Are Australians ready to embrace libertarianism?

How much influence does libertarianism have on Australian politics? The first thing to know is that the Australian political system has very few libertarians in it.

No logic to current drug laws

This week Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr declared he supports decriminalising low-level drug use to allow police more opportunity to redirect their resources. Chris Berg looks at the political origins of drug laws.

It doesn't take more than a moment of thought to recognise that the rulings on which drugs are legal or illegal are governed by no particular logic.

No theory from medicine or philosophy or psychology demands alcohol, tobacco and caffeine must be legal while marijuana, cocaine, and heroin must be prohibited.

We cannot rely on distinctions about relative harm. Many experts have pointed out that marijuana is on balance less dangerous than alcohol. But this legal discord isn't unusual. One British police chief controversially stated a few years ago that ecstasy is safer than aspirin.

Regulator Should Butt Out on Fibre-Optic Broadband

It is unfortunate for consumers and businesses that Telstra’s potential $3 billion-plus investment in a large-scale fibre-optic network and the coming T3 sale have coincided.

The debate over the two have rarely been separated, but at stake are two very separate issues, with very separate stakeholders. Treasury officials are concerned with maximising the price of Telstra’s sale, but consumers and businesses should be concerned about the circumstances in which we allow infrastructure investment in this country.

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Broadband Internet – Getting the Framework Right

This blog was originally published at Online Opinion 4th January, 2007, and is re-published here with the kind permission of its author Chris Berg and the Institute of Public Affairs.

The United Nations last month released a report on broadband policies for developing nations. Unfortunately, its recommendations provide little more than advocacy of futile, centralised, national "plans" to increase Internet availability and use.

Similarly, policy makers across the Australia are formulating grand plans to resolve this county’s broadband crisis.

The Winds of Change Will Not Wait for Rudd’s Broadband

This article is re-published here with the kind permission of it’s author Chris Berg, Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs and Editor of the IPA review. It was first published at Crikey.com.au on 7 April, 2009

The failure of the National Broadband Network tender to find a sensible and willing private sector company is not surprising. But the failure cannot be blamed on the global financial crisis  — the economy may look pretty dismal, but the government’s broadband policy was never very good anyway.