100 radical ideas to transform Australia

[bordsilver]

I'm surprised no-one has put this list up yet. For readability sake I'll split across a couple of posts. First part of the article which makes interesting point RE Gough Witlam.

If Tony Abbott wants to leave a lasting impact - and secure his place in history - he needs to take his inspiration from Australia's most left-wing prime minister.

No prime minister changed Australia more than Gough Whitlam. The key is that he did it in less than three years. In a flurry of frantic activity, Whitlam established universal healthcare, effectively nationalised higher education with free tuition, and massively increased public sector salaries. He more than doubled the size of cabinet from 12 ministers to 27.

He enacted an ambitious cultural agenda that continues to shape Australia to this day. In just three years, Australia was given a new national anthem, ditched the British honours system, and abolished the death penalty and national service. He was the first Australian prime minister to visit communist China and he granted independence to Papua New Guinea. Whitlam also passed the Racial Discrimination Act. He introduced no-fault divorce.

Perhaps his most lasting legacy has been the increase in the size of government he bequeathed to Australia. When Whitlam took office in 1972, government spending as a percentage of GDP was just 19 per cent. When he left office it had soared to almost 24 per cent.

Virtually none of Whitlam's signature reforms were repealed by the Fraser government. The size of the federal government never fell back to what it was before Whitlam. Medicare remains. TheRacial Discrimination Act - rightly described by the Liberal Senator Ivor Greenwood in 1975 as 'repugnant to the rule of law and to freedom of speech' - remains.

It wasn't as if this was because they were uncontroversial. The Liberal opposition bitterly fought many of Whitlam's proposals. And it wasn't as if the Fraser government lacked a mandate or a majority to repeal them. After the 1975 election, in which he earned a 7.4 per cent two-party preferred swing, Fraser held 91 seats out of 127 in the House of Representatives and a Senate majority.

When Mark Steyn visited Australia recently he described political culture as a pendulum. Left-wing governments swing the pendulum to the left. Right of centre governments swing the pendulum to the right. But left-wing governments do so with greater force. The pendulum always pushes further left.

And the public's bias towards the status quo has a habit of making even the most radical policy (like Medicare, or restrictions on freedom of speech) seem normal over time. Despite the many obvious problems of socialised health care, no government now would challenge the foundations of Medicare as the Coalition did before it was implemented.
:
:
Only radical change that shifts the entire political spectrum, like Gough Whitlam did, has any chance of effecting lasting change. Of course, you don't have to be from the left of politics to leave lasting change on the political spectrum.

Both Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan proved conservatives can leave a paradigm-shifting legacy. Though Thatcher's own party strayed from her strongly free-market philosophy, one of the major reasons the British Labour Party finally removed socialism from their party platform under Tony Blair was because of Margaret Thatcher.

Ronald Reagan not only presided over pro-market deregulation and tax cuts during eight years in the White House, but also provided the ideological fuel for the 1994 Republican revolution in the House of Representatives, led by Newt Gingrich, which enacted far-reaching welfare reform.
:
:

http://www.ipa.org.au/publications/2080/be-like-gough-75-radical-ideas-to-transform-australia

 

[bordsilver]

Here we provide a list of 100 policies that would make Australia richer and more free. It's a deliberately radical list. There's no way Tony Abbott could implement all of them, or even a majority. But he doesn't have to implement them all to dramatically change Australia. If he was able to implement just a handful of these recommendations, Abbott would be a transformative figure in Australian political history. He would do more to shift the political spectrum than any prime minister since Whitlam.

