Inside This Issue Volume 56 • Number 2 • June 2004

ARTICLES & REGULAR FEATURES

2 Editorial 21 Capitalism, Markets and Morality It is one thing for Greenpeace to tell (their usual) porkies Markets may not be much concerned with morality, but about GM foods; it is another for a gullible media to peddle that is no reason to suggest that their defenders are the same line. Mike Nahan amoral or that there is not significant interplay between capitalist societies and moral values. Hal GP Colebatch 3 Political Science: Green Blackmail and the Victorian Government 24 Sex and the Primary School Teacher The recent four-year extension of the moratorium on Is the shortage of male teachers at primary school level GM foods has little to do with science but owes a lot really a problem? And if it is, are scholarships for men the more to a coalition of vested interests, political mates best policy response we can offer? Andrew McIntyre in high places and a touch of ‘greenmail’. Graeme 26 The ‘R’ Files O’Neill Economic history is clear: if we want sustained economic 7 Bolt On Bolt growth, then we must conduct a periodic ‘bonfire of the Australia’s most influential conservative journalist regulations’. Alan Moran discusses his background and his views on a range of 28 Education Agenda important issues. Andrew McIntyre Whatever teachers unions and some academics might say 10 Environmentalism and the Integrity of Science about formal assessment, parents still clamour for fair and Environmental fundamentalism brooks no dissent and has honest assessment of their children. Kevin Donnelly scant regard for evidence. How, then, are we to untangle 30 Free_Enterprise.com real science from green advocacy when scientists conflate How many people are there on the planet? Is the ‘popula- the two? Jennifer Marohasy tion bomb’ still a threat? Internet resources for answering 12 Green Charities and Partisan Political Campaigning these and other population questions. Stephen Dawson The Wilderness Society and other environmental groups 32 Around the Tanks are increasingly hiding behind their charity status in the News from think-tanks around the world, courtesy of the pursuit of overt political objectives. This is undermining Heritage Foundation’s The Insider newsletter. charities and democracy. Gary Johns and Don D’Cruz 34 Letter from London 14 The Strange Return of the IR Club The Home Secretary may be keen on it, but the ID card IR policy is not just failing Australians, it is going back- proposal has yet to meet some serious political and wards. This report shows why and proposes reforms technological challenges. John Nurick that will help us compete in an increasingly global environment. IPA Work Reform Unit 35 Strange Times The weird, the wacky and the wonderful from around the 18 The Bitter Pilger: Declining Credibility in Australia? world. Compiled by IPA staff and columnists Why is it that the conspiracy-ridden, anti-American ramblings of a disgraced propagandist still find their way 36 What’s A Job? on to mainstream TV in Australia? Ted Lapkin Let’s be under no illusions about the ‘morality’ of those who perpetrate brand-mail attacks on well-known business SPECIAL INSERT names. It’s simply a business strategy! Ken Phillips Iraq: The Importance of Seeing it Through BOOK REVIEWS Hon. John Howard, MP An edited version of the Prime Minister’s address to the 37 Gary Johns reviews A Tradition of Giving: Seventy-Five Years Annual CD Kemp Lecture in Melbourne in May 2004. of Myer Family Philanthropy by Michael Liffman; Donald J. Boudreaux reviews Skepticism And Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism by Richard A. Epstein.

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Editor: Mike Nahan. Publisher & Executive Director: Mike Nahan. Production: Chris Ulyatt Consulting Services Pty Ltd. Designed by: Colin Norris, Kingdom Artroom. Printed by: Pinnacle Printing, 288 Dundas Street, Thornbury VIC 3071. Published by: The Institute of Public Affairs Ltd (Incorporated in the ACT) ACN 008 627 727. Level 2, 410 Collins Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000. Phone: (03) 9600 4744. Fax: (03) 9602 4989. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ipa.org.au

Inside cartoons by Peter Foster [(03) 9813 3160] Front cover illustration by Michael Killalea [0410 698 620] Unsolicited manuscripts welcomed. However, potential contributors are advised to discuss proposals for articles with the Editor. Views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IPA. Reproduction: The IPA welcomes reproduction of written material from the Review, but for copyright reasons the Editor’s permission must first be sought. From the Editor

MIKE NAHAN

GREENPEACE AND AN It did it even after the Canadian UNQUESTIONING MEDIA courts found Schmeiser guilty of stealing and knowingly growing GM In a mass act of technophobia, five canola; even after Schmeiser dropped Australian States recently banned the the claim of being a helpless victim in use of new genetically modified (GM) his appeal to the Canadian Supreme crops. Court (an appeal he lost). Greenpeace They did so in the face of over- maintained the victim line and the whelming evidence that existing GM media ran it. crops lower farm costs, reduce The Schmeiser story had reson- environmental impacts, impose no ance. It played on farmers’ fears of health risk and do not undermine contagion and loss of rights. It was market access or crop prices. cited in the South Australian Parlia- Why would otherwise sensible ment as justification for that State’s Labor Governments—officially com- with the issue better than other media moratorium. The fact that the story mitted to protecting the environment, outlets, it nonetheless allowed itself to was a fraud has never been adequately promoting biotechnology and sup- become a propaganda arm of Green- exposed and, accordingly, the farming porting farmers—commit such a peace. community and politicians have been destructive act, and do so in full The Percy Schmeiser scandal seriously misled. knowledge of its implications? illustrates the media’s role. Schmeiser Despite Greenpeace’s involvement More importantly, why would so was a Canadian canola farmer, sued in in the Schmeiser fraud, the ABC many Australian farmers and their 1998 by Monsanto for growing continues to use Greenpeace as a representatives, who have traditionally Monsanto’s GM canola without a reliable source on GM. Indeed, it is been world leaders in adopting licence. Mr Schmeiser’s defence, as now busily running Greenpeace’s latest technology, support these decisions? reported by the ABC, was that the anti-GM campaign against Ingham The decision of the Victorian seeds blew from neighbour’s property chickens—again full of misinformation. Government to impose a four-year or from passing trucks without his A few months ago, Greenpeace’s moratorium on all GM crops is knowledge. He claimed that he was a campaign to stop farm trials of GM explored by Graeme O’Neill (‘Political hapless victim whose rights were being canola was based on the need to stop Science: Green Blackmail and the challenged by a big multinational. the first food crop from being intro- Victorian Government’, pages 3–6). The evidence tabled in the ensuing duced to our food chain. This was Amongst other things, Mr O’Neill court cases exposed Schmeiser’s always an absurd claim as tonnes of highlights the role of Greenpeace. claims as absurd. He had grown GM cotton seed oil derived from locally Greenpeace’s anti-biotechnology canola the previous year and saved grown GM cotton have been con- campaign, however, would have failed part of the crop for seed. Monsanto sumed for years. The media not only without the active assistance of the was informed and warned him not to promoted the first food crop lie, but is media. The media gave a mostly re-plant the seed. Instead, he went now busily parroting Greenpeace’s uncritical airing of every nuance of ahead and planted his entire 1,000 latest line that GM food is rampant Greenpeace’s anti-GM campaign. Even acre holding with GM canola—hardly throughout the food chain. Both when it became clear that Greenpeace the act of an anti-GM advocate. stories can’t be true! lied to them and therefore to their This did not deter Greenpeace. It On GM issues, the media has audiences, the media maintained the adopted Schmeiser as its GM victim, seriously misled the Australian public. faith—rarely critical and always eager funded his legal actions and took him It presents blatant lies as scientific to promote the next Greenpeace on a ‘Seeds of Doubt’ world tour, facts and gives propagandists the status message. which included two visits to Australia. of experts. It is perhaps little wonder The Australian Broadcasting The ABC ran the Greenpeace line, that erstwhile progressive politicians Commission played a leading role in describing the Schmeiser case as a and farmers have become frightened the biotechnology debate. It gave the ‘classic story of David versus Goliath’. technophobes. issue extensive coverage to its largely It did this despite warnings from rural audience. While the ABC dealt scientists at Melbourne University. I P A

R E V I E W 2 JUNE 2004 Political Science Green Blackmail and the Victorian Government

GRAEME O’NEILL

LMOST two months ago, struggling Victorian grain farmers Science—and Victoria’s canola the Victorian Labor Gov- and rural communities. farmers—to believe it was prepared ernment stunned the It would have benefited the en- to resist the voices of unreason. Its A State’s biotechnology in- vironment, by replacing an ineffi- moderate approach—a 12-month, dustry by imposing a four-year, legis- cient and obsolescent technology— voluntary halt on commercial tri- lated moratorium on genetically triazine-tolerant canolas—and als—was in sharp contrast to the modified (GM) canola cropping. triazine herbicides, now banned in multi-year, legislated bans an- The industry had expected a May Europe and the UK on environmen- nounced by other canola-growing 2003 voluntary moratorium to be tal grounds. It would have given States. lifted—if not completely, then at farmers new, higher-yielding variet- Against that background, the least to allow Monsanto and Bayer ies that rely on two manifestly safer Government’s March 2004 an- CropScience to conduct a large-scale and more environmentally benign nouncement of a four-year, legislated commercial coexistence trial. The herbicides—glyphosate and glufo- ban—not only on GM canola, but reasons for the moratorium, detailed sinate ammonium. all GM crops—amounted to an ab- in a March 25 joint press release from Canola farmers would have ben- ject capitulation to the anti-GM Premier Steve Bracks and Agricul- efited from the resulting disease movement. It dumbfounded even ture Minister Bob Cameron, make break, and been able to practice con- the pessimists who had expected, at little sense when ranged against what servation tillage, to reduce wind ero- worst, a 12-month extension of the Victoria now stands to lose—and sion of Australia’s notoriously voluntary ban. The Government’s what it stood to gain by lifting the infertile and fragile soils. Science volte-face demands explanation. 2003 voluntary moratorium. and economics were on the Victo- Taking credit for the ban is a A pro-GM decision was critical rian Government’s side. And it had small but highly organized coalition to the Government’s ambition to the testimony of Canadian farmers, of anti-GM non-government orga- establish Victoria as one of the and the judgement of the Office of nizations—Greenpeace Australia- world’s top five centres for biotech- the Gene Technology Regulator, to Pacific, the Network of Concerned nology research and business by counter the anti-GM movement’s Farmers, the Australian GeneEthics 2010. The Government would have claims that GM canola posed unac- Network, and organic farming bod- won kudos in the research and busi- ceptable threats to human health ies. But how did they persuade the ness communities for standing up to and the environment. Canadian Victorian Government to ban a crop the anti-GM movement, at a time farmers have grown GMHT canola that Canadian farmers have grown when the State governments of for nine years, without the dire profitably, safely and with great ben- NSW, SA, WA, Tasmania and the health or environmental problems efit to the environment, for nearly a ACT Legislative Assembly had all predicted by the anti-GM move- decade? Some commentators have taken the easy option in the face of ment. Significantly, Canada is the argued that the decision was a po- misinformation, scaremongering and world’s second largest wheat ex- litical contribution to securing political pressure. porter, yet encounters no segregation Green preferences for federal Labor or marketing problems. at this year’s election. That argu- GM ADVANTAGE Finally, the Government had au- ment fails because a 12-month ex- A pro-GM decision would have also thoritative reports from the two in- tension of the voluntary moratorium cemented the State’s long-estab- dependent consultants it appointed would have served the same purpose. lished leadership in the biotech sec- itself, both of which found that GM tor, and sent a powerful message to canola posed no serious threat to the DAIRY GREENMAIL others that it was serious about the State’s lucrative agricultural exports. More plausibly, Premier Bracks was industry. And more tangibly, it would In May last year, the Government presented with a Faustian dilemma: have put money into the pockets of led Monsanto and Bayer Crop- agree to ban all GM crops for four ▲

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 3 years, or face the potentially much have relied heavily on a thin-end- of production. The US and other more serious consequences of hav- of-the-wedge argument that GM major soy producers, such as Brazil ing the anti-GM movement target canola would be Australia’s first GM and Argentina, do not practise seg- the State’s most lucrative primary food crop, and an unacceptable ex- regation. export industry—dairying. The periment that would put consumer’s The anti-GM movement has Government’s press release noted long-term health at risk. But Aus- made a major issue of the risk that that the State’s two biggest dairy tralians have been consuming mar- ‘contamination’ by GM canola could companies—Murray-Goulburn Co- garine and cooking oil made from a threaten Australia’s grain exports. operative and Tatura Milk—had home-grown, GM oilseed crop— After the Government cited the discussed with the government their cotton—for eight years. Australian cereal industry’s concerns about the concerns about the potential impact oilseed processors crush around impact of GM canola on the State’s of GM canola on their export mar- 100,000 tonnes of cotton seed each $1 billion grain exports, AWB Lim- kets. But Victoria’s dairy industry is year, and because there is no segre- ited and its barley industry counter- not GM-free. It already uses two gation of GM and non-GM seed, part, the Australian Barley Board GM products in its production the GM crush is somewhere around (ABB), felt it necessary to restate chain. 30,000 tonnes. But, as with GM that they support a large-scale co- In a March 2004 report commis- canola, there is no possibility of an existence trial. Both AWB and ABB sioned by the Victorian Govern- knew the risk of ‘contamination’ ap- ment, ‘GM Canola Market Impact proaches zero—as the ACIL and Segregation Study’, consultants Premier Bracks was Tasman report confirms. The cur- ACIL Tasman state: rent level of contamination of ce- Victoria is also Australia’s major presented with a real shipments by non-GM canola dairy producing state. Australian offers a baseline for assessing the risk dairy-product exports to over 100 Faustian dilemma: agree of contamination by GM canola. countries around the world The ACIL Tasman report con- average $2.5 billion per year. to ban all GM crops for firms that there is no contamination Virtually all of the dairy cows in four years, or face the problem with barley, which ac- Victoria are grazed on pastures counts for 30 per cent of cereal pro- with protein and energy sup- potentially much more duction in Victoria—most plements contributing approxi- Victorian barley is sold within Aus- mately 20–30 per cent of the total serious consequences of tralia, for malting. Canola seed diet. The majority of this sup- found in Victorian barley consign- plement is made up of cereals with having the anti-GM ments is classified as a ‘small foreign 20–30 per cent made from protein seed’, and the ABB’s own receival meals such as soybean meal movement target the standard sets the maximum level in (imported), cotton seed meal from malting barley at 0.6 per cent—or NSW and Queensland, and canola State’s most lucrative at 1.2 to 2 per cent for feed barley. meal from the Victorian and NSW The ACIL Tasman report states: canola-crushing industry. primary export ‘Handling companies’ representa- Either the Government failed to tives have indicated that analysis of read its own report, or it has know- industry—dairying historical receival data concludes ingly colluded with the big dairy that only minute quantities of companies—and on the evidence, canola that are well below receival with the anti-GM movement—to adverse health consequences to con- tolerances is present in cereals perpetuate a marketing fiction. sumers from GM-protein compo- handled in the supply chain. AWB Pest-resistant and herbicide-tol- nent, because all proteins are also indicated that levels of Small erant GM cotton varieties currently removed when the oil is refined. Foreign Seeds upon export are in account for more than 30 per cent The GM protein remains in the most cases well below allowable lev- of Australian cotton production, high-protein meal, which goes into els.’ If contamination by conven- and with the release this season of the high-protein feed supplements tional canola is well below the 0.6 new Bollgard 2 varieties, which are fed to Australian beef and dairy per cent limit set by ABB for malt- doubly protected against pest attack, cattle. The imported soy meal re- ing barley, how much lower would the figure will soon rise to around ferred to by ACIL Tasman is also the figure be for GM canola, when 80 per cent. In their national cam- predominantly GM. It is sourced measures to avoid contamination of paign to block GM canola, Green- from the US, where GMHT variet- barley and wheat would be far more peace and the other anti-GM NGOs ies currently account for 81 per cent rigorous?

R E V I E W 4 JUNE 2004 And if the Victorian Govern- from Port Kembla harbour. The ves- soy—out of Australia. GeneEthics’ ment really does have concerns sel was carrying 6,300 tonnes of GM executive director, Bob Phelps, is- about the risk of contamination to soy, destined to be used in animal sued a press release when the Rhein the State’s cereal exports—or feed, to Melbourne. It also picketed docked in Melbourne, calling on merely, customers’ perceptions of the ship when it docked in Mel- Ingham’s ‘to match the dairy such risk—why did the government bourne. In a Greenpeace press re- industry’s GE-free stance’. Phelps, select Tiega, in the heart of the bar- lease, campaign co-ordinator John like Hepburn, is surely well aware ley belt around Ouyen in north- Hepburn said: ‘Imported GE soy is that Victorian dairy farmers use GM western Victoria, as a potential site the largest source of GE contami- soy in their feed supplements. His for a toxic waste dump? The threat nation of the Australian food. Up choice of the term ‘anti-GE stance’ is not hypothetical: Japanese malt- to 300,000 tonnes of GE soy comes over ‘anti-GE status’ was deliberate. ing companies that buy Victorian into our food chain unlabelled each So the question of why the Victo- barley are said to have already ex- year, most of it for use in poultry rian Government capitulated to the pressed concern at how their cus- feed.’ In the five months since it anti-GM movement finds its answer tomers might react if Tiega is chosen began to target Ingham’s, Green- in another question: Why has the as the site for the waste dump. peace has made no mention of the anti-GM movement not drawn at- If the grain industry is uncon- fact that the dairy industry also uses tention to the fact that Victoria’s cerned about a coexistence trial, the dairy industry uses GM seed in its dairy industry is a different matter. supply chain—and even colluded According to ACIL Tasman, most In Australia and with the Government and the big Victorian dairy farmers are already dairy companies to perpetuate the feeding their cows imported GM soy overseas, Greenpeace deception by praising the dairy and Australian GM cotton seed in industry’s ‘GM-free stance’? high-protein feed supplements. employs the wolf From the time that Greenpeace Greenpeace, remarkably, has not pack’s tactic for and GeneEthics launched their drawn attention to this fact, even campaign against Ingham’s last De- though it has been campaigning hunting caribou: cember, and GM soy, the Victorian since before Christmas to pressure dairy industry’s export markets were Australia’s largest poultry producer, isolate a weak or at risk. By December, the Victorian Ingham’s, to stop feeding its chick- Government already had the ACIL ens GM soy imported from the US. vulnerable individual Tasman report, and a second con- sultant’s report, by Melbourne Uni- HUNTING TACTICS from the herd and versity economist Emeritus In Australia and overseas, Professor Peter Lloyd, who was ap- Greenpeace employs the wolf pack’s harry it into pointed to review ACIL Tasman’s tactic for hunting caribou: isolate a findings. The anti-GM movement weak or vulnerable individual from submission has close connections with the Vic- the herd and harry it into submis- torian Government that extend sion. Ingham’s is being subjected to even into Cabinet. The intimacy of the same adverse publicity—and GM soy in its supply chain—a sig- those links is illustrated by the ap- consumer pressure—that Green- nificant omission, given Green- pearance of a draft of a government peace has used to coerce big US peace’s zeal in pursuing the anti-GM press release announcing the mora- companies such as baby-food manu- cause. torium on the Website of the Net- facturer Gerber, and the Starbucks Hepburn has confirmed to Aus- work of Concerned Farmers (NCW) coffee franchise, into eliminating tralian Biotechnology News that his at least two hours before it was made GM produce from their supply organization is aware that the dairy available to the general media. The chains. Before Christmas, Green- industry uses up to 5 per cent of GM release is clearly marked ‘DRAFT’, peace activists organized a media seeds—both cotton seed and soy— and is dated March 24—the day be- stunt in which giant chooks pulling in its feed supplements. He also told fore the formal announcement. a Santa sleigh delivered a Christmas ABN that Greenpeace has been Greenpeace helped to fund the es- present of half a tonne of non-GM ‘working closely’ with Victoria’s big tablishment of the Network of Con- soy to Ingham’s Enterprises in dairy producers. For more than two cerned Farmers, including the Sydney. In recent weeks, Green- years, Greenpeace has co-ordinated development of its Website, and peace used its flagship, the Rainbow with the Melbourne-based Austra- continues to provide administrative Warrior, in an attempt to block the lian GeneEthics Network to keep support. NCW’s founder, WA departure of a cargo ship, the Rhein, GM canola—and imported GM farmer Julie Newman, sought to ex- ▲

