Inside This Issue Volume 54 • Number 1 • March 2002
ARTICLES & REGULAR FEATURES
2 Editorial 19 The Blair Files Some high-profile NGOs, that have built solid reputa- It is a given that ‘poverty causes terrorism’. But does it? tions over time, risk ‘brand-name’ damage if they persist Our newest regular contributor ponders the real links with ill-informed or baseless campaigns. Mike Nahan between terrorists and wealth. Tim Blair 3 WWF Says ‘Jump!’, Governments Ask ‘How High?’ 21 What’s A Job? There is a disturbing trend for governments to make The IR system has more to do with the state seeking to environmental policy in the absence of sound science— protect employers from high labour costs than it does as their reaction to WWF’s Great Barrier Reef with the protection of workers’ rights. Ken Phillips campaign demonstrates. Jennifer Marohasy and 22 Strange Times Gary Johns The weird, the wacky and the wonderful from around 6 The Human-Rights Lobby Meets Terrorism the world. Compiled by IPA staff and columnists The inability of the world’s leading human-rights NGOs 23 Letter from London to come to grips with terrorism—both before and after To ny Blair promised ‘joined-up’ government. Instead, September 11—shows just how much they have lost the Britons now suffer bureaucratic inertia born of regula- plot. Adrian Karatnycky and Arch Puddington tory overload. John Nurick 10 The Age and Bias 24 Free_Enterprise.com The Age’s coverage of the recent Green blockade at Internet resources for arriving at a radical conclusion: Marysville highlights, yet again, that paper’s inability to repeal all drug laws now! Stephen Dawson live up to its professed principles on fair and accurate 26 Letter from America reporting. Graeme Gooding The collapse of Enron is not what the anti-capitalist 12 The ‘R’ Files critics claim it is. In fact, the very opposite—capitalism Australia is blessed with abundant natural gas, but the works! Nigel Ashford industry is cursed by inappropriate regulation. The result: 27 The ABC: Unique Unto Itself sub-optimal outcomes all round. Alan Moran Why can’t the ABC be managed like a private-sector organization? Because … well, because … it’s the ABC, 15 Greenhouse and Green Energy: Ten Realities of course! John Styles. Analyses of Australia’s official Greenhouse ‘Success Stories’ reveal more grounds for deep scepticism than 28 Drugs: Surrender Is Not A Winning Strategy they do for back-slapping. Brian J. O’Brien The National Secretary of the Australian Family Association takes issue with John Hyde’s recent Review 17 Education Agenda article on legalizing drugs. Bill Muehlenberg Across the world, governments are providing more and more data on schools, standards and performance. 30 Further Afield Australian governments have similar data—but lack the There’s money in mould, the effects of imprisoning drug inclination to share it with parents. Kevin Donnelly offenders, Florida mammals and development, corruption and currency crises, payments for human organs. 18 The Secular West and the Dangerous Quest for Meaning BOOK REVIEW The opponents of Western success—be they religious or ideological—understand neither its underpinnings 32 The Ultimate Insider nor its broad appeal. But that doesn’t stop them When respected US media insider Bernard Goldberg exploiting one of its strongest virtues—its tolerance. blew the whistle on bias within CBS, all hell broke Andrew McIntyre loose! Don D’Cruz
R E V I E W
Editor: Mike Nahan. Publisher & Executive Director: Mike Nahan. Production: Chris Ulyatt Consulting Services Pty Ltd. Designed by: Colin Norris, Kingdom Artroom. Printed by: Print Hotline, 47 Milligan Street, Perth WA 6000. 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] 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