1 Repeal the carbon tax, and don't replace it. It will be one thing to remove the burden of the carbon tax from the Australian economy. But if it is just replaced by another costly scheme, most of the benefits will be undone.
2 Abolish the Department of Climate Change
3 Abolish the Clean Energy Fund
4 Repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act
5 Abandon Australia's bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council Too late for this one Maybe add "Prohibit Government involvement in the UN Agenda 21"
6 Repeal the renewable energy target
7 Return income taxing powers to the states
8 Abolish the Commonwealth Grants Commission
9 Abolish the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
10 Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol
11 Introduce fee competition to Australian universities
12 Repeal the National Curriculum
13 Introduce competing private secondary school curriculums
14 Abolish the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
15 Eliminate laws that require radio and television broadcasters to be 'balanced'
16 Abolish television spectrum licensing and devolve spectrum management to the common law
17 End local content requirements for Australian television stations
18 Eliminate family tax benefits
19 Abandon the paid parental leave scheme
20 Means-test Medicare
21 End all corporate welfare and subsidies by closing the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
22 Introduce voluntary voting
23 End mandatory disclosures on political donations
24 End media blackout in final days of election campaigns
25 End public funding to political parties
26 Remove anti-dumping laws
27 Eliminate media ownership restrictions
28 Abolish the Foreign Investment Review Board
29 Eliminate the National Preventative Health Agency
30 Cease subsidising the car industry
31 Formalise a one-in, one-out approach to regulatory reduction
32 Rule out federal funding for 2018 Commonwealth Games
33 Deregulate the parallel importation of books
34 End preferences for Industry Super Funds in workplace relations laws
35 Legislate a cap on government spending and tax as a percentage of GDP
36 Legislate a balanced budget amendment which strictly limits the size of budget deficits and the period the federal government can be in deficit
37 Force government agencies to put all of their spending online in a searchable database
38 Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other products, including alcohol and fast food
39 Reintroduce voluntary student unionism at universities
40 Introduce a voucher scheme for secondary schools
41 Repeal the alcopops tax
42 Introduce a special economic zone in the north of Australia including:
a) Lower personal income tax for residents
b) Significantly expanded 457 Visa programs for workers
c) Encourage the construction of dams
43 Repeal the mining tax
44 Devolve environmental approvals for major projects to the states
45 Introduce a single rate of income tax with a generous tax-free threshold
46 Cut company tax to an internationally competitive rate of 25 per cent
47 Cease funding the Australia Network
48 Privatise Australia Post
49 Privatise Medibank
50 Break up the ABC and put out to tender each individual function

 

[bordsilver]

51 Privatise SBS
52 Reduce the size of the public service from current levels of more than 260,000 to at least the 2001 low of 212,784
53 Repeal the Fair Work Act
54 Allow individuals and employers to negotiate directly terms of employment that suit them
55 Encourage independent contracting by overturning new regulations designed to punish contractors
56 Abolish the Baby Bonus
57 Abolish the First Home Owners' Grant
58 Allow the Northern Territory to become a state
59 Halve the size of the Coalition front bench from 32 to 16
60 Remove all remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers to international trade
61 Slash top public servant salaries to much lower international standards, like in the United States
62 End all public subsidies to sport and the arts
63 Privatise the Australian Institute of Sport
64 End all hidden protectionist measures, such as preferences for local manufacturers in government tendering
65 Abolish the Office for Film and Literature Classification
66 Rule out any government-supported or mandated internet censorship
67 Means test tertiary student loans
68 Allow people to opt out of superannuation in exchange for promising to forgo any government income support in retirement
69 Immediately halt construction of the National Broadband Network and privatise any sections that have already been built
70 End all government funded Nanny State advertising
71 Reject proposals for compulsory food and alcohol labelling
72 Privatise the CSIRO
73 Defund Harmony Day
74 Close the Office for Youth
75 Privatise the Snowy-Hydro Scheme
76 Have State Premiers appoint High Court justices
77 Allow ministers to be appointed from outside parliament
78 Extend the GST to cover all goods and services but return all extra revenue to taxpayers through cutting other taxes
79 Abolish the federal department of health and return health policy to the states
80 Abolish the federal department of education and return education policy to the states
81 Repeal any new mandatory data retention laws
82 Abolish the Australian Human Rights Commission
83 Have trade unions regulated like public companies, with ASIC responsible for their oversight
84 End all public funding to unions and employer associations
85 Repeal laws which protect unions from competition, such as the 'conveniently belong' rules in the Fair Work Act
86 Extend unrestricted work visas currently granted to New Zealand citizens to citizens of the United States
87 Negotiate and sign free trade agreements with Australia's largest trading partners, including China, India, Japan and South Korea
88 Restore fundamental legal rights to all existing commonwealth legislation such as the right to silence and the presumption of innocence
89 Adhere to section 51(xxxi) of the Constitution by not taking or diminishing anyone's property without proper compensation
90 Repeal legislative restrictions on the use of nuclear power
91 Allow full competition on all foreign air routes
92 Abolish the Medicare levy surcharge
93 Abolish the luxury car tax
94 Halve the number of days parliament sits to reduce the amount of legislation passed
95 Abolish Tourism Australia and cease subsidising the tourism industry
96 Make all government payments to external parties publicly available including the terms and conditions of those payments
97 Abandon plans to restrict foreign investment in Australia's agricultural industry
98 Cease the practice of setting up government-funded lobby groups, such as YouMeUnity, which uses taxpayer funds to campaign to change the Australian Constitution
99 Rule out the introduction of mandatory pre-commitment for electronic gaming machines
100 Abolish the four pillars policy which prevents Australia's major banks from merging