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 5 plain the March 24 dateline on the ported GM grain—including GM mental release of GM crops because draft press release as a consequence canola from Canada. Had the science that underpins them is of the fact that the Website is hosted Greenpeace Australia-Pacific been not robust, and the results are in- in the US, across the International unable to persuade Victoria to im- herently unpredictable. Date Line. pose a moratorium, it could have In response to questions from Newman also sought to explain exploited its global reach to desta- Australian Biotechnology News in small but significant differences be- bilize Japanese consumers’ confi- May, a spokesman for Victorian Ag- tween the draft and the final ver- dence in Victoria’s cheese—and on riculture Minister Bob Cameron sion as errors she had made in its past record, would not have hesi- said that the Government’s decision transcribing from the site. The tated to do so. Greenpeace’s power to place a moratorium on the com- NCW clearly received a preview of and ruthlessness were in full view mercial release of GM canola was the press release from someone based on concerns from ‘significant among the small group of ministers dairy and grain exporters’ about the and their staff who were involved On this occasion, there impact on markets. ‘The reason the in preparing the release—or who time frame is set at four years is be- were privy to its content. was no need publicly cause it was deemed by government to be an appropriate time during FRIENDS IN GOVERNMENT to threaten the which to assess market trends re- Health Minister Bronwyn Pike is a lated to this complex issue,’ the former member of Greenpeace Aus- Victorian Government spokesman said. But on the evi- tralia-Pacific’s board, as confirmed dence, anti-GM activists by her electorate Website. Accord- or the dairy industry. greenmailed the Bracks Govern- ing to a Government source, Pike ment to join the GM canola mora- was the leading advocate for a legis- They needed only to torium. lated moratorium. Treasurer and Re- use their friends in The Victorian Government, like gional Development Minister John other State Governments, has Brumby, together with Agriculture court to make the bought time, but no lasting peace. Minister Bob Cameron, argued Greenpeace and GeneEthics are strongly for the moratorium to be alternatives clear vigilant, and thorough—they will lifted to allow Lloyd’s recommended be back on the offensive long be- coexistence trial to proceed. Nor- fore the State moratoria end in four mally, Greenpeace and GeneEthics during its international campaign to years’ time. In the interim, Victoria’s make their demands to government block food aid shipments from the agbiotech industry will have lost and industry via the mass media. On US to starving African nations, be- much more than four years of this occasion, there was no need cause they were ‘contaminated’ by progress. The grains and dairy indus- publicly to threaten the Victorian GM maize. tries are potentially the biggest ben- Government or the dairy industry. Greenpeace mounted a cam- eficiaries of gene technology. In its They needed only to use their friends paign against those shipments that panic to avoid the short-term costs in court to make the alternatives extended from the Western media to the dairy and grain industries, the clear: join the Australia-wide, State- to the highest levels of half a dozen State Government did not consider based lockout of GM canola, or face African governments, and down to the much greater long-term costs to potentially much greater cost to the poor villagers. But public opinion Victoria: missed commercial oppor- State economy of having the anti- surveys confirm that even educated tunities, lost investment, damage to GM movement draw attention to Western consumers are highly sus- the confidence of the research com- the dairy industry’s less-than-vir- ceptible to anti-GM disinformation. munity and the infant agbiotech in- ginal GM status. Greenpeace’s Hepburn cites a recent dustry, and the possible loss of According to the ACIL Tasman survey by the Commonwealth Victoria’s status as Australia’s num- report, 85 per cent of all dairy prod- agency Biotechnology Australia, ber one biotech State. ucts exported from Australia origi- which found that 66 per cent of nate in Victoria. Cheese is the most Australians considered products valuable segment—Japan takes 45 from animals fed on GE produce to © 2004 Australian Biotechnology News. Graeme O’Neill is a science writer with Australian per cent of Victoria’s cheese exports. be GE as well. ‘The science of GE Biotechnology News. This is a slightly edited Like Western consumers, Japanese crops is not well understood by version of an article that first appeared in the May consumers distrust GM produce. Yet people,’ Hepburn admits. Hepburn 14, 2004 edition of Australian Biotechnology News, and is reprinted with permission. the Japanese dairy and beef indus- says Greenpeace’s basic position is tries are prolific consumers of im- that it is opposed to the environ- I P A

R E V I E W 6 JUNE 2004 Bolt On Bolt

ANDREW MCINTYRE

Andrew Bolt, columnist for the Melbourne Herald Sun, is Australia’s most influential conservative journalist. Here he discusses his background and his views on a range of central issues confronting Australia and the Western world today

HEN one meets Andrew we didn’t find it wicked. Here was new school was an Aboriginal who Bolt, one is struck by ex- my father teaching, with his accent, became his best friend. ‘A lot of our treme courtesy, warmth, and then becoming a principal classmates were Aboriginal and a W directness and lack of later.’ lot of the boys we played football pretension. This would be a surprise The family was sponsored by a with from other schools, like Cook, if one took seriously the remarks of church group for their arrival in were Aboriginal. We talked about those who criticize him: Attila the Australia. Back in Holland, his race and all that.’ He went overseas Hun, inflammatory right-winger, a grandfather was a church warden, after finishing secondary school and tick-a-box, hey-look-at-me com- worked for a year in a flower auc- mentator, insane, Islam Basher, rac- tion hall. On his return he tried ist [obligatory], a petty, embittered The outback experience university for a year, but then picked little man, a sociopath … it goes on, up a cadetship at The Age. At this and on. at Tarcoola is significant stage, Bolt was not sure where he So who exactly is this mild-man- was headed. He left journalism nered, polite commentator now in the context of the twice without finding anything he gaining national recognition? He liked better, and fell back into it. convincingly describes himself as a accusations of racism ‘Unfortunately, my education ‘humanist, rationalist, pro-freedom was not great, worse in fact than and anti-totalitarian, with a due but floating out of his Philip Adams’s’, so he had no easy wary respect for the role of tradi- introduction to the canon. He was tion and religion’. Needless to say, critics’ mouths. The only an autodidact in a way, like Adams, this is at stark odds with the descrip- but with no apparent bitterness or tions proffered by his critics. chip on his shoulder. Although he Known by his enemies as the other Grade 7 boy at his did feel that he missed out, by not ‘Dutch Oven’, Bolt’s parents came having the ‘traditional ivy hall edu- out from Holland in 1957. As he new school was an cation’, he feels he has lived in an points out, with some irony, ‘this Australia that many other journal- was a time when supposedly wicked Aboriginal who became ists have not experienced. ‘I see how assimilation was around’. He was Australians get together, the kinds born in 1959, and at that time his his best friend of Australia that often aren’t repre- father worked in a brush factory, sented. I have lived in the Austra- then as a bus conductor; blue collar lia that so many people theorize stuff, although he was actually a and both parents had been with about.’ trained teacher in Holland. This is Dutch churches. After moving Through consistency and by dint a familiar theme with many immi- around for a few years, the family of very hard work, Bolt has become grants up to the present day. His (with younger brother and two unique in Australian journalism. father eventually retrained in Aus- younger sisters) settled on the edge Working for the largest circulation tralia and, shortly after, was teach- of the Nullarbor Plain at Tarcoola. tabloid in the country, he is the ing in classrooms. It appears that The outback experience at highest profile conservative jour- assimilation was not such a bad Tarcoola is significant in the con- nalist to have made a mark nation- thing. ‘I came face to face with some text of the accusations of racism ally. He has his own Website and of the shibboleths of the wicked as- floating out of his critics’ mouths. would be, after Terry McCrann, the similation notion. We lived it, and The only other Grade 7 boy at his most read scribbler in Australia. ▲

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 7 With these accolades, Bolt de- options!’ In this moral decline, he The irony is that, for all the rac- flects modestly. ‘Don’t forget, the worries about the rise of crime in the ist epithets, the issue is not one of achievement is Rupert Murdoch’s. last 40 years and the decline of pa- integration and cohesion of shared It’s his soap box. It is nice to say it, rental responsibility. ‘Social theories values, about which he is optimis- but I don’t believe in the publicity’. of parenting and crime control are tic. Rather, he explains, what wor- Using Tolstoy’s analogy in War and excuses for laziness or doing noth- ries him is that ‘the loudest voices Peace, about historical figures sim- ing. You look at the million children within the Islamic communities ply riding crests of waves, he does growing up without one of their par- seem to be the extremists who re- admit that while the media can give ents at home. You look at drug use. pudiate the cultural building blocks megaphones to people, one has to There are reasons to worry.’ that have made Europe what it is. make sure that the sound that comes Clearly, he sees these vulgar tele- They would like to turn it into from the megaphone is good … vision phenomena as symbolic of something else. And you have to Bolt himself has three children, our age. ‘Look at the Ottoman Em- think that society is going to aged 10, 5 and 4. His wife is also a pire, it took 400 years to die from change.’ journalist at the Herald-Sun. They its peak. People knew it was dying. There is no fatalism here, sim- both have the same instinctive vi- They wrote about it at the time. Ef- ply caution. What about the notion sion of what they want for their chil- of the broad sweep of history, the dren. An upbringing where they feel sense of inevitability in the decline love, where the children never doubt What worries him is and decadence of our society? Isn’t for a day that they are loved. Like it just possible that there may be most conservatives, they emphasize that ‘the loudest some overarching forces within our good behaviour and firm boundaries. civilization that will weaken it from But they also encourage them to be voices within the within, through immeasurable alive and alert, curious, challenged countless things that are out of our and, above all, passionate. Although Islamic communities control? they presently go to State schools, He agrees that there is lot in that. they will be moving on to private seem to be the ‘There is a fascinating chapter in ones. Both parents work, but giving Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Ro- children their time is central. ‘You extremists who man Empire, where he describes can’t subcontract children to a baby what it was that he thinks caused sitter. You don’t put a gift in the cup- repudiate the cultural the Empire to collapse. Gibbon be- board.’ Otherwise, this scourge of the lieved that it lay in the rise of Chris- Left loves mooching around. The building blocks that tianity, when confronted with a children like pyjama days and laz- corrupt society, that took a quietist ing around with their mother. Al- have made Europe approach and preached retreat. The though a self-confessed lazy Greens preach much the same mes- person—very hard to believe—a what it is …’ sage, that we must withdraw from drop of the Dutch Protestant guilt institutions, because they are cor- catches up with him. rupt. You can see it in any Palm Sun- The reference to his Dutch Prot- forts were made to stop it, but now day rally. I think there is something estant guilt inevitably raises the History runs faster. Look at Europe.’ in it. Essentially Gibbon’s thesis was question of a certain tub-thumping He asks where in the continuum of that there came a stage when not moralizing that is perceived by some decline Europe might be. Spain has enough people thought it worth to pervade his newspaper columns. a birth rate of barely 1.1. Without their while to defend the Roman He once said that he decried the the necessary replenishment, peo- Empire.’ lack of moral order and the demise ple will have to be imported, and Bolt thinks that this appears to of ‘official Christianity’ in our Spain will necessarily become a dif- happening in Europe. ‘A lot of present society and that he feared ferent place. France is almost as bad. people there think it not worth ‘a new Dark Ages may be dawning’. This, of course, raises the issue fighting for the concept of Europe, When challenged, and asked which of Islam and of Muslim assimilation for the concept of Christianity, or a is better—to have a vulgar TV Footy into Western societies, a strong fo- Christian society, or Europe as it is. Show with Sam Newman being cus of Bolt’s work. It is also the And they are retreating from that dacked, or a Janet Jackson breast springboard for the most vicious and fight. Spain is retreating from a fight flashing, than women being flogged intemperate vilification of him, in- for civilization. There doesn’t seem for showing an ankle—he replies, cluding threats to kill him and burn to be that faith in civilization. I am ‘Gosh, I didn’t know those were the his house. exaggerating a bit. But that’s what

R E V I E W 8 JUNE 2004 worries me. It is the internal inabil- the extremist Islamic groups oper- come this gulf of ideas with reason ity to resist the germ, that infection, ating in Australia, do you call them or facts, but that you have to give and you have to wonder in Austra- left-wing, or do you call them right- people permission to believe some- lia just how many are prepared to wing? It’s a very confused category. thing, and address their deeper mo- fight’. And you just have to say that you tivations. One wonders, when reading have groups that are too close to to- Is Bolt burned out? What of his Bolt, why he does attract so much talitarianism. All of these groups— future plans? He does find produc- hatred and rage. To read the ex- green, black, whatever you like to ing three pages a week, with the fall- changes in Crikey.com.au, many call them, the new tribalists—are out, and some notable legal scuffles, there really do think he is an Attila people who believe that Australia ‘a bit of a strain’. But he is far from the Hun. But reading Bolt, he seems should be split, for instance, into complaining. He has no persecution to be a paragon of reasonableness black Australia, white Australia. complex and considers himself and cautious research on the facts These are people who are looking ‘privileged’. In fact, being able to … and basic common sense. How to direct individuals into pre-or- vent his pent-up fury and rage helps does one resist this success of the dained identities and roles. And maintain his sanity. ‘I hate bullies, I Left and the media in pushing the they have to be resisted. They are hate injustice. If I see a burglar, I’ll idea that if a shoe isn’t on the left all the same.’ run after him. If I see someone jump- foot, there’s only one other foot that ing over a turnstile, not paying their it could be on? fare, I will say something. I’ve got ‘It’s difficult. I give myself a pre- to say something, I can’t let that go. emptive label. I call myself conser- We have to insist that But you have to have a lower than vative. That way, people have got normal outrage level to write the something to hang the hat on. And the Left and the Right columns that I do.’ it’s a defensible position. You can’t About these bigger trends in be far right and conservative. So I are two wings of the Western civilization, this mix of ex- do that. But we have to insist that treme secularism—absence of reli- the Left and the Right are two wings same foul bird. And gion as belief and identity—and the of the same foul bird. And what I cult of encouraging different cul- represent, this sort of humanist, in- what I represent, this tural practices and beliefs, Bolt veers dividualist thing, is a repudiation of between pessimism and optimism. both. Nazi Socialism, is nazi social- sort of humanist, ‘I worry about this great social ex- ism. As Hayek and others have said, periment that has never been at- it is a close cousin to communism. individualist thing, is a tempted before. It appears to be It is a part of that same idea where insane and counter-historical.’ you harness a whole bundle of indi- repudiation of both On the other hand, he finds it viduals—tie them up to a concept reassuring that the great mass of like working class, or the nation— people are knitted together by and then suborn their particular de- Green groups hate Bolt for mak- things such as talk-back radio, the sires and freedoms and dreams for ing this link. ‘There is absolutely no increase in public ceremonies, such the future to a national good or a surprise that, say, Green groups in as football and Anzac Day, and that concept of good of the masses, and pre-Nazi Germany flocked to the people are getting louder in their de- determine their future for them.’ Nazi Party at a rate way above what mand for such things. This conjures up the term used a you saw for other professional Another optimistic sign surely is lot recently by Christopher groups. But it is true. It appeals to that Bolt is well known and is popu- Hitchens and Mark Steyn, Islamo- that same instinct that people want lar. Significantly, the heat of vilifi- fascism. ‘Exactly, they are all the to be a part, like ultra-religious cation from the Left is a direct same animal. Until you understand Christians. People want to be part measure of his success. Bolt is known that, you are caught up in the idea of something bigger and better than amongst his haters as the ‘Dutch that there is a “bad Right and a good themselves.’ Oven’. But any lover of that cook- Left”.’ But still, as cautious as Bolt is, ing implement would respond as Curiously, we don’t have a tradi- the vilification is hard to avoid. The Lord Byron: ‘May your coals always tion of an extreme fascist Right in issue he raises is how does the con- burn HOT!’ Anglo-Saxon countries such as Aus- servative mainstream show its hu- tralia, just the occasional racist. So manity, how does it show the Left Andrew McIntyre is Public Relations Manager at what does one call the Islamic ex- that we are real human beings? Bolt the Institute of Public Affairs. tremists? ‘When you have a look at sees that, in the end, you can’t over- I P A

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 9 Environmentalism and the Integrity of Science

JENNIFER MAROHASY

ROFESSORS often com- Last year, the CSIRO Website thing was OK, the environment would plain about the quality of claimed that ‘salt levels were rising in be destroyed. The home page for En- Australia’s research and almost all of the (Murray Darling) vironmental Science at the same uni- P higher education. They be- Basin’s rivers’. The students heard how, versity gives an appreciation of the lieve their effort is severely hindered after a concerted challenge, the false- nature of the belief. It states: by the relatively low level of invest- hood was eventually removed from the At first, and when human popu- ment in research and development. Website of our most respected research lations were small, human lifestyles This includes the diverse range of en- institution. Graphs of the official data made little impact on the quality vironment-related fields from water showed them that salinity levels had of our water, air and environment. management to greenhouse account- in fact very significantly reduced over But, now that populations have ing. But, the bigger danger is that un- the last two decades—particularly at grown, our life support is being til research institutions untangle sci- the key site of Morgan which is just severely degraded … Environ- ence from environmental advocacy, upstream from the off-takes for Ade- mental science brings the know- more money is only likely to contrib- laide’s water supply. ledge and approaches of science, ute to the further corruption of sci- Despite repeated claims from re- especially biology, chemistry and ence by environmental fundamental- search leaders, including at the Coop- earth sciences, to solving environ- ism. erative Research Centre for Freshwater mental problems. A problem with all fundamentalist Ecology, that other water quality indi- The reality is that problems of pol- creeds is that they are driven by ad- cators were also deteriorating, official lution, including declining water qual- herence to predetermined agendas and statistics indicate that nitrogen, phos- ity, are being solved through tech- teachings. The fundamentalist’s posi- phorus and turbidity levels are stable nological and engineering inno- tion is rarely tolerant of new informa- and generally consistent with a healthy vations. While many Life Science tion and is generally dismissive of river system in the context of inland facilities remain wedded to the con- evidence. Australia. cept that our land, air and water are Recently, I gave a lecture to envi- More data indicated that, despite generally becoming ever more pol- ronmental science students on ‘The claims to the contrary that secured luted, and that technology is the prob- Burden of Proof in the Environment $1.4 billion in funding for the National lem rather than the solution, the em- Sphere’. My key message was that proof Action Plan for Salinity and Water pirical evidence does not support this or evidence appears to be increasingly Quality, rising water tables are not de- belief—at least not for the developed unnecessary as scientists increasingly stroying agriculture and the environ- world, including Australia. operate on the basis of belief. ment in the Murray-Darling Basin. In When specific cases containing The lecture focused on the incon- fact, since at least 1995, shallow water wrong assumptions, flawed sampling sistencies between the claims of envi- tables have generally been falling, not techniques, and/or selective collection, ronmental scientists and the available rising. processing or reporting of data have received evidence with respect to the As the lecture progressed, the stu- occurred and have resulted in media Murray-Darling system. dents became uncomfortable, but they headlines that create an impression at A survey of public opinion under- didn’t seem outraged by the inconsis- complete odds with the empirical evi- taken last year showed that, across four tencies. dence, I had assumed scientists would States in both regional and metropoli- While I continued to emphasize be outraged—as I was. At the very tan cities, Australians believe that the the importance of operating on the least, I expected surprise and willing- health of the Murray-Darling System basis of evidence, the point was made ness by those in positions of power and is the nation’s most pressing environ- to me by the students that, ‘Belief is influence to do their bit towards cor- mental issue, with salinity and rising important. It is what makes the world recting the misperceptions. After all, water tables identified as particular go around.’ One of their main concerns at stake is the very integrity of science problems. was that if people believed that every- and the quality of our knowledge base.

R E V I E W 10 JUNE 2004 Yet private discussions, and some very improving public administration and lian newspaper’s ‘Saving the Murray’ public discourse, reveal a science com- reports directly to the Parliament. series. Journalist Amanda Hodge was munity that for the most part is pre- Regulatory and structural arrange- awarded a United Nations Association pared to ignore the evidence or justify ments can be captured of course. The of Australia Media Peace Award for its prejudices, often by claiming a sci- Danish Ministry of Science, Technol- promoting ‘understanding and resolu- entific consensus or peer review. There ogy and Innovation strongly repudi- tion of environmental issues’ through are scientists concerned by the absence ated the findings of its own Committee a story that included the following of quality control and the proliferation on Scientific Dishonesty late last year. data-free assessment of technology and of fundamentalists. They seem to sur- The final judgement concluded that the Murray River: ‘Bridled by dams and vive either as acknowledged renegades the original decision which found beggared by progress … the Murray’s or by not voicing their concerns for fear Bjørn Lomborg—statistician and au- health has deteriorated in direct pro- of losing funding or career prospects. thor of the international best seller The portion to the increasing importance Writing in the December issue of Skeptical Environmentalist—guilty of of its resource to the nation’s eco- this magazine (‘Science is not Consen- scientific dishonesty was emotional nomy’. Using Hodge’s logic, last sus’, page 11), Professor Bob Carter and contained significant errors. The summer’s record wheat harvest must suggested that a solution to ‘science process was long-winded and necessi- have been another blow to the river’s advocacy and spin’ would involve less health. emphasis on the support of ‘scientific The issue extends, of course, well superstars and special centres’, and a A problem with beyond the integrity of science and the significant increase in funding for re- Murray-Darling Basin. The harm search in the basic and enabling sci- all fundamentalist caused by the lack of scientific integ- ences as well as the restoration of rity has resulted in the significant mis- minimal-grant funding for all active creeds is that they are allocation of resources with ‘green- researchers employed in public insti- house’ being the potential all time tutions. driven by adherence greatest economic show stopper. But this type of reform alone is un- In material, standard-of-living likely to deliver the urgently needed to predetermined terms, Western democracies have pro- cultural change. The environmental gressed and benefited enormously from science sector is currently operating agendas and the secularization of society and the well below the standards of account- power of independent science. With ability that have been established and teachings the rise of environmentalism, however, that are enforced for other sectors. Ian there is now a need for reform—to take Mott of the Landholder’s Institute has tated that Lomborg challenge the dis- environmentalism out of science. made the point that, ‘The days are long honesty accusation. His response to The concept of certified science has gone when the stock market assigns the final judgement was, ‘I am happy some merit, but regulations and com- any value to financial statements solely that we now have confirmation that mittees have a tendency to maintain, on the basis that the Directors found freedom of speech extends to the en- rather than challenge, the status quo. six mates at the club to peer review the vironmental debate’. There is a clear need for reforms to document. So why should scientists The rise of environmentalism rep- make funding less dependent on sci- continue to hide behind the peer re- resents a real threat, in large part be- entists joining the ‘doom and gloom’ view process?’ cause the public media do not fraternity. There is a need for those Mott has proposed a process for the understand environmentalism. Jour- who have used, and continue to use, certification of science, particularly nalists tend to uncritically copy media science fraudulently to be publicly ex- where statements are made with the releases from scientifically well-quali- posed. The issues of scientific integrity, intention they will be acted upon— fied advocates who use the authority and the extent to which technology where they are incorporated into pub- that science can give to an idea to le- can continue to provide solutions for lic policy. gitimize beliefs that have no basis in environmental problems, need to be The concept that there be some observation and tested theory. News- publicly and openly debated—because, sort of system for certification has papers embark on campaigns uncriti- in the end, the integrity of science is merit. This could perhaps occur cally and without adequate in-house dependent on a secular society that through an amendment to the Audi- expertise. understands and values truth above en- tor-General Act 1997 and be imple- The extent to which the national vironmentalism. mented by a scientific audit committee psyche has become captured by envi- operating under The Australian Na- ronmentalism, and the extent to which Dr Jennifer Marohasy is the Director of the IPA’s Environmental Unit. tional Audit Office (ANAO). The environmentalism rejects technologi- ANAO currently has as its focus on cal progress, is evident in The Austra- I P A