Reputations are, increasingly, a crucial Rights Lobby Meets Terrorism’ on page commodity. They influence not only 6 of this issue.) AI now claims, among what we buy, but how we vote, dress, other silly things, that the US is as eat, play and donate. Accordingly, great a violator of human rights as the organizations spend huge resources Hutu in Rwanda and China in Tibet. developing, massaging, and protecting WWF has also lost the plot. Back in their brand names. 1998, the Great Barrier Reef and other Arguably, Amnesty International coral reefs around the world were (AI) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) being hit with an outbreak of coral have been two of the most successful bleaching. WWF immediately saw it as organizations at the reputation game. a fund-raising opportunity and According to a recent survey, AI is launched a worldwide campaign to save the most recognized and respected the Great Barrier Reef. While the brand in the developed world. WWF is campaign raised huge amounts of also well ranked—much higher than over communist countries. It also money, it ran into a big problem: the any commercial organization. focused on the actions of undemo- bleaching stopped, the coral recovered On the back of these reputations, cratic governments. and the cause turned out not to be AI and WWF—which both started in WWF also played a very con- global warming, as WWF claimed, but 1961—have not only grown to be structive role in its early days. WWF the naturally warming and cooling cycle synonymous with their chosen areas was formed essentially to raise funds of El Niño. The ethical thing would have of concern, but have become mega- for the IUCN and other groups which, been be to reallocate the funds to multinationals. While AI does not in turn, undertook practical con- reefs that are actually under threat publish a consolidated budget, in servation projects, particularly in the (such as many of the reefs in Asia 2000–01, its international head- Third World—over the last 40 years it which suffer from fish bombing) or to quarters had revenues of $60 million, a has funded over 11,000 projects. It has scientific research (say, on the workforce of over 400 and branches in also led a series of valuable high-profile relationship between global warming 56 countries. WWF is even larger. In campaigns, including saving the panda, and water temperature). Instead, WWF, 1999, it had a worldwide revenue of the tiger, the elephant, whales and while maintaining the fiction about $720 million, a workforce of over marine turtles. Although WWF bleaching and global warming, shifted 3,000 and branches in 41 countries. characteristically ‘gilded the lily’ in its its focus to a new supposed demon— AI and WWF have a number of early days, it focused on real problems agriculture. As outlined by Gary Johns things going for them. First, they are in in crucial areas and did so with some and Jennifer Marohasy (‘WWF Says the ‘protecting motherhood’ business scientific backing. Importantly, WWF “Jump!”, Governments Ask “How which, in this aspirational age, is far generally avoided demonizing cor- High?”’, page 3), WWF is now waging easier than selling cars that might porations and capitalism. Indeed, it an effective PR campaign against the crash. Second, they have no pesky generally sought to partner multi- sugarcane industry by claiming that it is shareholders, stockbrokers, journalists national corporations, which now destroying the Great Barrier Reef. or even governments scrutinizing their provide it with a major source of its Once again there is no scientific basis actions. Indeed, they operate in a funding. for their claims. In reality, WWF is rarefied laissez-faire world of which Somewhere along the line, how- destroying people’s livelihood while capitalists can only dream. ever, both organizations (or sections of offering no protection to the reef. They must also be given credit for them at least) have lost the plot. How do groups such as WWF and doing a vital job and doing it well in Adrian Karatnycky and Arch AI maintain such good reputations their early days. AI established a Puddington—from Freedom House, an with such feral behaviour? Well, take a remarkable network of voluntary advocacy centre for democracy and read of the article by Graeme Good- groups around the world to keep an freedom—outline how AI and its ing (‘The Age and Bias’, page 11) about eye on human rights’ violations. AI’s colleagues in Human Rights Watch environmental reporting in the role was particularly valuable during have lost touch both with their roots Melbourne Age—it goes a long way to the Cold War when Western gov- and with reality, and joined the anti- providing an explanation. ernments had little effective leverage American chant. (See ‘The Human- I P A
R E V I E W 2 MARCH 2002 WWF Says ‘Jump!’, Governments Ask ‘How High?’
