We’re with Gillard on this
July 2, 2009
Have a look at this chart released by the OECD a few weeks ago. Australia is spending more taxpayers’ money than any other developed country. And giving us nearly the smallest tax cuts (as a % of GDP).
(Of course it’s no surprise the OECD report has got no publicity.)
And this week the NSW government has managed to combine a terrible policy – banning school league tables – with an even more terrible one – undermining free speech. Janet Albrechtsen covers it brilliantly. We’re with Julia Gillard: the ban is “ridiculous, pointless and opportunistic“.
On Friday the US House of Representatives passed their ETS bill. It comes to 1,428 pages. I had a look at the bill last night. It includes things like “Additional credit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac housing goals for energy-efficient and location-efficient mortgages” (page 607). The Competitive Enterprise Institute has the story of how it got so big, and why nobody actually read it.
If you think Wall Street bankers manipulated the financial system with disastrous results, wait until green groups get their hands on “carbon-friendly mortgages”!
And what’s the inevitable result of all this new regulation? Yep – more lobbyists. In yesterday’s Crikey, Bernard Keane reported that there are 3-4 new lobbyists arriving in Canberra every week. I talked about it in my Australian Financial Review column on Friday.
Julie Novak was in front of the Senate arguing for free trade. In today’s Australian Financial Review, Alan Moran wrote that coal will be a casualty of the American ETS. Julie Novak wrote about the real OzCar scandal in ABC Unleashed. In the Sunday Age, Chris Berg looked at consumerism during the financial crisis, and Tim Wilson wrote that readers pay a price for authors’ greed in The Australian.
PS: I’m going to Vegas for FreedomFest. For the next couple of weeks your HWDIM will be from IPA Review editor, Chris Berg. All complaints/compliments to him at cberg@ipa.org.au.
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