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 11 Green Charities and Partisan Political Campaigning

GARY JOHNS AND DON D’CRUZ

NVIRONMENTAL as regional television advertising, the decision, calling the campaign ac- NGOs in Australia are big newspaper advertising, 40,000 letter- tivity a ‘core’ democratic right. But players in the political box ‘how-to-vote’ fliers which ‘advised what is the Wilderness Society’s ‘core’ E process. They have close against voting for the National-Liberal business—conservation, or marginal connections to the Greens political Coalition’, direct mail to 6,500 people, seat campaigning? party and have advocated votes to a mobile billboard, and 8,000 ‘assess- Undoubtedly, the Australian envi- other parties. They are also charities, ments’ of the parties. This was comple- ronment movement’s most ambitious however, and as such obtain financial mented by the associated earned me- foray into Australian politics has been support from the public through tax dia, and by 150 members and the formation of the Australian deductions. Further, they bear some supporters helping the Queensland Greens. In a formal sense, the Austra- characteristics of other organizations Greens to distribute how-to-vote cards lian Greens are separate from the en- close to political parties, which must in marginal electorates. vironmental NGOs, though there are be nominated as ‘associated entities’ In the 2003 Victorian State elec- a host of informal linkages and con- under the Commonwealth Electoral tion, the Wilderness Society staged a nections, and the linkages have be- Act. The environmental NGOs’ par- travelling roadshow, designed to gen- come increasingly overt. For example, tisan activities pose some serious ques- erate earned media through 19 mar- in the last Federal election campaign, tions for the Department of Environ- ginal seats. In addition, the Wilderness ABC AM reported that an environ- ment and Heritage and the Australian Society letterboxed marginal elector- mental alliance including the Austra- Tax Office, which register and regulate ates, organized public meetings and lian Conservation Foundation, The environmental organizations and media stunts, attended direct actions, Wilderness Society, Greenpeace, charities, as well as for the Australian distributed leaflets at events and rail- Friends of the Earth and the Conser- Electoral Commission, which regulates way stations, pinned up posters, and vation Councils in each of the States political donations. ‘dropped massive banners off freeway along with Bob Brown and the Greens overpasses’. All of the Wilderness were offering a preference deal to the PARTISAN POLITICAL CAM- Society’s election campaign activities, major political parties. PAIGNS which were telling voters who to vote The Greens are now starting to As a partisan phenomenon, the envi- for, were dressed up in terms like ‘edu- reach critical mass with representatives ronment movement has been growing cating the community’ or ‘raising at Federal and State level, and numer- for more than two decades. Perhaps its awareness’. ous representatives at a local govern- most decisive impact was during the The 2003 NSW State Election saw ment level. The relationship between 1990 Federal Election, when the Aus- the State Electoral Commission and Greens and environmental NGOs is tralian Conservation Foundation and environmental NGOs clash over the also undergoing a subtle but noticeable the Wilderness Society employed handing out of ‘how-to-vote’ cards. change. For example, the latest round widespread grassroots campaigning in The clash was prompted by a ‘new of returns to the Australian Electoral marginal seats around Australia in a reading’ of the Parliamentary Electorates Commission showed that the Austra- politically overt manner in support of and Elections Act 1912 by the Commis- lian Greens received $23,890 from the the ALP. sion, which caused it to notify the environmental NGO, Friends of the In 2001, the Wilderness Society lobby groups not to proceed with dis- Earth. embarked on a major campaign target- tributing any material on election day. ing five Queensland seats, the object While the Total Environment Centre PARTISAN CHARITIES OR of which was to ‘move Liberal voters and Nature Conservation Council of ASSOCIATED ENTITIES? concerned with the environment to NSW had already printed 300,000 The essential difference between the Labor’. This was done in conjunction how-to-vote cards, at a cost of $7,000, early days of environmental political with the Queensland Conservation it accepted the umpire’s decision. The campaigning and the present is the ac- Council. It employed paid media, such Wilderness Society reacted angrily to ceptance of environmental NGOs as

R E V I E W 12 JUNE 2004 charitable organizations, and public purposes of the NGOs are taken into nizations with charity status. The an- funding with disclosure rules. Both account, it is clear that they are as nual reports of a number of the lead- these have implications for public much political organizations as they ing environmental NGOs in Austra- policy that are quite distinct from the are charities. lia reveal that they are essentially po- environment as an issue. The grounds for removal of an or- litical campaigning organizations with The Register of Environmental ganization from the Register are reveal- no real charitable purpose. They have Organisations, for example, was estab- ing. They include, among other things, no research expertise, nor do they lished in 1992 to remove the need for ‘not using donations to the public fund bother getting their hands dirty with amendments to the Income Tax Assess- for the principal purposes of the envi- actual conservation activities, as do or- ment Act every time an environmen- ronmental organization’. However, if, ganizations such as Landcare and tal organization was granted tax- as it appears, one of the principal pur- Greening Australia. deductible status. The Register allows poses is to be politically partisan, does Another peculiarity is the fact that all approved environmental organiza- this disqualify the NGO? To make cer- ACF receives funding from Australia’s tions to seek tax-deductible donations, tain it does, partisan political activity aid agency AusAID. AusAID’s own and is administered by the Department must be specifically included as a guidelines prohibit it from funding ‘po- of the Environment and Heritage in ground for removal from the Register. litical organisations’. ACF’s receipt of consultation with the Australian Taxa- The other area of concern is with AusAID funding points to some seri- tion Office. the Electoral Act. If and when environ- ous problems in the way that AusAID Organizations seeking entry to the mental NGOs declare their donations assesses the suitability of NGOs to be Register have to establish and main- funded, especially under its AusAID tain a public fund, which is endorsed NGO Co-operation Program. as a deductible gift recipient. An en- Leading environmental What many have not noticed is the vironmental organization’s principal rather overt demand for funding by en- purpose must be: ‘the protection and NGOs in Australia vironmental NGOs. How political par- enhancement of the natural environ- ties respond to this demand usually ment’ or, ‘the provision of information … are essentially forms part of the scorecard which or education, or the carrying on of re- NGOs use to rank political parties. As search, about the natural environ- political campaigning the Wilderness Society stated during ment’. The fund is public in the sense the 1998 election campaign, it ex- that it is to be administered by a com- organizations with pected parties to ‘provide environmen- mittee of persons of ‘whom a majority tal organisations with adequate levels has a degree of responsibility to the no real charitable of administrative funding by increas- wider community in Australia’. ing the Grants to Voluntary Conser- Furthermore, ‘these persons must dem- purpose vation Organisations program’. onstrate a commitment to the com- Given the political role that many munity outside of the environmental (although these are mainly in kind), environmental NGOs have in deter- organization’. These specifications are the links with the Greens are so overt mining preferences and endorsing par- presumably meant as a caution to the that perhaps they should be declared ties, it is interesting that the linkage environmental activists not to stray ‘associated entities’. The Australian between government funding and too far politically. Given that the Electoral Commission’s definition of other sorts of patronage has not been broader purpose of environmental an associated entity is ‘an organisation examined more thoroughly. While NGOs is unerringly anti-business, and which is either controlled by or oper- there seems to be no evidence, at that they are clearly partisan, this cau- ates wholly or to a significant extent present, of money going to NGOs for tion appears to be ignored. for the benefit of one or more regis- preferences, there is always that possi- Further, registered organizations are tered political parties’. This definition, bility. The general lack of transparency encouraged to give their public funds therefore, includes organizations by governments about their relations distinctive names to distinguish the which are independent of, but prima- with NGOs needs to be remedied. public fund from the organization. It rily benefit, a party. It is not quite the Probably the best policy that political is acceptable, however, to use the same, but, as the Greens develop, the parties could adopt concerning politi- organization’s name as the foundation NGOs may well form around them as, cally active environmental NGOs is of the public fund’s name (the word historically, the unions did with Labor. not to fund them at all. ‘fund’ must be used in the name of the public fund). The notion that funds WHO PAYS THE PIPER? Dr Gary Johns is a Senior Fellow with must be held separate from other ac- The overt nature of the political ac- the Institute of Public Affairs. Don D’Cruz is a Research Fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs. tivities is easily lost when the names tivity by environmental NGOs in Aus- are all but the same. When the broader tralia poses a challenge to those orga- I P A

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 13 The Strange Return of the IR Club

IPA WORK REFORM UNIT

HE IPA Work Reform economic policy was intended to de- innovative position has been the ab- Unit was formed in 2001 liver. sence of business participation in the in response to a perceived Instead, courageously, the Hawke, debate. Business has declined to build T vacuum in the debate over Keating and Howard governments a case for further reforms and to advo- work reform issues. At that time the aligned industrial relations reform cate those reforms. As a result, all re- view seemed to be that ‘the reform job with the broader national agenda. cent policy and legislative change has had been done’. The IPA proceeded The opportunities and threats due been driven by State ALP govern- to case study industries and situations to globalization remain. There is a ments. to see what was happening on the continuing need and opportunity for An ‘ALP industrial relations ground. We developed the Capacity improvements in Australian compe- model’ has emerged. It is based on re- to Manage Index. Rather than indi- titiveness and business performance. storing wide powers to tribunals, cating a finished job, the IPA had The last thing the Australian economy strengthening union bargaining identified a job not even half done. In needs is a return to the industrial rela- power, restricting the capacity to make many areas the ‘progress’ seemed to be tions laws overturned by successive non-union and individual agreements backward. Labor and Coalition governments. and enabling tribunals to arbitrate This latest report from the Unit is Yet that is exactly what is happen- more easily when unions cannot reach far reaching in that it brings together ing. Developments in legislation and the agreements they want. all the elements that show why the for- practice are ignoring the competitive In the wake of this, the very con- mal industrial relations system is sys- imperative, undermining some of the servative stance on industrial relations temically failing Australians. All the key factors on which Australian eco- policy taken recently by the Federal players have dropped the ball. The sys- nomic success has been built. Opposition should be no surprise. tem is pulling Australian workplace The scheme of the 1996 Act was relations back into a regressive era THE POLICY FAILURE CON- that union, non-union and individual which already is impacting on the abil- TEXT agreements had equal standing, that ity of workers and business to compete It is seven years since any significant agreements once made should be ad- in a global world. We suggest a revi- advances in industrial relations reform hered to during their lives without in- talizing way forward. have been made. dustrial action and that the Commis- This Review article is an edited text The last step forward was made at sion’s power to arbitrate was heavily of the full report available at www.ipa. the beginning of 1997 with the com- and clearly circumscribed. The role of org.au. [Go to Work Reform Unit] mencement of the Workplace Relations ‘public interest’ considerations was Act. further confined and the scope for THE ECONOMIC BACK- Arguably, the length of time since unions to force businesses to make GROUND the last reforms represents a political agreements they did not want was re- The reforms made to labour market failure by the Coalition Government duced. regulation have been a significant on two fronts over that period. Employers and individual employ- source of Australia’s economic success First, it has failed to achieve par- ees were given greater choice about over the past twenty years. liamentary support for the relatively the way their relations were regulated Industrial relations regulation in uncontroversial legislative changes it by confining the power and influence Australia once fed the mechanisms proposed over the last seven years. of the Commission and unions. The that transmitted wage increases Secondly, perhaps the more funda- purpose was to facilitate the modern- quickly across the economy. These mental failure has been the failure to ization of work practices by reducing characteristics would have been a sub- innovate on policy. the external barriers. stantial threat to the internationally One of the reasons for the failure The Federal Opposition’s propos- competitive economy that broader of the Coalition to articulate a more als will undo the scheme, strategy and

R E V I E W 14 JUNE 2004 purpose of the 1996 Act. At the very AUSTRALIAN MANAGEMENT even when there is a history of co-op- least, the ALP’s proposals will raise the OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS eration and joint decision-making. cost of doing business. At worst, they HAS BEEN PATCHY No one should criticize unions for will create a framework for employee Australian human resources manage- this. It is a part of the legitimate so- relations that is inconsistent with the ment is as good as anywhere in the cial activist tendency that any plural- macroeconomic framework that has world. The paradox, however, is good ist, democratic and free enterprise progressively been put in place since human resource practice has been society should be able to absorb hap- 1983. constrained by poor industrial rela- pily. Unions are recognized at law in tions practice. This is largely because Australia. They represent 1.8 million THE AIRC’S PERFORMANCE co-operation and agreement with employees and they are authentically SINCE 1997 unions, not leadership of employees part of the Australian democratic pro- Since the commencement of the and business success, is the single most cess. They do what they do because Workplace Relations Act in 1997, de- identifiable aim of the way Australian of what they are. They are entitled to cisions of the AIRC have also helped businesses manage their relations with decide what they are. undo the scheme, strategy and pur- unions. This is a very business-like ap- pose of the Act. proach. There is no point complain- Specific examples of departures ing about it. Yet complaint, rather from the policy of the Act resulting Unions co-operate as than strategy, is what is heard too of- from decisions of the Commission in- ten from Australian businesses. The clude: long as it helps them prevailing orthodoxy in Australian • The interpretation of dispute set- industrial relations is that it is not OK tling clauses to include the power achieve their goals. for employers to behave in an unco- to arbitrate disputes during the life operative way in their interactions of agreements even beyond the When it ceases to with unions, whatever the circum- definition of ‘allowable matters’; stances. This leads to the classic situ- • An expansive view of the nature yield returns, unions ation where managers decline to act and purpose of ‘exceptional mat- because they cannot get union co-op- ters’; stop co-operating eration. They may decline despite the • The attempts to discover a legis- fact that managers usually have the lative duty to ‘bargain in good capacity to act, without further re- faith’ when the Parliament clearly The assumption underpinning the course to the union, in accordance removed such a provision from the search for co-operation appears to be with the award and agreement on law in 1996; that sharing decision-making will which the union had signed off. • The intense scrutiny given to non- align unions with company goals or union agreements compared to help the business avoid being dam- TRAINING POLICY HAS those involving unions; and aged by union behaviour. This strat- BEEN A DRAG ON THE • Expanding the scope for unions to egy is deeply flawed. MODERNIZATION OF take industrial action during the In contrast, Australian trade INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS life of agreements. unions are usually clear about what A recent report prepared by the Allen The main effect of the Commission’s they want to achieve. They know Consulting Group for the Business decisions in the examples given has what their leverage is and they are pre- Council of Australia1 queried whether been to re-instate to the Commission pared to use their leverage. Inviting the national training system provided powers it lost under the 1996 amend- unions to share decision-making does ‘the tools to support effective skill forma- ments. not deflect them from their goals. tion in the next decade.’ The national The Commission’s decisions have Unions co-operate as long as it helps training system has always been about been complemented by those of the them achieve their goals. When it the economy and industries and not Federal Court. For example, in a se- ceases to yield returns, unions stop co- about enterprises. The difficulties the ries of cases, including the Belandra operating. Past co-operation does not BCA report identifies with the na- case (Australian Meat Industry Em- align unions with organizational goals tional vocational education and train- ployees’ Union v Belandra Pty Ltd on a continuing basis and does not ing system are sharp reflections of that [2003] FCA 910), decisions of the immunise against industrial action. overarching problem. Federal Court have seriously compro- Unions are unabashed about this. The issue not so clearly identified mised the ability of employers and em- When it comes to the crunch, they in the report for the BCA is how the ployees to choose Australian are prepared to inflict damage, per- national and industry focus of Voca- Workplace Agreements. haps quite a lot of damage, on a busi- tional Education & Training (VET) ness in order to achieve their goals, is applied to enterprises through the ▲

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 15

I P A industrial relations system. It is this • It leads to poor labour and capital as well as a proportion of the work- linkage that brings into question some utilization across the economy. force. As Table 1 shows, in August of the key constructs of the national Work has become heavily demar- 2003, private sector union member- training system. To understand this cated at relatively fine points of ship was down to 17.6 per cent. Pub- linkage, it is first necessary to under- distinction between jobs, and em- lic sector membership was 46.9 per stand the origins of national training ployees can only move between cent, down half a percentage point reform. jobs when they obtain the neces- since 2000. Less than a quarter of men In response to the risk that it was sary qualification. and slightly more than a fifth of losing control over the direction of • It is unfair. Employees doing the women were union members, down by national wages policy in the late same job are paid the same no mat- about 2 percentage points since Au- 1980s, the ACTU launched the award ter how well or badly they do it. gust 2000. Membership has fallen in restructuring agenda. The rhetoric of • It is a poor use of community re- most States and Territories. Yet, award restructuring was that it was in- sources. The notion of compe- unions retain monopoly representa- tended to provide the skills basis on tency-based job training for a tion rights in law. A union is allowed which the Australian economy could structured career path fits poorly to write and enforce rules that permit become more competitive. The with an increasingly diverse set of it and no other union to represent ACTU marketed training reform to employment arrangements and specified classes of employees. its constituency on the basis that it labour market attachments. There is a stark contrast between would create career paths for employ- It is time to re-assess national train- the non-competitive framework for ees, guaranteeing them wage increases ing policy. the provision of union representative as they moved up the career ladder on services and the competitive frame- the basis of the skills they acquired. THERE IS A FORWARD works regulating service provision in The pre-existing national industry AGENDA most other fields. One approach training advisory bodies, on which The need is not for re-regulation or would be to link union representation unions and employer associations de-regulation but for better regulation more clearly to employee preference, were represented, were ideal for the consistent with the broader economic removing registration under the task of policy making. framework in which employment re- WRA as the vehicle by which unions The model the ACTU’s strategy lations occur. assume a representative status. Rep- gave rise to operated like this: Union representativeness resentation would be driven by the • National trade unions and em- Union membership has been falling quality of managerial leadership and ployer associations negotiated the steadily for 25 years in absolute terms of union representative services rather new award classification struc- tures. • In parallel, within national indus- try training advisory bodies, the Table 1 : Employees In Main Job, Trade union membership same unions and employers’ asso- August 2000 to August 2003 ciations negotiated the training August 2000 % August 2003 % framework and sought govern- ment funding for it. Sex •A usual result of industrial nego- Male 26.3 23.6 tiation was that employees were Female 22.8 21.8 entitled to training and employ- State/Territory ers were required to provide it. The NSW 25.7 23.6 volume of training was an agreed VIC 24.6 22.1 item, not a business driven one. QLD 24.7 23.5 • The completion of training quali- SA 25.9 24.6 fied an employee for a higher level WA 19.7 20.0 job at a higher rate of pay. TAS 31.8 29.4 This is essentially the model operat- NT 21.8 21.5 ing today. ACT 23.4 23.8 The problems with this model are: Sector • It encourages less than optimum Public 47.4 46.9 performance and effort by employ- Private 19.1 17.6 ees because employees are paid for skills they have acquired rather Source: ABS 6310.0 than how well they use their skills.

R E V I E W 16 JUNE 2004 than representative rights created provides for the establishment of A way forward would be to: from one hundred years of history. minimum wages. It regulates bargain- • Dismantle the national infrastruc- ing. It establishes and regulates trade ture for deciding training content, Wage equity unions. It provides legislative protec- •Take advice directly from business The Conciliation and Arbitration Act tion of various types to employees. on its needs for training provision, 1904 was intended to prevent strikes, It is arguable that these functions • Finance individuals to look after in the public interest, by establishing are so different that they should be their own needs by diverting some wage equity, by bringing greater cer- covered by separate pieces of legisla- of the funds currently committed tainty to wage relativities and by en- tion administered by separate institu- to supporting national infrastruc- abling decisions to have wide effect. tions: ture and State TAFE systems to The Act was a means to set minimum • Legislation establishing a body to individuals, wages administratively. Inevitably, advise the government on a mini- • Retain ANTA as a mechanism for however, bargaining regulation has mum wage and accompanying em- deciding the distribution of avail- been built on to the system’s primary ployment conditions; able funds between individuals and purposes. • Legislation to establish a body to the State TAFE systems. Australia’s system for setting mini- regulate bargaining, include over- mum wages by trade and occupation seeing bargaining in good faith; CONCLUSIONS is bound to have a number of fatal de- • Legislation to establish a body to A reversion in industrial relations fects register and regulate trade unions policy and practice is already happen- • It runs a major risk of confusing and to conduct ballots to establish ing: minimum wages and market wages the wishes of employees regarding • In State legislation; and of allowing an interaction be- representation (the only situation • Under the influence of the AIRC tween the two. This was the cen- in which bargaining in good faith and the Federal Court; tral problem of wage inflation. This makes sense); and • By default, through poor industrial problem is today only dormant. • Legislation to establish, protect relations management in some in- • It is a very complex system. and enforce the rights of employ- dustries; and • The system cannot meet its equity ees. • As a consequence of the failure to objectives because it can only deal The opportunity to clarify should in- re-assess national training policy with wages and employment con- clude creating a unified national in- in the light of national industrial ditions and not tax and welfare. dustrial relations system and remedy- relations policy. • Laws governing union coverage ing the conflict between industrial Economic and business performance are also a victim of the confusion laws and competition laws. is at serious risk of being further un- between equity and bargaining. dermined by foreshadowed ALP revi- Currently, one member in a work- Training reform sions to Federal labour laws, with se- place is enough to confer union le- There should be no barriers to busi- rious consequences for inflation per- gitimacy in a workplace and, for nesses and employees or unions agree- formance, employment growth, inter- new sites, no members are needed. ing on whatever arrangements for est rates and competitiveness. One approach would be to establish a training they believe suit them best. There is a progressive alternative multi-partite body to advise the Fed- However, it is neither necessary nor to the conservative ALP agenda and eral government on the combination desirable for national training policy the stagnant Coalition agenda. The of wage, tax and welfare (and possi- to provide the platform for that to oc- alternative requires a complete re- bly other spending) measures needed cur. construction of the legislative frame- to bring about ‘equity’. It would then The national infrastructure for de- work for industrial relations and be open to the government of the day fining training content provided by involves four separate pieces of legis- to pass laws, based on its consideration the Australian National Training Au- lation (income equity, regulation of of the advice given to it, about the thority (ANTA) is in contradiction bargaining, regulation of trade unions, appropriate combination. to the national industrial relations employee protection) and a re-assess- policy implemented in 1997: that in- ment of national training policy. Clarity in legislation frastructure facilitates industry train- The existing legislation is the prod- ing arrangements when the thrust of NOTE uct of one of the most amended origi- industrial relations policy is collective 1 The Vocational Education and Training nal pieces of legislation on the na- or individual at the enterprise level. System: Key Issues for Large Enterprises, tional statute books. The original What’s more, national training policy The Allen Consulting Group, March 1904 Act has never been considered is at odds with the composition of the 2004, p.10 afresh. Currently, the legislation cov- Australian labour market and with the ers at least four different domains. It way it operates. I P A

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 17 The Bitter Pilger Declining Credibility in Australia?

TED LAPKIN

T IS still surprising that related how he travelled from the comments with effusive expressions whenever the much dis- hills of the ‘Kurdish north’, to the of support for what he calls ‘the Iraqi graced propagandist John ‘Shia south’, remarking ‘I have sel- resistance’. He went on, ‘historically, I Pilger—with the dubious dom felt as safe in any country’. we have always depended on resis- distinction of having a verb, ‘to If that was the conclusion Pilger tances to get rid of occupiers, get rid pilger’, named after him—produces drew from a trip through the heart of invaders’. Then, in response to a another documentary, it invariably of Ba’athist darkness, it must have query from Lateline presenter Tony winds up on Australian TV screens, been a well stage-managed magical Jones, Pilger actively expressed sup- courtesy of the ABC or SBS. What mystery tour. As a journalist with a port for the killing of coalition forces is about this man that can still earn lengthy anti-American track record, in Iraq because they were ‘legitimate him a semblance of respect, and in- Pilger was surely pampered and targets’ who are ‘illegally occupying terviews, with our public broadcast- cosseted by the regime’s media han- a country’. ers in his home country? dlers. Yet he displayed a sublime in- But, when Tony Jones pressed his Throughout his career, Pilger’s difference to the self-evident fact line of questioning on this issue, journalistic repertoire has been that similar privileges did not extend Pilger suddenly began to dodge and dominated by a particularly virulent to the Kurds and Shias who were weave in a manner that would make strain of anti-Americanism that is a slaughtered in their masses by Sad- a circus contortionist proud. Jones staple of hard leftist doctrine. Along dam Hussein’s secret police. inquired ‘so Australian troops you with Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali and To John Pilger, the war against al- would regard in Iraq as legitimate tar- a small coterie of other far-Left com- Qaeda is nothing more than a ‘pre- gets?’, Pilger responded with an eva- mentators, Pilger provides grist for text by the rich countries, led by the sive ‘excuse me, but that’s an the mills of those who populate the United States, to further their domi- unbecoming question’. polar reaches of our political spec- nance over world affairs’. And Pilger Unbecoming? Why? trum. has vehemently opposed war in Iraq, What could conceivably be im- Pilger’s fondest fans come from as well, asserting that the carnage proper about a request to John Pilger the ranks of those who desire to see inflicted by the recent Madrid ter- that asked him to clarify his position the dynamism of free markets re- rorist bombings ‘was small compared on a matter about which he had al- placed by the economic sclerosis of with the terrorism of the American- ready spoken at length? In fact, Tony the socialist welfare state. He be- led “coalition”’. Jones would have been derelict in his lieves, not merely that the United Of course, there has never been responsibilities as an interviewer if States is dancing with the devil, but a shortage of politicians, celebrities he hadn’t attempted to draw out that America is Mephistopheles in- and media commentators who have Pilger’s line of reasoning to its obvi- carnate, Beelzebub in nation-state spoken out in opposition to the cam- ous conclusion. Some might even form. Thus, he writes, ‘there has long paign to liberate Iraq from Saddam argue that Jones was far too willing been a geopolitical fascism, overseen Hussein’s tyranny. But, while most of to let the matter drop at the first sign by the United States’, making Ame- these anti-war voices pause after ex- of Pilger’s evasive manoeuvres. But, rica the ‘greatest source of terrorism pressing their condemnation of the Pilger proved unwilling to show the on earth’. Those malign Yankees are Iraqi war, Pilger brazenly rushes in courage of his otherwise loudly ex- waging ‘an undeclared war against where angels fear to tread. He boldly pressed convictions. democracy’, Pilger fumes. goes where only the most hardcore In this same Lateline interview, Pilger’s reflexive anti-American- radical leftists have gone before, to Pilger complemented this display of ism leads him to embrace strange advocate the deaths of American, intellectual cowardice with a morally positions, and even stranger bedfel- British and Australian troops. repellent apologia for the terrorism lows. In April 2004, Pilger wrote During an interview in mid- being currently perpetrated by Iraqi about his travels four years earlier March 2004 on the ABC Television’s insurgents. The Americans, says through Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He Lateline programme, Pilger began his Pilger, are the moral equivalent of

R E V I E W 18 JUNE 2004 the Nazi occupiers of France, which power by anything short of the busi- reveals a coordinated and syste- transforms any Iraqi who works with ness end of an American bayonet. matic campaign to terrorise, kill the coalition into a collaborator who After three decades of brutal and expel the ethnic Albanians can be legitimately marked for death. Ba’athist repression, Saddam Hussein of Kosovo that was organized by ‘What we have in Iraq is, I suppose, was well ensconced in power, and the the highest levels of the Serbian the equivalent of a kind of Vichy thoroughly traumatized Iraqi people and Yugoslav governments in Government being set up’, he opines. were utterly cowed into submission. power at that time. But, to John Pilger, even non-col- Pilger’s prognostication of a storming The United States, together with laborating Iraqi civilians are incon- of the Baghdad Bastille was just an- its NATO allies, employed military sequential bit players in the real other opportunity to lay the blame force against the Yugoslav army and game that is afoot. He views the de- for yet more villainy on Uncle Sam. government to force a halt to this liberate killing of Iraqi non-combat- Thus, while Pilger pays lip service campaign of ethnic cleansing. ants by insurrectionist car bombs as to support the idea of freedom for Yet, in the alternative universe of a worthwhile price that must be paid Iraq, the practical result of his anti- John Pilger, the Serbs were the vic- to achieve the greater good of inflict- war position would be to leave tims of American aggression, rather ing military defeat on the United Saddam Hussein’s tyranny intact. than the perpetrators of war crimes States. After all, says Pilger, the in- Pilger was willing to fight US impe- against the Albanian minority. Wel- tentional murder of innocents hap- rialism to the last Iraqi, thus sacri- come to the twilight zone. pens ‘in all resistances’. There was no Serbian campaign Pilger’s penchant for excusing the of genocide in Kosovo, declared inexcusable brings to mind a simi- Pilger’s journalistic Pilger indignantly. Those devious larly lame attempt to justify the un- Americans deliberately fomented justifiable that took place at the repertoire has been this entire crisis as part a Machiavel- height of the Soviet mass murder lian US scheme ‘to occupy Yugosla- spree of the 1930s. At that time, New dominated by a via’. As Pilger relates it, ‘the Serbs York Times correspondent Walter were told: surrender and be occupied, Duranty entered the pantheon of particularly virulent or don’t surrender and be destroyed. journalistic infamy when he quipped These were ‘impossible terms’ that ‘you can’t make an omelette with- strain of anti- ‘no government could accept’. out breaking eggs’ in an effort to ra- Moreover, according to John tionalize Stalin’s gulags, summary Americanism that Pilger, the prosecution of former executions and show trials. Just as Yugoslav president Slobodan Milo- Duranty considered Stalinist repres- is a staple of hard sevic is nothing more than a ‘show sion as necessary tool in the con- trial in The Hague’. Milosevic was struction of a communist utopia, leftist doctrine merely a two-bit opportunist whose Pilger thinks that any and all means true crime, says Pilger, is that he are permissible to achieve his uto- ‘didn’t obey orders’ coming from pian vision of a humbled and chas- ficing untold thousands of Sunni, Washington DC. Thus, the onus for tened America. Shia and Kurdish victims in his quest the ethnic conflicts that ravaged the Towards the end of his Lateline to oppose the evil Yankees. Balkans throughout the 1990s is once appearance, Pilger was asked A similar strain of anti-American again neatly placed at America’s whether he thought a moral case paranoia is evident in John Pilger’s doorstep. ‘Yugoslavia was an imper- could be made for the forcible over- writings in opposition to the NATO fect, but peaceful federation until the throw of Saddam Hussein. ‘Abso- air campaign in Kosovo. The initial Americans and the European Union, lutely’, answered Pilger, ‘by the Iraqi paragraph of a Human Rights Watch especially Germany, decided that it people!’ Pilger expressed his convic- report entitled War Crimes in Kosovo did not fit in their post-cold-war or- tion that, ‘had there not been 10 encapsulates the dire humanitarian der’, Pilger informs us. The true vil- years of medieval siege imposed on crisis that engulfed that region of the lains who should be in the dock of Iraq by the United States’, the Iraqis Balkans in 1999: the Balkans war crimes tribunal are would have risen up against the This report documents torture, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. Ba’athist dictator. ‘Now, we stopped killings, rapes, forced expulsions Yet, the Americans are not the them’, he continued. ‘When I say and other war crimes committed only Nazi-like fixtures to appear in “we”, I’m talking about the West’. by Serbian and Yugoslav govern- John Pilger’s political firmament. Yet, there is no plausible evidence ment forces against Kosovar Pilger sees Australia as an inherently to indicate that the Iraqi dictatorship Albanians between March 24 racist nation akin to apartheid South might have ever been removed from and June 12, 1999… This report Africa, whose soldiers commit mur- ▲

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 19 der on Uncle Sam’s behalf in places her daughters Hila (aged 11), Hadar extremist perspectives have never like Afghanistan. But, in Pilger’s (aged 9), Roni (aged 7) and Merav gained serious political traction. And rogue’s gallery of nations that he sees (aged 2) all to be ‘legitimate targets’. this, of course, begs the question how as surrogates of America, the coun- Moreover, the allusion that Jews- anyone with such an incredible out- try this leftist writer loves to hate are-Nazis is never far from Pilger’s look is afforded any credibility by more than any other is the State of mind. He concludes a piece in which Australia’s public broadcasters. And, Israel. he implausibly accuses the BBC of this transpires, despite the fact that Unlike Kosovo, where John pro-Zionist bias in its Middle East ABC’s Television’s Media Watch Pilger engages in outright genocide coverage with the following sarcas- found Pilger’s filmmaking to be fac- denial, he adopts a somewhat more tic testament to the prowess of tually flawed and ‘wide of the mark’. sophisticated tack where the Jews are Israel’s media relations operation: But that was 1999, and it was the concerned. Pilger doesn’t deny that ‘Goebbels would have approved’. Media Watch of different era. These the Holocaust took place. He doesn’t The very stridency of Pilger’s po- days, one finds David Marr en- even attempt to minimize its horror. lemic causes one to wonder whether sconced in the chair at Media Watch, But, he instead turns this bleak chap- the degree of his dyspepsia might be and he seems to espouse a much more ter of history on its head by imply- directly proportional to his failure to forgiving attitude towards John ing that the Jews have undergone a attract a serious political constitu- Pilger. Thus, Pilger came in for only Kafka-esque metamorphosis to be- ency. Despite all his books, docu- the gentlest of Media Watch chidings come the new Nazis of the Middle over his wild-eyed assertion at a East. Thus, Pilger complains that ‘the Sydney peace rally that the Austra- lessons of the Holocaust’ have come The ABC and SBS lian media was completely under a to serve only the Israeli oppressors. corporate thumb. Yet, Marr evinced We are told that ‘the racism of Zion- would surely be able much greater vigour when he went ist intellectuals’ is used to justify the after Herald Sun columnist Andrew ‘epic injustice’ being committed by fulfil their obligation Bolt for having the temerity to criti- Israel. cize Pilger’s call for jihad against coa- And, what about those Palestin- to present a broad lition forces in Iraq. ians? Well, while not completely as Australia’s public broadcasters are pure as the driven snow, Pilger seems range of views without already operating under a cloud that to think that they are aggrieved vic- has been created by the widespread tims who have every right to resist delving into the perception that their editorial poli- ‘violent oppression with violence’. Of cies lean heavily to the Left. The course, the fact that this Palestinian conspiracy-ridden ABC and SBS would surely be able ‘resistance’ tends to deliberately tar- fulfil their obligation to present a get Jewish civilians is a matter of no universe of John Pilger broad range of views without delv- consequence to Pilger. If he consid- ing into the conspiracy-ridden uni- ers the deaths of innocent Baghdadis verse of John Pilger. by insurrectionist car bombs to be a mentaries and opinion columns, By broadcasting his factually necessary evil in the campaign to Pilger’s worldview ends up appealing questionable films, our public broad- expel the Americans from Iraq, Pilger to but a small sliver of the body poli- casters are inevitably providing surely isn’t going to be bothered by tic that is far outside the mainstream. Pilger’s work with a semblance of re- the deaths of innocent Israelis whom Notwithstanding his most vehe- spectability that it does not objec- he regards as evil, unadulterated. ment jeremiads and denunciations, tively deserve. And by so doing, the By Pilger’s standards, the mem- conservative politicians such as Mar- ABC and SBS taint themselves, yet bers of the Hatuel family who were garet Thatcher, John Howard and a again, with the perception of parti- killed in an ambush by Palestinian brace of George Bushs have been san left-wing partiality, further alien- gunmen on 2 May 2004 simply got elected throughout the English- ating themselves from the majority what was coming to them. After speaking West. And, even when of Australians whom these networks shooting the tyres of Hatuel’s Cit- more Left-leaning leaders are chosen are chartered to serve. roen station wagon, two Palestinian to assume the helm of government, gunmen approached the immobilized they invariably are statesmen of a Ted Lapkin is the associate editor of The Review, a monthly journal of analysis and opinion published by car and methodically executed its centrist variety like Tony Blair and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council. The unarmed occupants at point blank Bill Clinton supporting references for this article may be obtained range. Yet, Pilger’s writings on the Thus, in the corridors of power from the IPA upon request. Middle East appear to indicate that where policy is, John Pilger is dis- he would consider Tali Hatuel, and missed as an utter non-entity whose I P A

R E V I E W 20 JUNE 2004 Iraq: The Importance of Seeing it Through An address given at the C D Kemp Dinner on 19 May 2004 The Hon John Howard MP Prime Minister of Australia

INTRODUCTION Ultimately, it is a contest of convic- Whatever may have been the origins It is a great pleasure to join you today to tion—whether the free world is prepared of the horrific attack in Madrid, al-Qaeda deliver the 60th CD Kemp lecture. to protect and encourage democratic val- and its associates opportunistically asso- The Institute of Public Affairs, with ues. Those values Australians cherish— ciated that attack with Spain’s partici- which CD—‘Ref’—Kemp was so closely tolerance, opportunity, security and pation in the military operation in Iraq. associated, has stimulated debate on the respect for one’s neighbours. The terrorists have recorded Spain’s issues that matter, since its inception in A wide range of contending forces in subsequent decision to withdraw from 1943. In so doing, the Institute has Iraq have demonstrated they are prepared Iraq in the victory column against the played a role in shaping, as well as ar- to use violence, against both coalition West. ticulating, our nation’s values. forces and the Iraqi people, to achieve With that in mind, it is incontest- Established during the Second World their political objectives. Their motiva- able that a failure of will in Iraq by the War, it should be no surprise that CD tions and their ambitions are complex, coalition would be seen as an enormous Kemp, as one of its prime movers, sometimes rooted in the old divisions propaganda victory for international ter- wanted the Institute to give emphasis to between Sunni and Shia or ethnic and rorism. A victory with far reaching con- the promotion of democracy, freedom tribal tensions. sequences. and the rule of law. The jihadist terrorists—taking their Any weakening or retreat by the coa- His key interest was to ensure that inspiration from organizations like al- lition in Iraq will not appease the terror- post-war Australia had a policy frame- Qaeda—are driven by a bigoted and dis- ists. Those who imagine that respite from work in place that balanced individual torted ideology that is the complete future terrorist attacks can be purchased freedom with responsibility—a frame- antithesis of our own and, we should re- by withdrawing or temporising could work which could deliver both prosper- member, the vast majority of Muslims. not be more wrong. ity and social cohesion. It, therefore, But we also need to understand that International terrorism is an enemy seems particularly appropriate that to- this contest in Iraq represents a critical of Australia because of who we are, not day, in his honour, I will be talking about confrontation in the war against terror. what we have done. the struggle for democracy in Iraq and We recognize this and so do our en- Australian withdrawal from Iraq Australia’s role in helping that nation emies. would not buy immunity from terrorist build a better future for its people. attacks. International terrorism treats WHY WE MUST STAY weakness and retreat with contempt. A CONTEST I find it astonishing when people claim Countries, and their citizens, which have Iraq is caught in a complex and crucial that Iraq is a diversion from the real war suffered terrorist attacks over recent years contest of values and ideals. against terrorism. The reality is that in- include those who have opposed as well It is a contest between the majority ternational terrorism has invested an as those who have supported coalition of Iraqis who want to establish a viable enormous amount in breaking the will action in Iraq. democracy and a violent and determined of the coalition in Iraq. It will be a heavy blow to the terror- minority who want to install a new dic- Not only are organizations associated ist cause if democracy and all that it of- tator or a Taliban-style regime in Iraq. with al-Qaeda operating in Iraq, but each fers is brought to the Iraqi people. That It is a contest of will—as the terrorists and every turn of the Iraq struggle is in- is why the ferocious campaign of recent and insurgents try to use fear and intimi- terpreted by spokesmen for international times to derail not only the transfer of dation to drive the forces that support terrorism as part of the ongoing cam- power on 30th June but also the estab- the democratization of Iraq, the coalition paign against the United States and her lishment of a democratic infrastructure forces, out of Iraq. allies. for Iraq has been so determined. ▲

IPAIPA REVIEWREVIEW SPECIALSPECIAL INSERTINSERT

JUNEJUNE 20042004 SI-11 Sadly, the appalling abuse of Iraqi very significant improvements both for partners of Australia in the Asia–Pacific detainees in Abu Ghraib prison will have Iraq and for global security. region, such as Japan, Korea and the caused many in the region to question As a result of the coalition’s action, Philippines, are valued members of the whether democracy will make a differ- Iraq is no longer ruled by a loathsome coalition. ence. They need to see that difference in and homicidal dictator, and potentially Our alliance with the United States action—that the victims of abuse are not hundreds of thousands of lives have been was, unapologetically, a factor in the de- only able, but encouraged to speak out, saved. cision to join the coalition. And it should seek redress and find justice. Understandable anger at abuse and be a factor in any consideration of our We share their sense of outrage. The other wrong-doing by some coalition continued participation in the coalition. Australian Government unreservedly personnel should not result in our for- We understand, as do our other al- condemns the abuse of prisoners of war. getting that, if the advice of last year’s lies, that the United States is the only We remain profoundly shocked and critics of coalition action had been taken, nation that actually has the power to disturbed by the terrible images of wan- Saddam Hussein and his regime would change the world for the better. That is ton acts of cruelty and degradation— still be brutalizing Iraq. what they are trying to do in Iraq. behaviour which dehumanizes all those Through its actions in Iraq the coa- Surely even the most passionate op- involved. lition has sent a clear signal to other ponents of our involvement in the Iraq Australia expects the US and UK war, even the greatest sceptics about the forces to observe the highest standards American alliance, can see that right at of discipline and conduct—just as we do The firm stand taken the moment, when the threat posed by of our own defence force personnel. We terrorism is so potent, we should be therefore welcome the statements by by the coalition aligning ourselves strongly with coun- President Bush and Prime Minister Blair against Saddam tries like America and Britain, and other that there will be a full investigation proven friends and allies. In this context, with those responsible being brought to Hussein has the actuality of our presence in Iraq is account through an open and transpar- very important. ent process. contributed already, It is important that these reprehen- THE CURRENT SITUATION sible actions of a few do not overshadow in my view, to some The recent outbreak of violence has the careful, disciplined and courageous been very serious, but we do need to keep behaviour of the overwhelming majority very significant a sense of proportion. We have to remem- of the coalition forces. Their work in Iraq ber that while the situation has deterio- is too important. Their professionalism improvements both rated in certain areas, it has improved is too admirable. The stakes are too high. for Iraq and for and continues to improve in others. The coalition is making progress in WHY WE WENT global security restoring order in those areas affected by We could spend a great deal of time re- violence. This lawlessness is not indica- visiting the merits or otherwise of tive of a mass uprising. Media reports of Australia’s military commitment as part rogue states and terrorist groups alike— widespread loss of control across central of the coalition of the willing. the world is prepared to take a stand and southern Iraq are, in fact, an exag- I do not intend to revisit in detail against actual and potential proliferators geration and misreading of a complex the events surrounding that decision. But of weapons of mass destruction. situation. I would remind those who now want to The north of the country remains rewrite history that disagreement then FRIENDS AND ALLIES relatively peaceful and most of the south centred on how the international com- If we lose heart, if we abandon our is now reasonably stable. munity should respond to Iraq’s contin- friends, if we choose to give the wrong But violence and brutality are a de- ued non-compliance with UN signal to the terrorists, that will not only liberate tactic in the campaign to under- resolutions. In the lead-up to coalition make the world a less safe place but also mine Iraq’s hopes of representative action, there was never any argument damage the reputation of this country government and a free society. about the existence of Saddam Hussein’s around the world. And we must expect that the insur- weapons of mass destruction. Our presence in Iraq is read as an gent and terrorist groups, including for- The government remains steadfast in important and valued demonstration of eign Islamic militants and jihadists, our view that it was the right decision, Australia’s support for her allies—and in former regime elements, disaffected taken in the long-term national interests this regard not only the United States Sunni nationalists and political oppor- of this country. The firm stand taken by and the United Kingdom, who continue tunists, will continue to use violence in the coalition against Saddam Hussein has to carry the major share of the burden. It a bid to disrupt the political transition contributed already, in my view, to some is often forgotten that close friends and and reconstruction.