JENNIFER MAROHASY AND GARY JOHNS
‘[We] base our work on sound science.’ WWF Vision Statement 2002 HE World Wide Fund for threatened dugong and green turtle, Environmentalist, labels the ‘Litany’: Nature (WWF) has are suffering from what we do on the that the environment is in poor shape, T mounted a campaign that land’. Imogen Zethoven, WWF Aus- resources are running out, the air and has lead to both the Com- tralia’s Great Barrier Reef campaign water are becoming more polluted, and monwealth and Queensland Gov- manager said that 750 inshore reefs industries must be heavily regulated. ernments recommending urgent and were at risk from land-based pollution, The Litany pays lip-service to the significant changes to land manage- chiefly agricultural run-off. concept of ecologically sustainable ment practices in catchments that The report indicated that the cattle development, but in fact pays no regard drain onto the Great Barrier Reef. It grazing industry contributed signifi- to the sustainability of industry. is alleged that there is evidence for cantly to the sediment load while the The Great Barrier Reef Marine localized deterioration on nearshore sugarcane growing industry was prin- Park Authority issued a media state- reefs from agricultural run-off. The cipally responsible for pollution from ment on the same day that the WWF scientific literature, however, pro- pesticides, herbicides and nutrients. report was released with the Author- vides no such evidence. So, what, While the report made many allega- ity’s Chair commenting that ‘the report and who, made these two govern- tions of reef impact from agriculture, will raise awareness of the issues ments jump to the wrong conclu- it did not substantiate any of the affecting water quality in the Marine sions? Park’. The Queensland Premier used WWF has targeted rural industries the report as an opportunity to criticize in Queensland over the past two years. While the [WWF’s] the Commonwealth Government for This campaign is believed to have been its lack of bipartisan support in assisted by funds from the United protecting the Reef. Interestingly, a States of America through donations report made many locally based conservation group with generated in response to media interest an established reef-monitoring pro- in the 1998 coral-bleaching episode allegations of reef gramme, the Cairns and Far North that affected reefs across the world. Environment Centre, disputed the WWF capitalized on the wide media impact from WWF allegations. Geoff Weir, the coverage and secured significant funds conservation group’s reef-monitoring to pay for a campaign to ‘Save the agriculture, it did coordinator, stated, ‘People are saying Great Barrier Reef’. In 1999, it estab- the Reef is not as good as it used to be lished headquarters in Brisbane and a not substantiate but so far that’s been based on anec- simple media strategy was developed dotal evidence’. whereby the Reef would be portrayed any of the claims The launch of the WWF document as a victim of industry, in particular the was planned to coincide with a meet- grazing and sugarcane industries. ing of the Great Barrier Reef Minis- claims. Claims of scientific consensus terial Council on 8 June 2001. At the CREATING A NEED FOR were made without citing a single meeting, the Council established a GOVERNMENT ACTION published reference. The report cited scientific working group, with the In June 2001, WWF published a Great no studies that provide documented charter to review the available data Barrier Reef Pollution Report Card. The evidence of a human-induced impact and existing national water quality principal conclusion was that ‘the on the Reef. guidelines and to prioritize catchments Great Barrier Reef is being threatened The WWF report plays on the according to the ecological risk present by land-based pollution. Inshore reefs current global preoccupation with to the Reef. Three months later, the and seagrass meadows, habitat for the what Bjørn Lomborg, in The Skeptical Commonwealth Environment Minis- ▲
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 3 ter released the Great Barrier Reef ‘So the widespread impact [of ter- published scientific papers and one Water Quality Action Plan. This docu- restrial run-off] is not substan- unpublished report as the best docu- ment focused on pollution from tiated.’ mented examples of localized dete- agriculture and concluded that ‘A ‘But the scientists have tried very rioration on nearshore reefs. range of pollutants are evident in hard to prove there is an impact.’ In the view of Dr Marohasy, and measurable quantities in river outflows ‘Let’s not get hung up on the Professor Bob Carter, Marine Geo- and these are causing the continued science.’ physical Laboratory, James Cook decline of inshore ecosystems of the ‘Let’s go forward on the basis of the University, none of these papers Reef’. precautionary principle.’ provide evidence that agriculture or The Queensland Government other land-based sources of run-off are responded to pressure from the WWF At the insistence of several Taskforce having an adverse impact on the Reef. campaign by establishing a Reef members, including the WWF repre- George Rayment, Principal Scientist, Protection Taskforce with terms of sentative, the science adviser agreed Queensland Department of Natural reference that included, ‘[to] advise the to redraft the science statement. The Resources and Mines, and an author Queensland Government on processes CSIRO representative, and senior au- of the first and second science state- for establishing appropriate water thor of the science statement, said that ments, has indicated at least three of quality goals and targets to protect the he would consult with his scientific the papers provide no evidence that Great Barrier Reef World Heritage colleagues with a view to redrafting the agriculture is having an impact on the Area’ through the development of a document. The next day a revised sci- Reef. Dr Piers Larcombe of the Marine Reef Protection Plan. The focus of the ence statement was issued, with the Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook Reef Protection Plan was to ‘reduce the comment to the Chairman of the University has advised that of the three impacts on the Great Barrier Reef of Taskforce that ‘We wish to clearly papers he has read, none provides any land based sources of nutrients, sedi- point out that whilst there is no evi- evidence of land-based run-off impact- ment and pollution’. dence of widespread deterioration, ing on the reef. Dr David Williams there is documented evidence of local- subsequently withdrew one of the EVIDENCE OF IMPACTS FROM ized deterioration on individual near- papers as evidence. AGRICULTURAL POLLUTION shore reefs’. What the cited papers do is provide ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF evidence that mangrove die-back has Representatives on the Reef Protec- occurred at least once in one region, tion Taskforce asked that the current Governments are that seagrass beds have expanded in level of scientific understanding on at least one region, and that there have impacts of terrestrial run-off on the increasingly basing been changes in the ability of some Reef be provided to the Taskforce. The reef communities to grow coral. science representative on the Task- their actions on Allegations of an impact from agri- force co-ordinated the development of culture are made in several of the a science statement in consultation papers. However, no evidence is with experts at the CRC Reef Research advice provided by presented in any of the papers to Centre, Department of Natural Re- indicate that the death of the man- sources and Mines, and James Cook unnamed consultants groves, the increase in seagrass abun- University. dance or the changes in coral cover The first science statement was or on unrefereed are not part of the normal process of developed for the Taskforce to provide living and dying in the biologically a ‘consolidated view of our current reports from diverse and dynamic ecosystems of the understanding of the impacts of Reef. Two of the papers provide terrestrial run-off on the Great Barrier government agencies evidence of traces of man-made Reef World Heritage Area’. Further, chemicals in marine sediments along ‘the statement seeks to allay concerns the Queensland coast. There is, that there are conflicting views in the This was the first statement from however, no evidence to suggest that scientific community’. This document reputable scientists clearly alleging an these low levels are having an impact, discussed threats to the Reef, but impact from land-based run-off on the and the source of the chemical has not provided no reference of actual damage Reef. The science adviser on the Reef been determined, but is more likely to to the Reef. Protection Taskforce and Dr David be associated with the fishing than Several Taskforce members noted Williams (Deputy Chief Executive with agricultural industry. this fact, with the following comments Officer of the CRC Reef Research There is no dispute that post- being made by Taskforce members at Centre), when requested, provided Dr European land use, including agri- the meeting on 12 November: Marohasy with references to five culture, has had an impact on catch-
R E V I E W 4 MARCH 2002 ments in which it is undertaken. Post- on reefs for subsistence. An extensive integrity. According to Professor European land use has potentially system of marine protected areas is Carter of James Cook University, ‘one increased runoff and sediment associa- being implemented; the best known of of the relatively new problems that ted nutrient and contaminant delivery these is the Great Barrier Reef Marine faces us is that governments are to near-shore regions of the Reef area Park (which is also a World Heritage increasingly basing their actions on over the last 150 years. There is also Area). This is the largest marine advice provided by unnamed con- evidence for a detrimental impact from protected area in the world and serves sultants, or on unrefereed reports from human land-based activities, including as a model for the establishment of government agencies, some of which agriculture, on freshwater aquatic many other similar multi-user areas. are not even released into the public systems in some regions. However, The monitoring programmes on the domain. This is a recipe for disaster. there is no evidence of damage to the Great Barrier Reef are also probably Good science operates on a consensus Reef from agricultural pollution. Many the largest and most extensive in the basis, using material that has been Queensland agricultural producers, world’. subjected