No mention of abolishing the RBA or moving to sound money

 

[bordsilver]

They previously did some back of the envelope cost savings of key elements of proposals 1-75 and came up with the following:

Total savings:
Recurrent savings:
More than $27 billion per year

Once-off:
Almost $20 billion

2 Abolish the Department of Climate Change - Recurrent savings: $1,551,087,000 per year
3 Abolish the Clean Energy Fund -Once-off: $10 billion
9 Abolish the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission - Recurrent savings: $4.3 million per year
14 Abolish the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) - Recurrent savings: $3.4 million per year
18 Eliminate family tax benefits - Recurrent savings: $19,904,018,000 per year
19 Abandon the paid parental leave scheme (Tony Abbott's) - Recurrent savings: $3.3 billion per year
21 End all corporate welfare and subsidies by closing the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education - Recurrent savings: $1,344,347,000 per year
25 End public funding to political parties - Recurrent savings: $17.6 million per year ($53 Million every three years)
29 Eliminate the National Preventative Health Agency - Recurrent savings: $83,933,000 per year
32 Rule out federal funding for 2018 Commonwealth Games - Once-off savings: At least $100 million
47 Cease funding the Australia Network - Recurrent savings: $22 million per year
48 Privatise Australia Post - Once-off: Between $5 and $7 billion
49 Privatise Medibank - Once-off: $4.5 billion
57 Abolish the First Home Owners' Grant - Recurrent savings: $1 billion per year
62 End all public subsidies to sport and the arts - Recurrent savings: $283,178,000 per year
74 Close the Office for Youth - Recurrent savings: $11,419,000 per year
75 Privatise Snowy-Hydro Scheme Once-off: $351,000,000 (Commonwealth share only-Victoria and NSW would also save)

 

[Big A.D.]

Nuking Adelaide would also secure Tony Abbott's place in history, but I'm not sure that would make Australia a better place to live either.

 

[radiobirdman]

Nuking Adelaide would also secure Tony Abbott's place in history, but I'm not sure that would make Australia a better place to live either.

Where would we get the nuke from.

 

[GoldenEgg]

Mostly great ideas in there.Only ones i would be against would be removing the F.I.R.B. but in all honesty they are a lame duck paper tiger anyway and kow-tow to the Chi-Coms quick smart.
Also expanding GST and free trade agreements i am also against.GST needs to be abolished and you cannot compete with countries whos governments subsidise their manufacturing companies (or worse, they are state owned co's)

 

[Big A.D.]

I wonder if GP will create a new sub-forum called "100 new things for people to argue about"...

 

[goldpelican]

Volunteering to moderate?

 

[browski]

Personally, I would not remove these; I don't like the concept of private entities controlling all of my Water, Energy, Media, Communication and Science.


47 Cease funding the Australia Network
51 Privatise SBS
48 Privatise Australia Post
29 Eliminate the National Preventative Health Agency
69 Immediately halt construction of the National Broadband Network and privatise any sections that have already been built
75 Privatise the Snowy-Hydro Scheme
71 Reject proposals for compulsory food and alcohol labelling
72 Privatise the CSIRO

 

[Nugget]

Nuking Adelaide would also secure Tony Abbott's place in history, but I'm not sure that would make Australia a better place to live either.

Where would we get the nuke from.

IF we don't have any I'd be very surprised and disappointed.


Edit to add


I'd hazard a guess that if we do have them they'd be kept very secret and I doubt even the defence minister would know.

 

[2ds]

I'm trying to figure out the ideology of the initial "master mind" behind this.

Like golden egg said about quarter of these just seem to make the whole country easy pickings to predatory foreign powers.
Another quarter seem to just make problems... (seriously you want unregulated spectrum? you want to get rid of food labeling? You sure you want anonymous political donations?! )

A bunch make no sense.. why are we building lots of dams? Do we need dams? Why didn't I know about this need for dams before?

I'm laughing about 45 Introduce a single rate of income tax with a generous tax-free threshold, hasn't gillard recently done more for this than anyone in the last 15 years?

 

[2ds]

Nuking Adelaide would also secure Tony Abbott's place in history, but I'm not sure that would make Australia a better place to live either.