IPAIPA REVIEWREVIEW SPECIALSPECIAL INSERTINSERT 2SI-2 JUNEJUNE 2004 The fight against the insurgents and ing thousands of jobs for local Iraqis as The Iraqi Interim Government will illegal militias is not easy. They have well as infrastructure for their future. be installed on 30th June. shown complete contempt for Iraqi ci- Inflation is stable at around 20 per It will be replaced in January 2005 vilians. They routinely launch their at- cent after the terrible hyperinflation ex- by an Iraqi Transitional Government tacks from mosques, schools and markets perienced during Saddam Hussein’s re- with broader powers, which in turn will using innocent people as cover—know- gime. And real GDP is forecast to recover be replaced by a new Iraqi Government ingly exposing them to danger. by 30 per cent in 2004. following a referendum on a constitution As so brutally demonstrated in Another very positive sign is the re- and fresh national elections scheduled for Basra—a busload of children on their turn of government ministries to Iraqi the end of 2005. way to school are of no account, provided authority, including the Ministry of Ag- The Australian Government is the target is hit. Civilians are, in the riculture, an area where Australia is mak- pleased to note that the United Nations dreadful language of terror the ‘soft tar- ing a significant contribution. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is actively gets’. Moreover, Iraq now has a growing consulting a wide range of Iraqi groups But despite these serious security and robust independent media, which is to develop workable arrangements for the challenges, significant progress has been absolutely essential for the development Interim Government. made over the last year to rebuild that and maintenance of a healthy democracy. We also know that active debate is nation. The coalition has made steady taking place in New York about a new progress in restoring basic services and UN Security Council resolution to ex- infrastructure and reviving the Iraqi More than 3 million press the international community’s sup- economy. port for the new political arrangements. Electricity, water, telephone and sani- Iraqi children under In this context, we also strongly support tation are gradually being restored to the age of five have the role of the United Nations in help- pre-war levels or above. Peak power pro- ing prepare elections for a transitional and duction is greater than it was before the been immunized then a permanent Iraqi administration. war, as well as being much more equita- In referring to this role for the United bly distributed. Six major water treat- against preventable Nations, I note over the weekend calls ment plants have been rehabilitated. by the Leader of the Opposition for the More than 15,000 mobile telephones disease. Public health coalition to withdraw from Iraq and be are sold each week—under Saddam replaced by, and I quote, ‘a UN force that Hussein mobile phones were outlawed. spending is now close has strong involvement of Arab states’. Total telephone subscriptions have now This suggestion ignores the facts. The passed the 1 million mark—20 per cent to 60 times greater multinational force in Iraq, composed of higher than under Saddam Hussein’s re- than under the over thirty countries led by the United gime. States, is already fully sanctioned by the All the universities are open and Hussein regime UN Security Council. There are strong 2,500 schools have been rehabilitated international precedents for this ap- throughout the country. proach All 240 hospitals as well as 1,200 Even the harshest critic of the It is quite unrealistic to suggest that health clinics are operating. More than coalition’s activities would find it diffi- this arrangement should now be replaced 3 million Iraqi children under the age of cult to argue against the fact that, in large by a UN blue helmet operation. Such an five have been immunized against pre- parts of Iraq, the situation is better than operation would depend on voluntary ventable disease. Public health spending it was twelve months ago and measur- contributions, but there is no sign of the is now close to 60 times greater than ably better than it was under Saddam required willingness on the part of a under the Hussein regime—when it was Hussein. wider range of countries, including Arab virtually non-existent. States, to contribute peacekeepers to a Some 255 municipal councils have WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK UN force. been established since July 2003. FOR IRAQ? Nor is it at all certain that the Iraqis The Central Criminal Court is oper- In April, the Iraqi Governing Council would welcome the presence of armed ating. And Iraq has a single unified cur- adopted a landmark Transitional Admin- forces from neighbouring countries. rency for the first time in 15 years. istrative Law, protecting the basic hu- Even when the Iraq Interim Govern- Crude oil production is already man rights of all Iraqis and laying out ment is in control, there is still likely to around pre-war levels. The difference the roadmap for an elected Iraqi govern- be a pressing need for a continued coali- now is that the benefits flow directly to ment. tion presence. Iraq will continue to de- the Iraqi people. After 35 years of ruthless oppression pend on coalition forces to provide The Coalition has also invested in and misrule, Iraq will have free elections security and respond to threats of vio- 18,000 reconstruction projects, provid- and a representative government. lence and terrorism. ▲

IPAIPA REVIEWREVIEW SPECIALSPECIAL INSERTINSERT

JUNE 20042004 SI-33 As General Abizaid of US Central will be assisting to train Iraq’s new po- 30th June 2005. That doesn’t mean we Command has acknowledged, it will take lice force. are going to leave on that date, or any time to establish credible and capable We also want to contribute to Iraq’s specific date, but simply means that we Iraqi security forces. economic rehabilitation. are making prudent provision for being Progress is being made—close to We have focused our effort on areas in Iraq for a while yet. 200,000 Iraqi security personnel are al- where we have particular expertise—ag- When can our forces leave Iraq? The ready on duty and recent polling indi- riculture, economic management, gov- answer can only be—when the jobs as- cates that the general public’s confidence ernance capacity building, donor signed to respective force elements have in the Iraqi security forces is increasing co-ordination and human rights inves- been completed. rapidly. I am proud that Australia is as- tigations. It is impossible to be more precise sisting to build those forces. Australian advisers are working di- than that. As each milestone along the No one imagined that the task would rectly with Iraqis to build their capacity path to a more democratic Iraq is passed, be easy. And perhaps the task is harder to take responsibility for long-term ag- the time of coalition force withdrawal than we first thought. In the euphoria ricultural policy planning and providing draws nearer. that followed the toppling of Saddam expertise in agricultural research. Hussein, some hoped that Iraq’s post-war We have helped to re-establish the IRAQ IS A TEST transition could be accomplished rela- Ministry of Agriculture, set up a pay- When the government announced on tively quickly. ments system for the 2003 harvest and 18th March last year that we had com- The reality is that the transition pe- mitted Australian Defence Force ele- riod has been, and will continue to be ments to the coalition of the willing, we difficult, more difficult than we might The multinational made a commitment to the people of have hoped. force in Iraq, Iraq. We undertook to help them build The next two months in Iraq will be a new nation, one which would respect critical both politically and militarily if composed of over the rights of all its citizens, one that was the timetable for transition to democ- at peace with itself and with its racy is to be achieved. And it is likely thirty countries led by neighbours. that the violence will increase as extrem- We also made a commitment to our ists, the supporters of the old regime and the United States, is long-term friends and allies to stand with political opportunists try desperately to them in the fight against proliferation disrupt the process. already fully and terrorism. A graphic example of such disrup- Iraq is an important test for the tion occurred on Monday this week, sanctioned by the world’s democracies, including Austra- when the President of the Iraqi Govern- lia. It is a test of values—whether the ing Council, Izzedine Salim, was assas- UN Security Council powerful call for freedom can overcome sinated. the destructive force of terror. Nevertheless, 30 June 2004 repre- used our experience to help Iraqi farm- And ultimately, it is a test of charac- sents an important milestone on the road ers bring in the bumper summer grains ter and leadership—whether we possess to Iraqis controlling their social, eco- harvest. the necessary determination and resolve nomic and political future. Australian experts have also been to meet our commitment to the Iraqi deployed to help rehabilitate water and people or whether we will retreat in a WHAT ARE AUSTRALIA’S sanitation services, emergency services, pointless attempt at isolationism. OBJECTIVES? oil production, update Iraqi law (includ- I know Australia for its part can meet One of Australia’s key objectives in Iraq ing economic and commercial law), as- this test, because denying terrorists vic- is to help achieve the stability needed to sist in the preparation of a credible tories and playing our role in ensuring establish and support democratic insti- budget (the first in 30 years), and pro- global stability is something that I be- tutions and processes. vide expertise for the criminal investi- lieve the Australian people, whatever While the coalition forces currently gation into human rights abuses during their politics, overwhelmingly want. provide the bulk of security, and will Saddam Hussein’s rule. need to do so for some time, we know Our ADF Air Traffic Control Detach- that this role will be assumed by a prop- ment has also played an important role NOTE erly trained Iraqi military and police as in ensuring one of Iraq’s essential infra- This is an edited version of the Prime soon as is practicable. structure installations—the Baghdad Minister’s address. The full version may be That is why Australian Defence Force airport—functions effectively. accessed on the PM’s Website at: personnel are in Iraq helping to train This year’s budget will ensure the www.pm.gov.au/news/speeches/ Iraqi army and navy personnel. That is continued funding of our involvement speech878.html why Australian Federal Police officers in Iraq until the middle of next year— I P A

IPAIPA REVIEWREVIEW SPECIALSPECIAL INSERTINSERT SI-44 JUNEJUNE 20042004 Capitalism, Markets and Morality

HAL GP COLEBATCH

HE ideas of Adam Smith It is integral to Western Civiliza- misrepresentation. In fact, however, I succeeded in generating tion that provision must be made for have never met anyone—I do not wealth, liberty and happi- the welfare of those unable to take part think even in print—who ‘worships T ness around the globe be- in the market economy. It is obvious, the market’ or thinks the market is the cause they were founded in an under- common sense that governments need complete answer to the human con- standing of the realities of human na- to be involved in health and safety is- dition. At most, such notions tend to ture. Unlike Marx and the totalitar- sues and some other matters in the be put forward by extreme polemicists ians, he did not set out to transform workplace. One gets extremely tired such as Ayn Rand or a few libertar- human nature. It was not capitalism of being told that capitalists, economic ians who tend to use the idea of laissez- that gave us Auschwitz and the Gulag rationalists, ‘Drys’ or whatever, ‘wor- faire as a starting point for debate for the untransformable. ship the market’ or take no account of rather than a practical agenda. Such Capitalism, very simply, depends market externalities, or the need for notions are simply not part of the real on satisfying human wants; other eco- public goods or infrastructure invest- politico-economic world. nomic systems depend on some form ment. These claims are sometimes ac- One of the silliest accusations I of coercion. Ask any hostile critic of companied by suggestions that those have heard made against capitalism is capitalism what should be put in its who point out economic irrationali- that it is atheistic. Capitalism is not a place and the answer will be either ties and inefficiencies, such as tariffs, religion but a means of production, economic coercion or, from the sort of bounties, subsidies etc., are lusting to and it makes as much or as little sense people who believe Osama bin Laden thrust children back down the coal- to call Capitalism atheistic as it does just needs a big hug, an appeal to New mines. to call a steam-engine atheistic. This, Age or occultist theories of spontane- Should this be thought hyperbole incidentally, is one reason why talk- ous self-sacrificing co-operation. on my part, I quote from a review of ing of a ‘Third Way’ between capital- Capitalism hardly claims to be John Hyde’s book Dry published in a ism and Communism (which latter moral, but nevertheless is interdepen- long-established, quasi-conservative, does make religious claims) is about dent with a society where moral val- anti-free-trade, Catholic-oriented as sensible as talking of a third way be- ues are respected. Capitalism functions Australian journal: tween Tuesday week and plywood. less well in the presence of trade-bar- Every tariff, every import quota, Capitalism got under way in his- riers such as tariffs and by artificial bar- every trade union—indeed every toric Christendom, and today the most riers to market entry which also marriage where the wife dares to dynamic, inventive, capitalist nation, happen to be forms of theft. It appears raise children herself, instead of the USA, also happens to be the most badly handicapped in modern Russia farming them out to totalitarian Christian. It is also notable that the by the power of more direct forms of creches while she furthers her own so-called ‘post-Christian’ societies of organized crime. paper-shuffling career—disgusts Europe appear to be undergoing a It is false and dangerous to project Hyde because it defies pure eco- complex social malaise, including a from the fact that capitalism—a sys- nomic determinism. pronounced falling-off of scientific and tem of production—is largely of itself This misrepresentation of Hyde’s technological inventiveness. Is there unconcerned with morality, any no- book and arguments is hardly worse any connection between this and their tion that a capitalist society can be than one encounters from economic huge welfare systems, partly financed amoral. irrationalists almost every day. (A let- by the US picking up much of their I do not know of any serious com- ter of my own to the same journal was defence spending? However, the rela- mentator who has actually put forward published under the heading ‘The Free tionship is hard to measure precisely. a totally amoral laissez-faire society as Trade Panacea,’ obviously in order to It is only with capitalism, allied a going proposition, however much ridicule it.) William Coleman, author with science, technology, democracy some socialists and Leftists believe that of Exasperating Calculators, has docu- and Judeo-Christian values, that it is is what people like us all want. mented many more instances of such generally both economically possible ▲

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 21 to afford and politically and culturally wave of scientific and technological knowledge among ordinary people of practical to have a welfare state. Me- discovery which led to massive in- a wider world. The globalization of in- dieval Venice was able to treat its poor creases in production. Increased pro- ternational trade and the great reduc- exceptionally well because it was, duction could, after a time-lag, be tion in trade barriers since 1945 are through trade, exceptionally rich for translated into better wages and work- certainly among the major reasons the times. The hideous conditions of ing conditions, and more social wel- why there has not been another great the poor and economically marginal- fare. That was one of the tasks of the war. ized at other times and in other cul- democratic political process. The arts flourished far better un- tures were not due to the fact that It is probably because capitalism der capitalism than under State subsi- those societies were crueller or greedier rewards innovation that capitalist so- dies and protection because in a than ours, but to the fact that noth- cieties have been responsible for prac- free-market system an artist had to ing better could be afforded. Those tically every major invention in the produce work somebody actually liked. heroes, like the charitable monks and modern world. It was from capitalist In this microcosmic example, one sees the hospitallers who fed and cared for societies that practically all the great the whole strength of the market the poor in medieval times, were advances in medicine came and con- economy as compared to the planned themselves looking at lifespans of tinue to come. The fall of Commu- or command economy. about 30 years. History shows the pro- nism revealed that in science and Economic and political freedom, gressive expansion of social welfare, together, are by far the best, but if that and the whole rise in living standards is impossible, relative economic free- for the mass of people, closely followed dom is better than nothing. Further, the increases of production made pos- Talking of a ‘Third economic freedom seems to promote sible by the gradual accumulation of political freedom in the long run. The scientific-technological and economic Way’ between Spectator recently published an article knowledge. Science-writer S.M. on how that hateful icon of capital- Stirling captures it pithily: capitalism and ism, Nike, is transforming the lives of By the High Middle Ages tens of Communism … is workers in Communist Vietnam. They thousands of water and wind mills used to walk to work, then the wages were scattered all over Europe. about as sensible as Nike paid enabled them to buy bi- Grinding grain, eliminating the cycles, then scooters, and now their killing labour that Homer’s heroes talking of a third first cars. blithely assigned to their slave- Further, the example of Nike is women, fulling cloth, sawing wood way between causing other Vietnamese factories to and stone; every groaning wooden raise the wages and conditions of their wheel represented one less whip- Tuesday week and workforces, partly because it has dem- mark laid on a human back. onstrated that this is possible, but also Capitalism grew slowly in the plywood in order to remain competitive. Rural West, in a complex but fruitful rela- Vietnamese who once saw nothing for tionship with Judeo-Christianity and their children but a life of brutal and with science-technology. The free- technology, including even military stupefying toil on farms now dream of trade writings of Adam Smith, and the science, the command economies of tertiary education and professional ca- Industrial Revolution which they Communism could seldom achieve reers for them. Vietnam is still a Com- helped usher in, gave human progress more than poor copies of Western munist country, and in political terms and happiness a rocket-boost, not only originals. a very nasty one—playing songs laud- because they made far greater wealth Further, though it is hard to be pre- ing the old regime is still forbidden and available to all, but also because they cise about this, the acceptance of the can land you in a tropical Gulag, and made possible the spread of education notion that international trade was a as recently as Easter 400 Christians and the progress of democratic insti- win-win situation, rather than, as the demonstrating for religious freedom tutions. Mercantilists had believed, a zero-sum were reported massacred—but a popu- Australia was able, almost from its or beggar-thy-neighbour situation, lation with growing wealth and edu- foundation, to afford a high standard must have helped prevent many wars. cation will be less easy—no, of living, including a high-wage cul- At the very least, and this generally impossible!—to suppress politically ture, and its labour movement could applied even under the mercantile sys- forever. seriously set out to create ‘the work- tem and even in ancient times, soci- The Catholic theologian Michael ing man’s paradise’, only because eties that were trading with each other Novak has done major work on the Australia’s settlement coincided with were not fighting one another. Trade positive relationship between moral- the industrial revolution and a great was linked to a spread of education and ity and ‘democratic capitalism’ and the

R E V I E W 22 JUNE 2004 present Pope comments in Centissimus countries on the margins of The Left is now putting its ener- Annus: development … gies into projects of cultural rather Not only is it wrong from an There are difficult problems. than political transformation. It is, ethical point of view to disregard People do not want to see jobs ex- however, re-branding its attack on human nature, which is made for ported from their own country to a capitalism as an attack on the vague, freedom, but in practice it is lower-waged one, even if the results sinister entity of ‘Globalization.’ A lot impossible to do so. Where society are globally beneficial: there is no easy of this can be answered by intelligent is so organised as to reduce arbi- political answer to that. There can be argument and exhibition of fact. The trarily or even suppress the sphere real tensions between the internation- socialist and Fabian Society pioneer in which freedom is legitimately alizing aspects of global trade and con- HG Wells recognized long ago: exercised, the result is that the life siderations of national identity and Marx sought to replace national of society becomes progressively patriotism, or even of military de- antagonism by class antagonism … disordered and goes into decline … fence. There can be moral problems But from the starting point of The social order will be all the in trading with tyrannical regimes. modern individualistic thought it more stable, the more it takes into There are people who claim more for is also possible to reach inter- account and does not seek to place nationalist ideas. From the days of in opposition personal interest and that great English economist, the interests of society as a whole, Adam Smith, onward, there has but seeks to bring them into Those who brush been an increasing realisation that fruitful harmony. In fact, where for world-wide prosperity free and self-interest is violently suppressed, off things like vile unencumbered trade about the it is replaced by a burdensome earth is needed. system of bureaucratic control and depraved By the same token, some try to ex- which dries up the well-springs of acerbate division on the Right. They initiative and creativity … demo- entertainment, or suggest or claim incompatibility be- cracy without values easily turns tween so-called ‘neo-conservatives’— into open or thinly-disguised Nihilistic and meaning in an economic sense those totalitarianism … influenced by the classical economists This continues to endorse free pathological Art, as (who in Anglomorph countries largely trade, although with proper qualifica- mere functions of trace their intellectual descent from tions that the needs of those too poor Adam Smith), and ‘old conserva- or otherwise unable to enter the mar- the market are no tives’—believers in an organic society ket economy must also be cared for: framed by traditions and values (who ‘On the level of individual nations and friends of the in Anglomorph countries largely trace of international relations, the free their intellectual descent from market is the most efficient instrument market economy or Edmund Burke). This dichotomy is for utilising resources and effectively dangerous as well as false. responding to needs.’ It continues: the civil polity It is a happy fact of history that Even in recent years it was thought Adam Smith and Edmund Burke were the poorest countries would close personal friends (not forgetting develop by isolating themselves capitalism than is appropriate, or pay the credit due their oft-times host Dr from the world market and relying insufficient attention to the other vi- Johnson) whose works combine in a on their own resources. Recent tal parts of Western Civilization’s pol- luminous and coherent whole. Both experience has shown that count- ity. The fact that the market is not took the realities of human nature as ries that did this suffered stag- much concerned with morality and their starting-point. Both were prima- nation and recession, while the values does not mean that no-one rily moral philosophers. Their intellec- countries which have experienced need be concerned with morality and tual descendants should have no development were those that values. Those who brush off things quarrel with one another. succeeded in taking part in the like vile and depraved entertainment, general economic activities at the or Nihilistic and pathological Art, as Hal GP Colebatch has a PhD in Political Science. international level. It seems there- mere functions of the market are no His book Blair’s Britain was selected as a Book of the Year by The Spectator in 1999. In 2003, he fore that the chief problem is that friends of the market economy or the received an Australian Centenary Medal for of gaining access to the inter- civil polity. Western civilization is services to Writing, Law, Poetry and Political national market … It is necessary built on several pillars and capitalism/ Commentary, the only person to receive an award for this combination of activities. to break down the barriers and free-market economics is only one of monopolies which leave so many them. I P A

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 23 Sex and the Primary School Teacher

ANDREW MCINTYRE

N April, male primary size that a different, and more struc- of teaching, not the teacher’s sex, that teachers were in the spot- tured approach to literacy teaching is important. light after the Federal has a beneficial effect on boys; for ex- However, Dr Peter West (head of I Government announced ample, if they are told what is ex- the Research Group on Men and that it would introduce an amend- pected and how their work will be Families at the University of Western ment to the Sex Discrimination Act to marked. In other words, it is the Sydney) points out that ‘the paucity allow schools to offer male-only method, not the male teacher, that is of males in teaching is linked to a de- teaching scholarships in a bid to the answer. cline in school discipline. But he is tackle male teacher shortages. This calls into question the sylla- often criticized for inferring that only It has caused a flurry of protests bus itself, which over 20 years has a man can understand that boys ‘cre- and commentary. The Government’s been changing; testing regimes, ex- ate a mess, get untidy, and crawl all aim was to tackle what it considers to pectation and outcomes in education over the place … and that they need be ‘a significant problem in Austra- have been radically feminized. This, to be engaged by people who under- lian education’—the shortage of male in itself, may explain the poor perfor- stand male energy’. teachers. mance of boys. In any case, boys’ per- But before rushing in with affirma- According to the Australian Bu- formance is poor through secondary tive action campaigns—much ma- reau of Statistics, the proportion of schooling as well, where the male ligned in any case when applied to male school teachers has declined in teacher ratio is much higher. women and other minorities—it the decade to 2002. Between 1992 Maralyn Parker, a Daily Telegraph should be essential to understand the and 2002, the proportion of male columnist on education, claims that underlying reasons for the decline in school teachers (in full-time equiva- it is the quality of teaching, not the male numbers. It is true that male lent measure) declined from 25.8 per sex of the teacher, that makes a dif- trainee numbers are very low, but as cent to 20.9 per cent in primary ference. She cites a huge study car- one experienced teacher observed, it schools and from 49.4 per cent to 44.9 ried out in Queensland (led by is not just a matter of getting in. ‘The per cent in secondary schools. Of the University of Queensland’s Professor problem is that men are leaving the 22,915 students training to be primary Bob Lingard) which shows that qual- profession. Teaching is becoming less school teachers, only 18.8 per cent are ity teaching consists of quite definable valued by society so the male ego is men. In Catholic primary schools in techniques and methods, none of no longer inclined to want to do it, NSW, just 14 per cent of teachers are them related to the sex of the teacher. especially with the little kids’. As he men. According to one source, 250 Parker also cites the University of succinctly puts it: ‘Finger painting is public or government schools in New Melbourne’s Professor Richard Teese, a hard one to talk up at the pub with South Wales alone have no male who has carried out extensive research your mates.’ teachers at all. in NSW and Victorian schools. He Research by Janet Smith from the The facts pose several questions. also suggests that the presence of male University of Canberra on the mo- Is the lack of male teachers a signifi- role models in primary school is not tives of male primary teachers, con- cant problem? In other words, are the answer to the problems boys have firms this perception. There was a male teachers important both as role with school. ‘If lack of male role mod- tendency for the men she studied to models and for boys’ performance? els damaged boys, then most boys see teaching children as ‘pink collar What are the causes of this decline? would arrive at school damaged. Most work’, that is, they classified it as And will scholarships help? boys up to five-year-olds (including women’s work, that the ‘dominant Educational researcher Jennifer those with fathers at home) have discourse’ was that of nurturing. She Buckingham suggests that male teach- women as dominant carers.’ Ken contrasted the present situation with ers may help boys perform better, but Rowe, a research director with the the past, when more males taught, and that there is no hard evidence to back Australian Council for Educational teaching was more traditional, didac- the claim. She also goes on to empha- Research agrees that it is the quality tic and teacher-centred. There was a

R E V I E W 24 JUNE 2004 physical distance in the classroom and become a teacher, my advice is to teachers earn around $55,000, which, there were emotional safeguards. think carefully, there are plenty of when adjusted for their extra 8 weeks Nowadays, the teacher is considered other ‘safer’ jobs to have. holiday over other full-time workers, a co-learner, with children sitting on Brother Kelvin Canavan of the amounts to an equivalent of about the floor. NSW Catholic Education Office con- $70,000 annually. Given the lower The reality is that society and par- curs. ‘If a girl falls over, there is some academic standard required for ents have greatly changed their expec- uncertainty on how to handle the situ- teacher training, and the skills and tations of schools in relation to social ation. Putting an arm around her is a subject knowledge demanded, this welfare issues and caring; partly, no no-no’. Canavan sees that child pro- appears to be fair. doubt, because more mothers are tection legislation, whilst needed, cre- The reality is that biology does working. In short, primary teaching ates overly stringent reporting count, and so does sex difference, par- has become a more feminized environ- requirements, and goes well beyond ticularly in an education system that ment. Smith’s research found that ‘inappropriate behaviour’. But, as now has changed expectations. There males were confused with this ap- Smith observes, children are touch is a persistence in behavioural choices proach; they wanted to get on with sensitive and therefore touching is between the sexes, even when differ- teaching. central to primary teaching and, with ential pressures are applied at a social Another primary teacher empha- the teacher, inevitable. Almost all the and economic level, suggesting that sized that, particularly in the younger male teachers interviewed were em- while scholarships may be a minor classes, both parents and teachers saw palliative, they do not address the that children needed mothering, major factors explaining the decline especially with toilet issues and dress- There is a persist- in male teacher numbers. ing. There was a question, even in this Earlier studies of Israel’s kibbutzim teacher’s mind, about why male teach- ence in behavioural illustrate graphically this persistence ers would work at this level, let alone in behavioural choices. In them, ev- the doubt about parents being happy choices between the ery effort was made to obliterate so with male teachers at these called feminist ‘gender’ conditioning. levels. sexes … suggesting Traditional roles were essentially This brings up the related and trashed, but this social engineering highly publicized stigma of kiddy fid- that while scholar- experiment was a complete failure. dling. In her study, Smith discusses the Virtually no men worked with pre- hesitation that parents feel when con- ships may be a minor schoolers, and male participation rates templating male baby sitters. Paedo- only went up to 40 per cent of the high philia is an exciting issue for the press palliative, they do not school staff. From an ideological and many males are rightly nervous unisex beginning, the kibbutz had de- about touching children, let alone address the major veloped a sexual division of labour al- having them sit on laps or other overt most identical to that found in most physical gestures of comfort or encour- factors explaining societies, with the women demanding agement that would never be queried more involvement with their chil- if instigated by a female teacher. Philip the decline in male dren. Ruddock made the same point about A clearer understanding of funda- the perception of a risk of allegations teacher numbers mental differences in boys and girls in of abusing children in schools. their cognitive skills, their primary One teacher sums it up bluntly: interests and their development Because I was a male and a school phatic about the extreme pressure should strongly impact on curriculum teacher, I would be assumed guilty they felt with regard to misinterpre- design. It doesn’t. It would, at face immediately. Sexual threats tation, particularly with prominent value, appear to be a more urgent re- against a teacher (and particularly court cases reported in the media. form task. That this is happening very male teachers) are career-ending. Given these various pressures on slowly, and in an ad hoc way, may be a I am always consciously aware that males, claims by teacher unions and good sign, but the resistance to chang- our society has become so litigious Labor that males are not attracted to ing the feminized ideology remains, that every move I make with primary teaching because of the pay and will take some conscious undo- regards to holding a crying, injured have to be questioned. First, it does ing. or sick child is potentially a not explain the much larger percent- lawsuit. Our courts have gone too age of male teachers in secondary Andrew McIntyre is Public Relations Manager far and common sense no longer schools where pay and conditions are at the Institute of Public Affairs. prevails. To any male wanting to comparable. Second, after ten years, I P A

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 25 The ‘R’ Files

ALAN MORAN

Wanted: A New in ‘social regulations’ governing such matters as environment, health and Strategy to Attack safety. And in Australia, and some Regulatory Growth other countries, there has been the in- exorable growth of tax legislation. New Acts of Parliament are added The quantity and intrusiveness of busi- annually, augmenting the current body ness regulations have been accelerat- of legislation by almost 10 per cent. ing in recent years. This threatens eco- According to Productivity Commis- nomic growth. Sustained upsurges in sion Chairman, Gary Banks, there economic growth have, in fact, always were twice as many new pages of Com- been accompanied by a determined as- monwealth Acts in the 1990s as in the sault on the restrictions to commerce 1980s and three times as many as in that build up over time. gan in the US in the 1970s and inten- the 1970s. The most notable of these regula- sified with the Reagan revolution. The Productivity Commission put tory reforms facilitated England’s eco- President Reagan re-inforced the Of- the cost of Commonwealth regulatory nomic take-off. The 200 years to the fice of Management and Budget (the staff at $4.6 billion per annum. Added 1870s were marked by a systematic equivalent of Australia’s Finance De- to this are the counter-regulatory staffs culling of laws and regulations. Of the partment) with an arm dedicated to employed by businesses. A recent IPA 18,110 Acts passed since the Thir- blocking new regulations and to wind- report (Paperburden Costs of Economic teenth Century, over four-fifths were ing back existing ones. The outcome Regulation of the Gas and Electricity In- repealed. Commerce was freed up, re- was remarkably successful in progres- dustry) put firms’ spending on regula- sulting in the remarkable outcome we sively eliminating ‘economic regula- tory liaison at about one-half of the now call the Industrial Revolution. tion’—restraints on airlines, telecoms, costs incurred directly by government, England achieved living standards gas and electricity, rail and so on. a proportion that is consistent with many-fold those of most other coun- US success was emulated else- extensive US research on the issue. tries, and other nations followed suit. where, including in Australia. The out- Those paperburden expenditures A further such development was come in Australia has been the eco- are, however, small beer compared the freeing up of world trade with tar- nomic liberalization that has been with the distortions that regulation iff level cuts made within the multi- especially important in propelling a brings to economies. These include lateral World Trade Organisation relatively high level of sustained requirements for unwanted expendi- framework. From the end of World growth over the past dozen years. tures, such as extra sound-proofing of War II to the present, developed na- Australia’s liberalization process has houses. They also include measures tions have reduced their tariffs on seen the ending of government mo- that create income losses, for example manufactures from an average level of nopolies or controls on air travel, rail when governments deny producers around 40 per cent to the present level lines, the electricity and gas distribu- access to the best technology, as the of about 3 per cent. Stemming from tion industries, ports and airports, and Bracks and Carr Governments have this development, the post-1945 era telecommunications. In addition, gov- done with GM canola. Most regula- saw an explosive expansion in inter- ernments have exited from a host of tions, like tax collections, are distortions national trade. This has fuelled a activities—from defence supplies to rather than instruments which entail growth in global income levels unprec- pharmaceuticals and banking—that totally wasted resources. With taxes, edented in world history, including, were badly under-performing. money is extracted from an individual over the past 20 years, a vast improve- The most recent US-inspired on- and used for a purpose that affords at ment in living standards in those pre- slaught on regulation, like previous least some value. Regulations operate viously backward nations that adopted ones, has been far from comprehensive. in much the same manner—the ser- market-based economic policies. Alongside the success in eradicating or vices are diverted from outcomes that More recently, an assault on the de-fanging ‘economic regulations’ their owner would prefer. They become build-up of regulatory restrictions be- there has been an accelerating growth less valuable in the process.

R E V I E W 26 JUNE 2004 Sometimes, however, regulations ergy savings associated with the pre- environmental, consumerist or health- actually have perverse effects. Thus, ferred regulatory approach were overly oriented organizations. These organi- some safety regulations have been optimistic’. A modified set of propos- zations, increasingly given a place at found to raise prices to such a degree als was introduced. More generally, the regulatory table by governments that some consumers avoid the goods however, the increased scrutiny it im- favourably disposed towards, indebted on which they are imposed and select poses can only diminish the harm that to or afraid of them, are pressing agen- other goods that are more dangerous. would otherwise be done. das that are fundamentally antitheti- This is the case with some aircraft Exhaustive scrutiny of new propos- cal to the free-market economy. safety regulations that entail costs als is a process that ought to be fol- An example of this is offered by a which must be passed on and which lowed automatically by the central prominent spokesman for ‘green’ result in greater road travel, a mode agencies (Premiers/Prime Minister, NGOs, Peter Garrett. Mr Garrett re- that is many times more costly in terms Treasury, and Finance). The problem cently expressed a preference for no of lives and injuries. This is akin to is that these central agencies are pre- economic growth if this means in- taxing people so that the money can occupied by measures that impact on creased use of water, land and energy. be used to make their lives even more the budget in monetary terms. Al- The corollary of that proposition miserable, something that only the though a regulatory dollar is every bit would be that a reduction in income most oppressive governments do. as costly in real terms as a tax dollar levels would be beneficial since this The various forms of regulatory re- might be expected to be accompanied straints on business impose consider- by a reduced use of energy, water and able costs. A recent OECD estimate It would be almost perhaps land. Voices representing this put the compliance cost of regulation perspective are heavily represented on in Australia for taxation, employment unprecedented for government advisory bodies and, in- and the environment alone at some deed, are commonplace in many gov- $17 billion a year. any bureaucracy to ernment agencies. Though without the support appa- Government agencies are prone to ratus that contributed to the three pre- actually say that its increased regulation if only because vious waves of economic progress, they will always seek to expand their agencies seeking to curb regulatory tu- job was complete and own power—it would be almost un- mescence remain prominent. In Aus- precedented for any bureaucracy to tralia, the Commonwealth’s Office of it should be abolished actually say that its job was complete Regulation Review (ORR) places dis- and it should be abolished or even radi- ciplines on other government agencies cally downsized. The inertia that pre- to combat regulatory excesses. It has (and can entail far greater distortion) vents bureaucracies from downsizing powers that allow it to cajole and hec- regulatory scrutiny is not on the main- stands in marked contrast to the disci- tor, to publicize some of the excesses stream watch of the more influential plines that prevent unprofitable main- in new proposals, and to delay new guardians of the public purse. The ad- tenance of surplus staff in the private regulations where these fail certain verse wealth effects from measures sector. While there is any number of tests designed to demonstrate their ne- which, for example, curtail shopping examples of firms finding that the mar- cessity. The ORR and its State coun- hours, or require non-useable space to ket for their goods and services is di- terparts are, however, a very thin and be allocated to buildings, or over-ride minishing or that the means of porous blue line holding back the cas- consumers’ preferred trade-offs be- delivering these services has become cade of laws that for the most part im- tween energy saving and capital costs, cheaper and less labour intensive, pede efficient business operations. do not appear in budget papers. hardly a single example can be pro- It is difficult to point to specific While we may be justifiably dis- duced of a bureaucracy voluntarily fol- examples of unwise proposed regula- mayed that the deregulatory thrust lowing a similar course. tions that Australia’s regulatory review which commenced only 20 years ago Having fewer bureaucrats and ad- process has stopped, because of the in Australia appears to have run out visors is one possible means of reduc- behind-closed-doors nature of the as- of steam, we should also be aware of ing regulatory intrusion. Finding a sessment process. One example of suc- the powerful forces arrayed against de- means of markedly reducing the size cess cited by the ORR concerns a regulation and in favour of greater of regulatory agencies might be the proposal by the Australian Building regulation. The IPA has exposed the touchstone to kick off a further round Codes Board dealing with the regula- activities of many Non Government of growth-enhancing deregulation. tion of energy efficiency for houses. Organizations (NGOs) who are Public scrutiny, according to the ORR, heavily disposed towards substituting Dr Alan Moran is Director, Deregulation Unit, at the Institute of Public Affairs. revealed that ‘additional construction government regulation for individual costs, transitional issues and likely en- decision-making—whether they be I P A

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 27 Education Agenda

KEVIN DONNELLY

E for Fail In many classrooms, students no is that it provides a social ladder by longer fail, as it is considered bad for which those who are less fortunate can If it is a truism that Australians love their self-esteem. Progressive teachers achieve a higher standard of living and sport, it is equally true that Australians also argue that it is wrong to rank stu- a fruitful career. love to celebrate success. Unfortu- dents in terms of ability, as this rein- Witness the children of Indo- nately, the same cannot be said for forces the point that some students are Chinese migrants who consistently those controlling our education sys- better than others. achieve Year 12 success and the per- tem. As a result, parents are told that formance of selective State schools in The Australian Education Union competitive, graded assessment is ‘in- NSW. (AEU) argues against assessment that equitable and unjust’ and that the best According to those teachers com- is competitive, used to rank students, forms of assessment are those that are mitted to progressive education fads, based on set year-level standards of ‘descriptive, diagnostic and participa- the ideal classroom is one where, in- achievement or that might be used to tory’. stead of grading work numerically (7 monitor school and teacher effective- One reason why competitive assess- out of 10) or on the basis that there ness. ment is viewed as unacceptable is that are clearly defined standards that rep- The Australian Association for the progressive and left-wing teachers ar- resent pass and fail (D is a pass, E is Teachers of English (AATE) is also a gue that it is socially unjust. The fact not), teachers celebrate the unique very strong critic of more formal forms that students from wealthy non-gov- learning qualities of each child. of assessment. In the jargon much ernment schools achieve such strong Thus, instead of regular pen-and- loved by educationalists, the AATE Year 12 results is often used as an argu- paper testing, students are encouraged argues that assessment should be ‘cri- ment by left-wing academics to abol- to do project work or folio work and terion referenced, work required and ish external examinations and to create grades give way to vague and general- descriptive’. a situation where all students are suc- ized descriptive comments such as ‘at- While most parents, employers and cessful. tained’, ‘shows evidence’ or ‘not always students like to have a clear idea of This ignores the research suggest- achieved’. standards and where students are ing that the most important influence It is also the case, in line with placed according to ability, the AATE on success at Year 12 is the quality and Australia’s adoption of outcomes-based believes otherwise. Not only does the rigour of what happens in the class- education, that students are automati- English teachers body consistently ar- room, especially during the middle cally promoted from year to year with- gue against ranking students, but it also years of schooling. out any realistic attempt to evaluate argues against State-wide or national Those opposed to more formal as- whether they have mastered the re- literacy testing. sessment also argue that so-called col- quired standard of work. The Australian Council of Deans laborative learning is considered better Evidence that this progressive ap- of Education also argues against tests than pitting student against student. proach to assessment is widespread in and examinations on the basis that it As argued by the Australian Education Australia’s schools is found in a Com- is wrong to make students learn cor- Union: monwealth-funded report entitled rect answers and to put students in a Reliance on competition is a Reporting on Student and School Achieve- situation where they have to compete, primary cause of inequalities of ment. The report involved a sample of one against the other. educational outcome because some 500 parents across a range of Since the 1970s, across Australia’s students from certain social groups Australian schools and concluded: education systems, competitive exami- are advantaged by competitive Parents consider there is a ten- nations and graded assessment have selection methods. Competitive dency, more common in primary gradually disappeared. Unlike success- selection also sets students against schools, to avoid facing or telling ful overseas countries, where students each other rather than encouraging hard truths… regularly face high-stakes assessment, co-operative learning methods. There is a lack of objective stand- Australian students generally face their Forgotten is that one of the ben- ards that parents can use to deter- first competitive examination in the efits of a competitive, academic cur- mine their children’s attainment final year of schooling. riculum, when it is allowed to operate, and rate of progress. Many parents

R E V I E W 28 JUNE 2004 specifically asked for information dents in a particular class are achiev- such as Victoria and New South Wales, that would enable them to com- ing when compared with other stu- much needed State-wide literacy and pare their children’s progress with dents across the same year level. No numeracy tests could only be intro- other students or with state/terri- amount of talk about personal growth duced on the condition that schools tory-wide or national standards. and that learning is developmental can were not compared and that the infor- It should be noted that, unlike disguise the fact that if students have mation collected was kept secret. Australian students, who face their first not mastered basics skills, then they are In part, unions oppose making re- competitive, high-stakes examination at risk. sults public because they prefer to fo- at the end of secondary school, stu- Given that they are not compared cus the debate on the need to increase dents in countries that perform best in with others, students are not the only resources—more teachers and smaller international tests such as TIMSS and ones saved from the embarrassment of classes—instead of using current re- TIMSS-R are regularly tested through- being told that they may have failed. sources more efficiently. out their school years. Such is the influence of progressive and Teacher unions also argue that it is In Singapore, for example, students left-wing views of education that mea- wrong to rank schools publicly, as some are tested at Grades 4 and 6 in primary suring school or teacher performance schools will always outperform others school and a number of times during is also politically incorrect. in terms of achieving better results, their secondary years. Unlike Austra- Notwithstanding the wealth of in- because their students come from a lian schools, such tests are used to formation that is regularly collected by more privileged socio-economic back- stream students into ability levels and, education authorities around Austra- ground or the school might have se- at the end of primary school, to decide lective entry. whether students will enter the nor- This overlooks the overseas re- mal, special or express courses at the search identifying to what extent par- secondary level. While most parents, ticular schools add value to student The Netherlands also expects stu- learning by measuring how much stu- dents to undertake a standardized test employers and dent ability improves over a set period at the end of primary school and this of time. Instead of simply comparing is used to decide what type of second- students like to have schools’ Year 12 results, a value-added ary education they will undertake (the approach measures how effective choice is between junior vocational, a clear idea of schools are in lifting standards and junior general, senior general or pre- ensuring that students perform better university). standards and where than might otherwise be expected. Concerns about the politically cor- The unions’ fear is that if school rect approach to assessment are not just students are placed results are made public, in areas such academic. As many parents realize, as the HSC, then it would become what passes as student assessment is according to ability, obvious that how well a school per- often so vague and nebulous that par- forms is not simply a result of how ents (and students) are unable to get a the AATE believes much money is spent or how small the clear and succinct statement of what classes are. has, or has not, been achieved. otherwise In fact, as common sense suggests, As noted in Reporting on Student the reasons why some schools perform and School Achievement, investigating more successfully than others relate to how assessment is carried out across lia which could easily be used to iden- issues such as the quality and rigour of Australian schools: tify under-performing schools and in- the school’s curriculum, the commit- … parents really want a ‘fair and effective teachers, parents and the ment and dedication of its teachers, honest’ assessment of how their public are kept in the dark. As stated having a disciplined and focused class- children are progressing. They do by the head of Victoria’s Curriculum room environment and creating a not want to find out in later years and Assessment Authority, after detail- school culture that celebrates and re- that a child has ‘a problem because ing the wealth of information gathered wards success. he didn’t have the fundamentals’. that could be used to evaluate school Parents believe that advice can be performance, ‘The information pro- Dr Kevin Donnelly, Chief of Staff to Federal ‘honest’ without being negative. vided by the data service is confiden- Employment and Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, and a former Director of Education Many considered that written tial to the school and access to it is Strategies, recently released his book Why Our reports are too often ‘politically strictly controlled’. Schools Are Failing—funded by The Menzies correct’ at the expense of ‘honesty’. Teacher unions are fierce critics of Research Centre and published by Duffy and Snellgrove. More importantly, parents are de- making school performance informa- nied the ability to see how well stu- tion available to the public. In States I P A