to rigorous peer review and including cane growers, have sought to published in journals of international reduce their potential impact on standing. It is therefore at their own downstream environments through the As for the Australian peril that democratic governments widespread adoption of minimum attempt to “control” the scientific tillage systems and the adoption of campaign, WWF process for political ends.’ other best management practices. It is a dereliction of duty for Consequently, pressures from agricul- adds no value governments to devise standards for ture—and in particular cane growing— water quality and run-off regimes are reducing, not increasing. without direct studies of impact. That whatsoever to the some scientists would play along with CURRENT STATE OF THE them suggests that politics and science GREAT BARRIER REEF science, awareness, are no strangers. The issues could have The most comprehensive summary of been resolved if governments had been major environmental attributes of the or protection prepared to scrutinize the evidence in Reef, their status and pressures, is con- the published scientific literature. tained in the State of the Great Barrier of the Reef Governments, however, appear in- Reef World Heritage Area. This suggests creasingly reluctant to assess inform- that water quality, mangroves and ation independently. Instead, they seagrasses show ‘no obvious adverse POLITICS AND SCIENCE hand the referee’s whistle to self- trends’. In contrast, birds, marine It is understood that the WWF Reef interested aggrandizers such as WWF. turtles, dugongs and inter-reefal and Campaign has helped generate over WWF may have played a useful role lagoonal benthos show ‘decline’ or 7,000 new supporters in Australia in saving the Panda from Mao’s China, ‘substantial impacts’. Significant pres- alone during 2001. The increase in and the Siberian Tiger from the sures arise from: human disturbance WWF membership has come at the Soviets. But the Great Barrier Reef is from visitation (birds), by-catch in price of undermining community con- arguably the best-protected coral reef trawl and shark nets (turtles), hunting fidence in Queensland agriculture, in in the world. The reason WWF sug- both locally and overseas (turtles), pre- particular sugarcane growing and beef gests otherwise has more to do with dation of eggs and young by feral ani- grazing. The beef grazing industry has raising its profile than protecting the mals (turtles), boat strike (dugongs), been worth $2.5 billion annually in Reef. The irony is that many reefs in indigenous hunting (dugongs), trawl- direct earnings to the Australian the near north around Indonesia are ing (benthos), potentially increased economy over the last two years. The under threat. As for the Australian sediments and nutrients in run-off (in- sugar industry is worth $1.6 billion campaign, WWF adds no value what- ter-reefal and lagoonal benthos— annually in direct income to the Aus- soever to the science, awareness, or nearshore communities only). tralian economy and the total output protection of the Reef. Two govern- The abstract from the most recent, value of the industry and associated ments and a string of agencies already peer-reviewed assessment of the Status services would be approximately $2.9 regulate activities within its vicinity. of Coral Reefs of Australasia: Australia billion. Both industries are major con- and Papua New Guinea, states, ‘Aus- tributors to Queensland’s economy Dr Jennifer Marohasy is Environment Manager with Queensland Canegrowers Organization Ltd. tralia’s coral reefs … are generally in and underpin the economic stability good condition … They are well of many rural and regional communi- Dr Gary Johns is a Senior Fellow with the protected from the relatively low level ties. Institute of Public Affairs Ltd. of human pressures resulting from a The Reef Campaign has also come small population that is not dependent at the price of undermining scientific I P A
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 5 The Human-Rights Lobby Meets Terrorism
ADRIAN KARATNYCKY AND ARCH PUDDINGTON
In this article, Adrian Karatnycky and Arch Puddington discuss the response of human-rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to the terrorist attacks of September 11. They look at how most of the human-rights community has treated the question of terrorism in general in recent years, and also how it has treated the US.
N the months since the IT TURNS out that the organizations’ the ‘war on terrorism,’ Human Rights September 11 terrorist at reluctance to use the word ‘terrorism’ Watch has preferred to describe it as tacks on the United is not new. One can examine the hun- the ‘war against indistinct enemies.’ As I States, the world’s two lead- dreds of documents that Amnesty In- for those cases when the word simply ing human-rights organizations—Am- ternational has issued over the years cannot be avoided, Amnesty Inter- nesty International and Human Rights on countries and regions victimized by national has invariably placed it in Watch—have been very busy. And so terror, from Colombia and Kashmir to quotation marks, thus implying its own they should have been. International Spain and Great Britain, without ever scepticism. law, to which these organizations are encountering a straightforward refer- