid by households
increased by around 8 per cent, more than double the rate of growth in
household income.15 This means more money is going to the government and less
money can be spent on household essentials such as housing, child care, and
education. The Coalition should not raise taxes, and ideally should reduce
taxes.
3. Do not raise spending
The true cause of high and rising taxes is high and rising spending. Every
dollar of spending must be paid back with higher taxes, either today or in the
future via the accumulation of debt which is a tax on the next generation of
Australians. Government spending has increased from 23.1 per cent of GDP at the
end of the Howard-era to 24.6 per cent today (not including off-Budget expenses
and liabilities such as the NBN).16 In absolute terms spending has increased by
approximately 80 per cent, which is the equivalent to 6 per cent per year.17
This is well above the average rate of inflation of around 2 per cent per year.
4. Do not proceed with
Snowy 2.0 The Snowy Hydro 2.0 project will be remembered alongside the NBN as a
costly, ineffective, outdated, and inefficient bureaucratic program which won’t
solve the underlying public policy problem of high and rising electricity
prices and unreliable supply. The project will cost at least $4.5 billion, it
won’t become operational until at least 2024-25, and it will be a net energy
user, meaning it will be a drain on the energy grid. Instead, governments
should provide policy settings which allow for the development of reliable and
cost-effective coal-fired power generation.
5. Do not introduce new
anti-discrimination laws In the context of the Religious Freedom Review, it has
been suggested that new anti-discrimination laws be introduced to protect
freedom of religion. However, adding new restrictions through religious
antidiscrimination laws would constitute a significant threat to the freedom of
conscience of all Australians. Freedom, whether exercised for a religious
purpose or not, should only be limited where the exercise of that freedom
impacts another person’s freedom or peaceful use and enjoyment of their own
property. The only way to sufficiently protect religious freedom is to remove
laws that currently place restrictions on religious thought and practice.
Prime
Minister Scott Morrison asked how high he should jump, then realised he had
exposed the pathway he preferred if the party won at the 18 May 2019 federal
election and quickly dissembled………
Prime Minister Scott
Morrison says he has no plans to reverse a ban on nuclear energy, despite
earlier saying he was open to the industry if it could "pay its way".
"It's not, not on
the agenda ... but it's got to be self-sustaining," he told Tasmania Talks
LAFM on Thursday.
"I'm not going to
roll out tens of billions of dollars in subsidies, that's not the future for
energy efficiencies."
Labor's environment
spokesman Tony Burke took the chance to remind Mr Morrison nuclear power is
against the law.
"It is
extraordinary that Scott Morrison is now contemplating changing the law to
allow nuclear power stations in Australia," he said.
Mr Burke said Jervis
Bay, Townsville, Bribie Island and Mackay have all been flagged as locations
for nuclear power.
"Where is Morrison
proposing to put his nuclear power plants? Which coastal community is under
threat?"
But the prime minister
later on Thursday took to Twitter to step away from his earlier comment.
"This is not our
policy and we have no plans to change that," he tweeted.