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 29 R E V I E W Free_Enterprise.com by Stephen Dawson File View Go Bookmarks Options Directory Window Help

POPULATION MATTERS the entire world and is pro- Every time you press the ‘refresh’ grammed with a goal of a total button on your Web browser, you I strongly urge you to give world population of two billion will notice the number having serious consideration and sup- in 2025, and 1.5 billion in 2100. gone up by five to ten. That repre- port to any programme that will sents the net of births over deaths encourage our population to At the end of this chapter, in those few seconds (on average). stop growing, whether in the Ehrlich invited readers to create If that makes you jittery, let’s form of changes in the law or scenarios ‘more realistic … more look into the past and future, also changes in our welfare and optimistic’ than his. Now, looking courtesy of the demographers of the social programmes, and I urge back, we can see how the ‘Ends of US Census Bureau. The years 1962 you to support any policies that the Road’ were reached. Instead of give positive assistance to the an ‘optimistic’ requirement for a rest of the world in stopping half of his 1968 population of 3.5 population growth and increas- billion people to be shed, we have ing food production. [emphasis nearly doubled to something like in original] 6.4 billion people in the world to- day. And these billions are, on av- ‘Letter to a Politician’ erage, and in the overwhelming Paul R Ehrlich, majority, better fed and with The Population Bomb, 1968 greater life expectancies than members of humanity at any point Our topic for today, dear reader, is in its 100,000 years of existence. us. How many of us are there? How Of course, Ehrlich couldn’t many should there be? And who the have known what the future would and 1963 saw the highest annual hell is going to decide this last ques- truly hold. Or could he? Back in growth rate in world population tion? 1989, B.A. Santamaria pointed out since 1950, with the numbers of The passage quoted above is the in his column in The Australian humans increasing at 2.19 per cent conclusion to a letter Dr Ehrlich that per capita food production had per year. Since then, the rate has offered, over 35 years ago, as a increased by six per cent in the two fallen inexorably, to 1.14 per cent model for people, who simply had decades leading up to 1971. last year and is projected to fall, by to do something about the popula- 2050, to just 0.43 per cent. The raw tion ‘crisis’, to write to politicians. HOW MANY OF US ARE figures and various graphs are avail- The emphasis in the model letter THERE? able here: on ‘any programme’ was no acci- The Web abounds with statistics. dent. In Chapter Two—‘The Ends One useful site is the ironically www.census.gov/ipc/www/ of the Road’—Ehrlich offers three named Overpopulation.com world.html scenarios for the future. The first which, in a cool and objective way, But these figures should be swal- two involve nuclear wars killing provides the figures and arguments lowed with care. They put the to- hundreds of millions, or everyone. which demolish all claims that hu- tal world population at just over But Scenario Three is ‘cheerful’, in- man population is a problem on nine billion in 2050. Most compe- volving the deaths of only half a bil- this planet. Go to: tent estimates of world population lion people before the First and www.overpopulation.com see it not as continuing its increase, Second Worlds gang up to create but reaching a peak of between ‘area rehabilitation’ programmes for You can check the world’s esti- eight and eleven billion, some- ‘selected sections of Asia, Africa mated population right now by go- where between 2050 and 2100, and and South America’. The program- ing to: then beginning to fall. mes, amongst other things, involve Overpopulation? What over- ‘population control’. And then: www.census.gov/main/www/ popclock.html population? The plan will eventually cover

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R E V I E W 30 JUNE 2004 R E V I E W Free_Enterprise.com by Stephen Dawson File View Go Bookmarks Options Directory Window Help

gible females (due to widely prac- ways to increase productivity, allow- ticed polygamy) makes for strong ing the billions of the world to live, dominance hierarchies, and that the and the majority of them to thrive. oppression of women by restricting To him, population control (a eu- their public appearances is, in the phemism, always, for population circumstances of a society with large limitation or reduction) is the fast numbers of males who expect never road to greater misery. to have mates of their own, argu- Many of Simon’s works are avail- ably rational. Go to ‘Update II’ at: able from a special archive of his www.parapundit.com/ work: nine of his books and many archives/002051.html articles. The formatting is poor, but the words are wonderful. Go to: JULIAN SIMON www.rhsmith.umd.edu/ Before Lomborg there was Simon. NOT TOO MANY PEOPLE, BUT Faculty/JSimon PERHAPS TOO MANY BOYS Bjørn Lomborg’s The Skeptical Envi- Human beings seem to produce ronmentalist would, most likely, WHAT DOES ZERO POPULA- more baby boys than baby girls, by never have been written were it not TION GROWTH REALLY about 105 to 100. Biologists debate for Julian Simon, because Simon MEAN? the reasons, but my view is that na- had previously published The Ulti- It flows lightly off the tongue: zero ture supplies a surplus of boys so that mate Resource. Lomborg began with population growth (which was also there’ll still be enough of them a view to demolishing Simon’s work, the name of an activist group rec- around by the age of reproduction, only to discover that it was largely ommended by Ehrlich). You may given that the on-average wilder correct. have noticed that in Ehrlich’s Sce- natures of boys kills them off earlier Simon, previously, became fa- nario Three for the future of the (in former times, it was as club and mous by winning a bet with Ehrlich world, he envisaged we in the rich arrow and cannon fodder; these days and others that a basket of natural white nations imposing on the it tends to be through car accidents). resources would become more abun- world’s poor nations—after their What happens when govern- dant, as indicated by their prices. An catastrophic collapses into starva- ments start tinkering with anything? tion—population control. It is so Unintended consequences, of easy to say, and so obviously hu- course. In the case of China’s long- mane, for those prepared to stop at established population control poli- the slogan and decline to think cies, one unintended consequences about its impact upon people. has been to increase the ratio of boys Some years ago I decided to il- to girls: in 1993 and 1994 the ratio lustrate what it might mean to an in China was 121 to 100. That individual at whom the pointy end makes for a lot of unmarried male of ZPG is directed. My short story adults come 2013 and 2014. The was published in Quadrant in the same applies to a lesser extent in late-90s, but it is also available here: India. Go to: www.futurepundit.com/ underlying theme of much of www.hifi-writer.com/pol/ archives/002075.html Simon’s work has been that oil and one.htm minerals and food are not, impor- This has political implications. One tant as they are, the most important FEEDBACK explanation that has been offered thing. For Simon, it is people who I would welcome advice from read- for why most Middle East nations are the ‘ultimate resource’, since ers on any other sites of interest to are political tyrannies is that the people are not just consumers, but IPA Review readers. E-mail me on surplus of unmarried males to eli- producers. It is people who invented [email protected].

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R E V I E W JUNE 2004 31 A ROUND THE TANKS

Further Afield will now have a new heading, Around the Tanks, and will come from a selection of publications detailed in The Heritage Foundation’s The Insider, a monthly compilation of publication abstracts, events and news from around the world’s think-tanks. (Back issues of The Insider can be viewed at www.heritage.org/insider)

CUTTING SPENDING AND jeopardized in the future unless a lanes and bus-rapid transit are the so- LIVING TO TELL ABOUT IT breakthrough occurs. lutions to the region’s traffic prob- by Keith Miller and Allison Fraser lems. Backgrounder No. 1738, POOR PEOPLE’S KNOWL- The Heritage Foundation EDGE TRADING TYRANNY FOR heritage.org/Research/Budget/ Edited by J. Michael Finger and Philip FREEDOM: HOW OPEN MAR- bg1738.cfm Schuler KETS TILL THE SOIL FOR The American Enterprise Institute DEMOCRACY Conventional wisdom has long held aei.org/publications/bookID.754/ by Daniel Griswold that voters punish politicians who cut book_detail.asp Trade Policy Analysis, The Cato Insti- government spending. A survey of tute state executives, however, shows that How can we help poor people earn freetrade.org/pubs/pas/tpa-026es.html regardless of party, current governors more from their knowledge—rather who have cut state spending to bal- than from their sweat and muscle Griswold expresses the continued im- ance their budgets enjoy strong popu- alone? The book calls attention to the portance of trade and open markets larity, and their counterparts who unwritten half of the World Trade in a post-September 11th world. He chose to raise taxes find support wan- Organisation’s Agreement on the bases his argument on the wide body ing. Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual of political science evidence that Property (TRIPS). TRIPS is about demonstrates a connection between HIGH-TECH PROTECTION- knowledge that industrial countries trade, free markets, and economic ISM: THE IRRATIONALITY OF own, and which poor people buy. This prosperity as crucial to building a civil ANTIDUMPING LAWS book is about knowledge that poor society. Promoting trade will ‘till the by Claude E. Barfield people in poor countries generate and soil’ for democracy in Asia, Latin The American Enterprise Institute have to sell. America, and the Middle East. aei.org/publications/bookID.651/ book_detail.asp GREAT RAIL DISASTERS: THE NEED FOR NATIONS THE IMPACT OF RAIL TRAN- by Roger Scruton In this book, Barfield describes and SIT ON URBAN LIVABILITY Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil analyses the negative and unintended By Randal O’Toole Society consequences of attempting to protect The James Madison Institute civitas.org.uk high-tech industries through the use jamesmadison.org/pdf/materials/ of antidumping laws, which are ‘fun- 136.pdf Scruton argues that multinational damentally at odds with the free-trade corporations, international organiza- policies that have dramatically in- Rail transit has reduced Miami and tions, and non-governmental organi- creased global welfare over the past Ft. Lauderdale’s livability along with zations cannot replace the role of the half-century.’ Barfield also points out the livability of every US urban area nation-state. He makes his arguments that there has been a great prolifera- in which it has been built. This re- based on philosophical and political tion of such actions in the past de- port evaluates the effect of rail tran- traditions that appeal to all sides of cade and that US companies are be- sit on transit ridership, traffic conges- the political spectrum, while reject- ing targeted increasingly by foreign tion, taxpayers, energy consumption, ing traditional nationalist arguments governments. Many WTO members public safety, and other factors affect- for the nation-state. Philosophy from have vowed to block further liberal- ing urban livability. The report finds Immanuel Kant to the modern day is ization in key industries and sectors that rail transit may be one of the rea- employed to demonstrate the nega- unless major reforms are negotiated sons why south Florida congestion has tive effects continued dilution of the for WTO rules on dumping laws. grown so much in the past decade and state will have on Europe and be- Many US export opportunities will be suggests that high-occupancy/toll yond.

R E V I E W 32 JUNE 2004 A ROUND THE TANKS

THE NOT SO WILD, WILD JOB LOSSES AND TRADE: A ter Race (New York: Four Walls, WEST: PROPERTY RIGHTS REALITY CHECK 2003) by Edwin Black and the impli- ON THE FRONTIER by Brink Lindsey cations for America today as it de- by Terry L. Anderson and Peter J. Hill Trade Briefing Paper No. 19, The Cato cides biotechnology policy. Stanford University Press Institute sup.org freetrade.org/pubs/briefs/tbp-019.pdf GLOBALIZATION AND RELI- GION Classic Western films and popular During this election year, the word by Radley Balko culture depict the old west as a re- ‘outsourcing’ will most likely be used AWorldConnected.org gion of lawless chaos tamed by the as a political tool to harness fear over aworldconnected.org/article.php/ federal government. It is true that job losses in particular sectors. How- 601.html eventually the west was won, and law ever, Cato’s Center for Trade Policy & order was established across the Studies sets the record straight based As trade and globalization reach into region but this book points to a on numbers from the Bureau of La- new corners of the world and touch ‘ground up’ growth of a civil society bor and Statistics. While the United new cultures, many people of faith in the west as the force responsible States lost 309.9 million jobs from worry about what effect this new for its change. Documenting the his- 1993–2002, 327.7 million new jobs commerce will have on religion and tory of the old west exposes the fail- were created. At the same time, spirituality. Some practitioners of ures of large distant governments to manufacturing has made tremendous Western faiths worry that the pursuit establish order and property rights as gains in productivity. While critics of wealth across international borders well as small localized groups of co- would offer the critique that jobs are will lead to a kind of society-wide pur- operating interests. ‘safer’ under protectionist policy- suit of material gain in lieu of spiri- making, this study provides a broad tual fulfilment. Activists and free EDUCATION AND CAPITAL- picture of the long-term benefits of a trade opponents, meanwhile, fear ISM: HOW OVERCOMING labour policy responsive to the con- that the overpowering influence of OUR FEAR OF MARKETS stantly changing environment of Western ideas and commercialization AND ECONOMICS CAN world trade. will dilute and ultimately corrupt IMPROVE AMERICA’S non-western belief systems. This pa- SCHOOLS EUGENICS IN THE 21ST per examines both arguments based by Herbert Walberg and Joseph Bast CENTURY on the history of free markets and The Hoover Institution by Nigel M. de S. Cameron theocracies. www-hoover.stanford.edu/publica- The Wilberforce Forum tions/books/edcap.html wilberforce.org CONSPICUOUS COMPASSION by Patrick West America’s schools will begin improv- The biggest and worst idea of the Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil ing once phobias regarding market- twenty-first century will be a dated Society based systems and education are notion from the nineteenth, writes civitas.org.uk eliminated. With those ideals in Nigel Cameron, dean of the Wi- mind, the flaws of a government mo- lberforce Forum and director of the This book’s thesis is that empty dis- nopoly on education are clearly seen Council for Biotechnology Policy. plays of empathy do not change the using the same rational principles that That is, ‘Good genes’ are abilities, at- world for the better; they do not help show the flaw behind monopoly in tractiveness, and gifts and are what the poor, diseased, dispossessed, or general. Arguments from diverse dis- make us special. ‘Bad genes,’ of course, bereaved. Our culture of ostentatious ciplines of social science, as well as are the opposite. Eugenics, selective caring is about projecting one’s ego solid research help to debunk the breeding of humans, is set for a come- and informing individuals what a myths used to argue against market back and will spark the greatest of all deeply caring individual one is. It is reform in education. Once those ide- battles for the human race.’ Cameron about feeling good, not doing good. als are established in the book, discusses the history of eugenics in As the author illustrates, sometimes Walberg and Bast give their vision of America in his review of The War it can be cruel to care. an effective voucher/school privat- against the Weak: Eugenics and ization program. America’s Campaign to Create a Mas- I P A

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 33 Letter from London

JOHN NURICK

Should We Have to population—prohibitively slow and expensive—or we accept that the da- Prove Who We Are? tabase will actually validate false iden- tities as well as detect them. In a few years’ time, the UK will most The new system won’t stop terror- likely have a system of ‘smart’ biomet- ists who enter the country legally on ric identity cards. People will use them valid passports (like those involved in to prove their identity in encounters 9/11), any more than the Spanish ID with officialdom and in many other card system prevented the Madrid transactions (such as getting a job, train bombings. opening a bank account, or buying Any ID card or other document property). Quite likely, we will have can in principle be forged. So a reli- to keep our ID with us at all times, able identity check will require not ready to show to police officers, secu- just comparing the person (finger- rity guards, hotel receptionists and prints, iris scans…) with the card. It others. national insurance number. At first, will also be necessary to check the David Blunkett, our Home Secre- registration will be ‘voluntary’, but it card against the database—in which tary (responsible for police, immigra- can be made compulsory by regula- case why bother with the cards? tion and naturalization, and parts of tions approved by both houses of par- Suppose the biometric checks are the justice system), is particularly liament. At first, only people aged 16 99.9 per cent reliable, and there are keen on ID cards and has been trying and over will be registered; but the age 100 million ID checks a year (less than for years to bounce his cabinet col- can be lowered by regulation. And so 2 per person). That’s 100,000 false re- leagues into agreement. on. sults a year, each of which will have Until September 2001, he said ID In the short term, this will be no to be properly investigated (otherwise, cards were needed to detect benefit help against terrorism, and will prob- what’s the point?) and each of which fraud, illegal immigrants, and orga- ably divert resources from more effec- will cause grave inconvenience and nized crime. Most other ministers, in- tive measures. embarrassment to an innocent citizen. cluding Tony Blair, were opposed. Implementing the system will take Finally, even if the database can Some believed that the implications years. The government envisages hav- be set up (the public sector is appall- for freedom were unacceptable; oth- ing ‘80 per cent of the economically ingly bad at implementing major IT ers didn’t believe that the benefits active population’ in the database by projects) the government can’t guar- would outweigh the costs. about 2012. That leaves plenty of time antee its security. There will always After 9/11, Mr Blunkett led with for a few atrocities—or for extremists be data entry clerks to be bribed and the war against terror. Tony Blair now to perfect their false identities. computer systems to be hacked. takes his side, stating airily that the This brings us to a fundamental But none of this seems to bother civil liberties arguments have been problem. Today, we prove our ID in Mr Blunkett—or the 80 per cent of overcome. different ways for different purposes. the British population who think ID Mr Blunkett then upped the For the electoral roll, one just signs a cards would be a good thing. stakes, claiming that ID cards are ‘the form. For a passport, one needs a birth key to the UK’s future’. They ‘will help certificate, a photograph, and a wit- NOTES UK citizens play a full role in our in- ness such as a lawyer, doctor or po- 1 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ creasingly global and technologically liceman to say they know you as you n_story.asp?item_id=918 1 2 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ complex world’. and it’s the right photograph. And so docs3/identitycardsconsult.pdf He has published a draft ‘enabling’ on. With effort—remember The Day bill to create a statutory framework for of the Jackal?—it’s possible to establish John Nurick is a management consultant based in the South of England. From 1985 to 1990, he was a national identity database and ID a false identity. editorial director of the Australian Institute for Public cards.2 The database will collate ex- The new system will have to do Policy, and later edited newsletters reporting on the isting identifiers such as passport num- much better than this. Either we ac- UK Parliament and European Union institutions. ber, driving licence number, and cept positive vetting of the entire I P A

R E V I E W 34 JUNE 2004 S T R A N G E T I M E S

Compiled by IPA staff, columnists and consultants …

NEARING MIDNIGHT today’s grand priests of global warm- have been asked to send in examples Mr Latham’s attempt to parachute ing were, in the 1970s, oracles of the of absurd rules. Van Quickenborne Peter Garrett into a safe Labor seat re- new ice age. is now sorting through the 3,000 re- cruits someone who reinforces his own plies. anti-Americanism. Garrett whines, OVER REGULATION SPOILS ‘US Forces give the nod, it’s a setback THE BROTH ‘SCIENCE’ QUESTIONED? for your country’. That aside, Garrett From The Observer comes the news NEVER is the polar extreme of New Labor. that French cooks are cooking the CSIRO—an icon and mainstay of Latham champions the aspirational books. In this Euroland of regulation, scientific endeavour in Australia for voter, whereas Garrett opposes eco- excessive law-making is forcing restau- 77 years—should no longer tolerate nomic growth and increased general rants into closure or fraud. Sir Terrance the questioning of science, at least prosperity. Nor does the millionaire Conran, restaurateur and design guru, according to Michael Borgas, Presi- rock star offer to share his own says the two flagship French restau- dent of its staff association, and a wealth—indeed, he zealously opposes rants he runs are struggling to survive senior scientist in its Division of At- measures that might diminish patent under prohibitive French and EU mospheric Research. After an exten- rights and hence his personal income regulations. He blames France’s 35- sive search, CSIRO recently hired source. He is, however, generous with hour week and high GST and social Ms Donna Staunton as Director of others’ assets—farmers’ land (‘Let’s security charges. André Daguin, presi- Communications, an appointment give it back’ to the Aborigines) and dent of the French chefs’ association, which Mr Borgas condemned. Why? Murray River water (a quarter of blames the government for the closure Donna’s sin was that she was for- which he wants to divert from pro- of more than 3,000 restaurants and be- merly a non-paid director of the In- ductive to environmental uses). lieves that it has led to a drain of stitute of Public Affairs, an organi- Latham’s Garrett putsch is as high French chefs to other countries. zation ‘that questions the link be- risk as Gareth Evans’ earlier courtship tween greenhouse gas emissions and of Cheryl Kernot. This second harness- ORTHOREXIA NERVOSA global warming.’ ing of glib ‘elite values’ replaces sex A new type of eating disorder is with lashings of rock-and-roll. It may emerging where people are becom- SPIKED? NO, DRUNK appeal to young, and baby boomer ur- ing obsessed with eating to improve The Spectator reports that pubs in Brit- ban greens, but Garrett is a turn-off for their health. According to the Swiss ain are being transformed into places rural and traditional urban voters. Food Association, this new wave of of anxiety and suspicion by self-ap- nutritional obsession, known as pointed guardians of our safety. On the YEP, ICE AGE A’COMIN’ ‘Orthorexia nervosa’, is reaching bars can be seen an array of posters, Roland Emmerich, best known for worrying proportions. Dr Bettina all warning of the dangers of spiked ‘alien-destroys-the-planet’ films such Isenschmid, consultant for food dis- drinks and their link to rape. ‘Never as ‘Godzilla’, has released a new disas- orders at L’Hôpital de l’Isle in Berne, accept a drink from someone you don’t ter movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’. believes that our obsession with good know,’ said one, thereby urging Brit- In the film, a 100-metre tidal waves and bad foods is problematic and fu- ons to overthrow centuries of English surge across New York Harbour fol- els an increasingly neurotic relation- good manners. However, it turns out lowed by a quick freeze that leaves ship with food in modern Western that worldwide evidence shows the Manhattan enshrouded in ice. The society. panic to be fabricated. In Western cause is global warming. The result, in Australia, police conducted an 18- one day, is a new ice age? Unlike his KAFKAESQUE, TRULY month-long study of the problem but, previous flicks, this film is being touted Vincent Van Quickenborne, Bel- according to their toxicologist, Rob- as if it were not fiction, but cinema gium’s first Secretary of State for ert Hanson, ‘We’ve basically declared verité — a realistic warning of what administrative simplification, has that drink-spiking is an urban myth. could happen if we don’t dismantle our launched the Kafka Initiative in We believe that it is just an excuse to modern economy to stave off global honour of the late German-Czech hide abhorrent behaviour or inexpe- warming. You may be tempted to say writer who hated irrational author- rienced drinking.’ ‘only in Hollywood’, but many of the ity. As part of the initiative, Belgians I P A

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 35 What’s A Job?