Where would we get the nuke from.

IF we don't have any I'd be very surprised and disappointed.


Edit to add


I'd hazard a guess that if we do have them they'd be kept very secret and I doubt even the defence minister would know.

wanna bet they'll be stored in Darwin soon?

 

[metalzzz]

I wonder if GP will create a new sub-forum called "100 new things for people to argue about"...

i can see this thread skipping along for a while

 

[Shaddam IV]

Really the one thing that would make a real difference would be to simply stop making rules and regulations based on the lowest common denominator so that the intelligent and motivated can get on with things.

 

[AngloSaxon]

Alcopops tax. When it was discussed the Krudd government bullied the bottling companies to impose the tax and store the proceeds in lieu of the government. It created an accounting problem when following international accounting standards as the tax had not been passed by parliament. It was hence unlawfully imposed.

A year after the companies were bullied into collecting it, the government still did not actually pass the tax law/Act. It was so unjust. The companies knew it, their staff knew it, their accountants and lawyers and auditors knew it.

I've moved on to other areas and have stopped following this issue. I know that smiling nazi Nicloa Roxton wanted to finally pass the Act and realise the tax windfall. But I never heard more in the MSM and stopped following the issue professionally.. I wouldn't be surprised if it's still being collected unlawfully.

 

[Big A.D.]

Nuking Adelaide would also secure Tony Abbott's place in history, but I'm not sure that would make Australia a better place to live either.

Where would we get the nuke from.

The actual nuking would be put out to tender and the contract awarded to the highest bidder.

Why should the taxpayer foot the bill for these things when the private sector can do the job more efficiently?

 

[southerncross]

I thought SBS and ABC were already privately owned by the Labor party already ?

2ds Wrote

I'm trying to figure out the ideology of the initial "master mind" behind this.

Like golden egg said about quarter of these just seem to make the whole country easy pickings to predatory foreign powers.
Another quarter seem to just make problems... (seriously you want unregulated spectrum? you want to get rid of food labeling? You sure you want anonymous political donations?! )

A bunch make no sense.. why are we building lots of dams? Do we need dams? Why didn't I know about this need for dams before?

I'm laughing about 45 Introduce a single rate of income tax with a generous tax-free threshold, hasn't gillard recently done more for this than anyone in the last 15 years?

As opposed to the RBA itself managing the destruction ? Do we need mothballed desal plants anymore now than we did a few short years ago ? Do you count Unions using members funds to groom and influence Labor party politics along with pro Labor politik advertising as donations or just opinion? Do you really think Labor would ever introduce a just and even Tax rate ? You were being sarcastic right ?

 

[bordsilver]

why are we building lots of dams?

Just on this - 42.(c). It was specifically related to promoting the development of northern Australia (ie Tropic of Capricorn, north) not dams in southern Australia . Part of the issue of unlocking a lot of the potential in northern Australia (including promoting agriculture for our impending "food crisis") is reliable water supply.

A taskforce set up under the Howard Government to look into possible dam sites got hijacked when Labor came into power and "concluded" that there was absolutely nowhere that a small, medium or large dam could be constructed across the entire of northern Australia. This is simply ludicrous. (Personally I think that a lot of other things also need to happen in the north to make a dam viable, but construction should not be impeded for stupid reasons such as bum breathing turtles.)

 

[2ds]

I thought SBS and ABC were already privately owned by the Labor party already ?

2ds Wrote

I'm trying to figure out the ideology of the initial "master mind" behind this.

Like golden egg said about quarter of these just seem to make the whole country easy pickings to predatory foreign powers.
Another quarter seem to just make problems... (seriously you want unregulated spectrum? you want to get rid of food labeling? You sure you want anonymous political donations?! )

A bunch make no sense.. why are we building lots of dams? Do we need dams? Why didn't I know about this need for dams before?

I'm laughing about 45 Introduce a single rate of income tax with a generous tax-free threshold, hasn't gillard recently done more for this than anyone in the last 15 years?

As opposed to the RBA itself managing the destruction ? Do we need mothballed desal plants anymore now than we did a few short years ago ? Do you count Unions using members funds to groom and influence Labor party politics along with pro Labor politik advertising as donations or just opinion? Do you really think Labor would ever introduce a just and even Tax rate ? You were being sarcastic right ?

Nope tax free threshold has tripled under gillard

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.aspx?doc=/content/00322113.htm apart from that it's the same gradiated scheme...