Legal Policy
The NBN: Australia’s largest piece of Applied Socialism
By mid-2015 the NBN will have cost taxpayers more than $12 billion, while only 12 percent of premises will be connected. It will burn $100 million a week this financial year and by mid-2015 will have consumed 46 percent of
Read MoreMarijuana’s time has come
Few still believe the old myth that smoking marijuana leads to a spiral of drug dependence and dissipation. Some claim prolonged use can adversely affect the mental health of certain individuals, and it certainly has the potential to make driving
Read MoreMarriage is a private matter
Most Australians are horrified when they read stories detailing how, in some countries, parents arrange their children’s marriages and then get mighty stroppy when the kids won’t play along. The explanation for this is simple: one of the main reasons
Read MoreFree speech and state power
During my first sitting week in the Senate, I was waiting in line for a daily ritual known as the door-stop – where politicians talk to the media before entering the parliament for their day’s work. The government senator before
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‘If You’ve Done Nothing Wrong, You’ve Got Nothing to Fear’
If Nick O’Brien was still at New Scotland Yard in 2006, he would presumably have heard the Pet Shop Boys song ‘Integral’, in which they launched a blistering attack on the Blair government and its extraordinary plans for DNA data
Read MoreBikies have rights, too
For those of us who value liberty highly, the moral panic over outlaw motorcycle gangs is deeply troubling. When the panic subsides, as it inevitably will, we will be left with laws that weaken fundamental liberties and undermine the independence
Read MoreWhy our intelligence agencies need to smarten up
An Australian Bureau of Statistics recent report on causes of death says that nearly 60 Australians died in 2011 after falling out of bed, 26 died falling off a chair, and four after bumping into another person. I mention this,
Read MoreRod Sims of the ACCC loves The Sims. Yes, really
‘The Sims 4’ is the latest instalment of a computer game best described as a virtual but living dollhouse. There’s no specific goal; players just create characters and then care for or irritate them as they please. It has been
Read MorePork barrelling down wrong path
THE Australian pig industry has a problem. It is in the process of phasing out sow stalls but competing against overseas competitors that will probably continue using them indefinitely. Sow stalls are individual pens used to house pregnant sows to
Read MoreA case of organic proportions
THE high profile court case between the WA farmer growing organic canola and his neighbour growing genetically modified (GM) canola has the potential to define property rights for a generation. Depending on what the court decides, it may even prompt
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