KEN PHILLIPS

Brand Mail Revisited Where a company had been op- The trouble with moral crusad- erating totally legally, the activist ers is that they often become so groups declare that the legality is blinded by their own sense of moral In the last IPA Review, this column nonetheless immoral and brand superiority that they run loose with told the story of the union-orga- mail the company through adverse the truth. This is the case in Aus- nized brand attack against the me- publicity. The activists hope to be tralia—at least on the clothing out- dia monitoring group Rehame for so successful in their brand attacks worker issue. New anti-outworker the purposes of achieving industrial that, ultimately, they convince par- legislation in both Victoria and outcomes. The article described liaments to pass laws turning what New South Wales was created on how public relations brand attack was hitherto legal activity into an the back of lies. Detailed research strategies are now a standard pro- illegal activity. by the IPA which tested the alle- cess used by unions, frequently in Interestingly, the two short ar- gations of exploitation consistently partnership with Green groups, ticles describing the brand attack found the accusations to be untrue some churches and sometimes even processes elicited a defensive re- (see www.ipa.org.au. go to Work with compliance from industry as- sponse from the Secretary of the Reform Unit). In some instances, sociations. A similar IPA article Victorian Trades Hall Council in the activists were caught out on also appeared in the Australian Fi- an article in the Australian Finan- television engaged in blatant lies. nancial Review in April. cial Review. The Secretary ex- What must be understood about The intent of the two articles plained that, yes, unions do attack the activists is that they are, in fact, was to highlight the fact that third- the brand names of companies as a running marketing businesses party brand attack campaigns are standard part of their strategies. whose income is achieved substan- now a standard part of the environ- And, yes, this is done in concert tially through their brand mail ment in which business must be with NGOs and others, citing strategies. As a business, they are, conducted. Oxfam and the United Nations as in effect, no different from any Normally, a business’s core examples. other business. They have no claim brand name is capable of being pro- Further, the Secretary argued to superior morality, and when they tected under copyright and, to some that not only is this okay, it is ab- engage in lies, they strip themselves extent, by defamation laws. The solutely necessary if unions and of moral credibility. business axiom has been: do a good other groups are to force companies There is, however, nothing ille- job, service customers well, build a to act responsibly. He gave ex- gal about what the activists do. brand and reputation, and a busi- amples of Nike, Rehame and cloth- They have no contracts with the ness can be successful. ing companies who use outworkers targeted businesses, they are not This intense business focus on as allegedly exploiting workers suppliers to the businesses, nor brand value, however, has also be- through underpayment. The brand shareholders or regulators. They come a strategic vulnerability for mail attacks are morally justified he have, in effect, discovered a hole business, which unions, activist argued. in society’s regulatory net that al- non-government organizations and But morality is an intensely sub- lows them to attack and damage other networked groups have jective thing. What is moral for one legally operating businesses and not learned to exploit. When these person can be immoral for an- be held accountable or liable for groups want to achieve their own other—and disputes about such dif- their actions. business aims (for example, to le- ferences are often intense. In an They do this strategically and ef- verage for members or seek to ex- ordered society, what is allowed, or fectively. But let’s not be fooled tract government or corporate not allowed, is determined by laws. that, when they lie, they do it ‘mor- funding or achieve legislative out- Businesses must act and must be al- ally’. comes), they become highly co- lowed to act according to law. Busi- ordinated in their attacks and nesses also have a right to be Ken Phillips is a workplace reform practitioner who accuse the targeted company of be- protected from having their core ing ethically, morally or socially values damaged when they have evil. not broken any law. P A

R E V I E W 36 JUNE 2004 Book Reviews

Saturated With tic’—he was, after all, employed by Wilmot, the first executive secretary the Foundation for a number of years. of the Foundation, put the case in Good Deeds It is, nevertheless, a useful resource 1976. ‘Business can only be healthy as it develops a number of key if the surrounding community is Gary Johns reviews themes, which are an aid to under- healthy.’ This is the sort of sentiment A Tradition of Giving: standing not just the Myer tradition, behind the currently fashionable dis- but also the place of philanthropy in course known as corporate social re- Seventy-Five Years of public life. sponsibility. Myer Family If there is to be a better world, Philanthropy GIVING MONEY AWAY IS whose view of the shape of that world NOT EASY should prevail? Philanthropy faces by Michael Liffman How does one decide what to do with this dilemma with one significant (Melbourne University Press, 2004) the proceeds of an estate set aside for disadvantage, and one significant charity? With benefactor instruc- advantage over government. The In our article, ‘The Capture of the tions as broad as: for charitable pur- disadvantage is that, in government Myer Foundation’ (IPA Review, poses ‘in the community in which I intellectual enthusiasms are tested March 2004), Don D’Cruz and I made my fortune’, or for the ‘good of and tempered by a public who have criticized Myer philanthropy for its mankind’, the job is not straightfor- to pay for the enthusiasms. The ad- radical bent, suggesting it was of re- ward. It is made more complex with vantage is that, in the case of phi- cent origins. We were wrong. It has the passage of time, when the actions lanthropy, the public—apart from been going on for a lot longer than of the benefactor as a guide to present some taxation advantages afforded we imagined! needs and fashions begin to fade. philanthropists—does not have to The Sydney Myer Fund and the With the multiplication of descen- pay. Myer Foundation have distributed dants, even more so. By 1996, there Liffman describes the situation almost $100 million, in present dol- were 57 living descendants of Sidney some decades after the establishment lar terms, since their respective in- Myer, many of whom were involved of the funds. By the 1970s, the ‘less ceptions in 1935 and 1959. That is a in the distribution of funds. On the rosy’ and ‘[less] complacent view of considerable amount of money ‘to do other hand, what is clear in the Myer the quality of life in Australia’, as good’. Just how good is a question example is that second and third expressed by Whitlam, the New Left, that can now be answered. Michael generation members of the family the anti-war movement, feminism, Liffman’s valuable history of Myer have made their own financial con- environmentalism, multiculturalism, family philanthropy is a full record tributions to the original endow- disability, welfare, and Aboriginal of the deeds of Australia’s pre-emi- ments. Such practice has overcome rights, was reflected in the Myer nent philanthropic family. much of the dilemma of donor in- Foundation priorities. ‘Over the next The book contains a brief ac- tent. twenty years almost all these new count of the life and origins of Sidney In the early days of the Sidney social movements were to receive Myer, the young Russian Jew named Myer Fund, ‘the Trustees were not support from … Myer philanthropy. Simcha Baevski, who migrated to called upon to consider controver- Social reform through critique and Australia in 1899 and founded a suc- sial, politically shaped, or socially empowerment rather than through cessful retail empire. It also records activist proposals’. The overwhelm- academic research and improved the philanthropic deeds of his wife ing bulk of requests sought to assist professional practice came to be seen and four children. It is also an individuals facing some sort of diffi- as the way forward. Optimists saw in account of the establishment of Myer culty. ‘Rarely, if ever, did these ac- this mood a better path to the future; philanthropy and its radical transfor- tivities seek to change, let alone sceptics feared the negativity of this mation in the hands of subsequent blame, the larger structural arrange- “culture of complaint”. Myer philan- generations of the Myer family. It is ments of society’. thropy sided with the optimists.’ the latter part with which this review With time, however, philan- Where one could easily part com- is concerned. thropy, like government, became a pany with Lipmann is his character- Not unexpectedly, Liffman’s moral pursuit. It began to see itself ization of the Left agenda as account is enthusiastic and ‘optimis- as a force for the greater good. Meriel optimistic. The Left has never been ▲

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 37 anything other than pessimistic and education services. The perception thropy by providing ‘seed funding’ to distrustful not only of the private of lack of support arises because the various groups, much in the mode of sector, but fundamentally of indi- demand for subsidized services seems venture capital to inventors and vidual responsibility as well. This to rise quicker than the public’s de- business people. The mode is known encapsulates a fundamental shift in sire to pay for them. as ‘venture philanthropy’. The philanthropic thinking. Philan- Forgiving Liffman his mistaken means of Myer philanthropy has, thropy has a strong tradition that characterization of government pat- with some reversion been unerringly assumed that it did not need to terns of expenditure, there is never- entrepreneurial. The method is change the world, but assist individu- theless the question: what value does sound, the causes to which it has als to make their own way in it. The philanthropy add to an already well- been applied are suspect. new philosophy promoted by the provided citizenry? The crowding out For example, the Myer Funds ‘community sector’ and various di- of philanthropy in some years and were major sources of support for de- rectors of the Myer funds, and ap- then a resistance to pick up the slack institutionalization activists and parently a number of trustees, was when governments are thought to their associated programmes for the that the system was unfair and had withdraw services in other years has disabled and orphaned and so on. to be changed. The difficulty in fund- generated a view that philanthropy Rhonda Galbally, appointed as direc- ing enthusiasms among the ‘commu- need not follow government. In- tor in the early 1980s, who argued nity sector’ is that the citizens that ‘self-management avoids the generally do not share them. dependency from being helped con- stantly’, promoted this support. In- CROWDING OUT With time, however, deed, the argument was that ‘rights The second theme Liffman raises is and empowerment had taken over the relationship between philan- philanthropy, like from social improvement in the thropy and government provision. thinking of many social theorists and He traces the expenditure pattern of government, became community activists.’ Myer gifts in the context of Federal There is now evidence to suggest government programmes of the day. a moral pursuit. It that the outbreak of homelessness These varied from being crowded out that commenced in the 1980s and is of direct provision to the needy by a began to see itself still with us, was caused by the emp- ‘generous’ Whitlam Government, to tying of institutions. The grand ex- the need to fill gaps in provision cre- as a force for the periment has had its victories, but it ated by the withdrawal of services at has also proved that there is a limit the time of the Fraser Government’s greater good to which others are willing to sup- ‘razor’ gang, and the new era of so- port those people who, no matter called ‘neo-liberalism’ ushered in by how deserving, are unable to support the Howard Government. stead, it should lead government in themselves. The radical philan- When a government such as the generation of ideas. thropic sector has come to the same Whitlam’s spends money like a Compare, for example, an idea of conclusion as the welfare state. No drunken sailor, it rather leaves the Kenneth Myer (son of Sidney Myer) amount of ‘morally fervent analysis philanthropist high and dry. Then with Michael Myer (son of Kenneth, and action in the field of social wel- again, to suggest that Fraser ever se- grandson of Sidney). Sidney Myer’s fare’ overrides the right of the giver riously cut public outlays is a gross most famous single act of philan- to say ‘no’. A plus for Myer is that, error. So too the old chestnut that thropy, was to feed the Melbourne many years later, it funded a review Federal governments have been masses a Christmas dinner in 1932, of the experience of de-institution- withdrawing from the field of wel- in the depths of the Great Depres- alization. fare provision in recent decades, ei- sion. Some 30 years later, the nor- Liffman confirms the radical bent ther directly or indirectly. mally entrepreneurial Kenneth Myer of Myer philanthropy and, in doing Governments may have withdrawn decided that a Christmas treat for so, he has opened the debate of the their support for the ownership of needy children was back in vogue. role of philanthropy in a nation satu- government entities where mature He suggested a $25 Christmas rated with good deeds. markets no longer required the gov- voucher made out to the Myer store. ernment to be the first entrant: As Liffman describes it, this was Dr Gary Johns is a Senior Fellow with banks, airlines, telecommunications, clearly, in philanthropic philosophy, the Institute of Public Affairs. pharmaceuticals. They certainly a ‘reversion’. Michael Myer, on the have increased transfer payments other hand, has extended the entre- and public provision of health and preneurial dimension of philan- I P A

R E V I E W 38 JUNE 2004 Probing Liberty’s come. His latest work, Skepticism and rule of first possession; Freedom: A Modern Case for Classi- • contract; and First Principles cal Liberalism, is no exception. In the • protection against the initiation first third of the book, he reviews of aggression. Donald J. Boudreaux reviews freedom’s foundational meaning and To those foundational features, its classical liberal justification. In the Epstein adds three less obvious (and Skepticism And Freedom: next two thirds, he tackles some re- less liberal-sounding) rules, all stem- A Modern Case for cent challenges to classical liberal- ming from cases of what, in Anglo- Classical Liberalism ism. Throughout, Epstein displays his American law, is known as necessity. signature deftness at negotiating from Necessity softens otherwise strict by Richard A. Epstein first principles to specific applications property rights protections, often jus- (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, and back again. tifying the replacement of contract 2004, 311 pages) with the practice of ‘take and pay’. FREEDOM’S FOUNDATION First, take and pay is usually justi- I will say it up front: Richard Epstein Although no longer as skeptical as fied in dire emergencies in which is really, really smart. A reasonable he was in his youth about conse- negotiations are impractical. The presumption is that, if you disagree quentialism, Epstein continues to classic case is the sailor who, surprised with Epstein, he is right and you are found his case for freedom on natu- by a violent storm, secures his boat wrong. Of course, that is not strictly ral law. But his natural law is no to a dock without the dock-owner’s true; he is not always right. But he is brooding other-worldly omnipres- permission. As long as the sailor com- right so often and so deeply that, if ence. Instead, it evolves out of real- pensates the dock owner for any you possess a dollop or more of good world situations and takes human losses the owner suffers because of sense, you can never disagree with nature and the world we inhabit as such emergency dockings, the law him without suffering a nagging fear they are. It is the utilitarian-inspired does not and should not require the that his vision and knowledge (espe- sailor who is at imminent risk of los- cially, but by no means only, of law ing his life to first to get permission and economics) reveal to him things Epstein—for 30 years before docking. Second, government that you somehow have missed. must tax and sometimes even use Happily for my own peace of now a professor of powers of eminent domain to acquire mind, I am in wide, if not complete, the resources necessary to supply agreement with Epstein. He is a clas- law at the University genuine public goods (of which, of sical liberal who understands that the course, national defence is the most state is a human institution afflicted of Chicago—probably potent example). Third, government by all of humanity’s flaws. He under- must actively police against private stands that the special legitimacy fu- is the world’s leading monopolies. elling state power often generates The dire emergency exception to fearsome tyranny out of otherwise living philosopher of the work-a-day rules of property innocuous human pettiness, vanity, rights and voluntary contract is greed, ignorance, and envy. He is freedom (under the clearly justified. Only the most committed to reason, preaching its wooden ‘libertarian’ would have the virtues and practising what he age of 91) law permit a dock owner to deny the preaches. He knows that being prin- safety of his dock to a boat caught in cipled does not mean being dogmatic. a deadly storm. But the second and He loves freedom; he has no wish to natural law of Henry Hazlitt (whom third exceptions are less obviously impose his tastes and preferences Epstein does not cite) and of Randy justified. This review is not the place upon others; he realizes that markets Barnett (whom Epstein cites briefly to join the debate on the feasibility need not be perfect in order to be but inadequately). What does this of a purely voluntary, stateless soci- good; and he eloquently explains that natural law command? If the goal is ety. Epstein has a powerful point private property is indispensable for maximum and widespread human when he reminds his readers that both prosperity and liberty flourishing and prosperity, then the states are ubiquitous in time and Epstein—for 30 years now a pro- following are the foundational re- space. That fact surely conveys a fessor of law at the University of quirements: great deal of relevant information. So Chicago—probably is the world’s • individual autonomy, or self-own- let us not argue here with Epstein’s leading living philosopher of freedom ership; case for taxation. But eminent do- (under the age of 91). For this rea- • private property rights with ini- main is quite a different matter. The son alone, any book by him is wel- tial ownership established by the only justification Epstein offers is the ▲

R E V I E W JUNE 2004 39 standard argument that government those imposing special duties and re- emotions and psychological traits cannot let vital projects be held hos- strictions on common carriers) to the that cause actual perceptions and tage to private owners who might conclusion that active state policing choices to differ often from what withhold their property. He, no against monopoly power is justified. most reasonable standards hold to be doubt, imagines the highway or air- I know of no compelling evidence accurate and wise ones. In 2002, port that would get built but for the that private monopoly power is a Daniel Kahneman, a professor of psy- recalcitrant grandmother who refuses problem in reality; I know of plenty chology at Princeton University, to sell her family farm, either because of compelling evidence that antitrust shared the Nobel Prize in Economic she truly does attach an enormously statutes have been abused by plain- Science (with my colleague Vernon high sentimental value to the home- tiffs to thwart competition. There- Smith) for his pioneering work on stead or because she is strategically fore, a useful simple rule for our how real people differ from the homo holding out for an absurdly high complex world is to abandon all economicus of economists’ models. price. statutory efforts ostensibly aimed at This work in ‘behavioural econom- While it is easy to imagine such protecting consumers from monopo- ics’ is both interesting and important. problems, I doubt that they are sig- lies in markets. But because the strongest case for lib- nificant enough to entrust politicians eralism does not rest on the assump- with the power to take private prop- tion that people are hyper-rational, erty, even if politicians follow [Epstein’s] natural law discovering and cataloguing the Epstein’s sound advice on when to many ways that individuals deviate pay for whatever properties are taken. is no brooding other- from hyper-rationality does surpris- America is planted thick with hous- ingly little damage to liberalism’s ra- ing developments on large contigu- worldly omnipresence. tionale. ous plots of land. Private developers Perception and decision-making manage to assemble those tracts with- Instead, it evolves out biases do exist, but they often cancel out eminent domain. The Walt out when decision-making is decen- Disney Company purchased 30,000 of real-world situations tralized, are minimized by special- contiguous acres of land in central ization, are further minimized by the Florida for its amusement park and and takes human market’s concentration on each de- resort. That is an area twice the size cision-maker of the benefits and costs of Manhattan. With skilful contract- nature and the world of any decision, and have especially ing manoeuvres—for example, buy- great potential to wreak widespread ing each plot of land contingent upon we inhabit as they are damage when they distort collective the successful purchase of all other decision-making processes. Epstein plots of land necessary to build the successfully argues that the best of road or airport—a government intent behavioural economics strengthens on serving the public should be able BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS, the case for classical liberalism. to do its job without powers of emi- LAW AND LIBERTY The three chapters Epstein offers nent domain. Given the scope and depth of this on behavioural economics alone Epstein’s case for active govern- book, the foregoing is nit-picking an make the book well worth reading. ment policing against private mo- eloquent, powerful, and persuasive But you must read the entire volume. nopoly power is even less persuasive. case for classical liberalism. Especially It supplies a masterful analysis of clas- His presumption is that, in markets, welcome are the final three chapters sical liberalism and of the most po- monopolies arise with sufficient fre- on behavioural economics. tent current ideas that threaten to quency and durability to justify anti- The case for classical liberalism is undermine it. trust legislation. That presumption, sometimes made inappropriately. A of course, is widespread—even at chief example is objecting to govern- Donald J. Boudreaux is Professor of Economics Epstein’s home institution, otherwise ment intervention on the grounds and Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University. This book review first famous for its confidence in the reli- that it is unnecessary because indi- appeared in Regulation in Spring 2004, and is ability of markets. But the only evi- viduals are hyper-rational—that is, so reproduced in edited form with permission. dence he provides is the fact that the rational as to be immune to system- common law refused to enforce con- atic error in perceiving and judging Richard Epstein will be giving tracts in restraint of trade. Indeed it reality. a talk at the IPA in did. But it is too long a leap from rec- Properly understood, individuals Melbourne later this year ognizing the potential wisdom em- are rational. But contrary to the im- bodied in this common-law rule (and pressions left by some writers, every- in a few other related ones, such as one this side of the grave has I P A

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