Think Right

THE FEDERATION CROSS

Away back in the good old days
when men could find a job;
When money was as good as gold
and tax was just two bob;
When men would work and say with pride
that they weren’t on the dole;
T’was then that politicians came
to play an active role.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Viv Forbes, October 1990. First published in Business Queensland, 1990.

The last major item on Bob Hawke’s secret agenda of unfinished business is to arrange for the funeral of federalism. He has already chosen the dirge – it is called “The New Federalism”.

In a world which daily reveals the political depravity and economic bankruptcy that follows the centralised command of society, too many in the ALP still cling to the out-dated vision of “Wagon-wheel Australia” where everyone prostrates daily facing the billion dollar Parliamentary Palace in Canberra.

Australians have inherited two destructive dogmas from our convict and colonial past.

The first is that governments should enforce equality, irrespective of considerations of liberty, justice, or property.

The second is a fear of markets and of non-conformists and a naive belief that centralised regulation by politicians will achieve a better result than decentralised decisions by diverse market operators.
Read the rest of this entry »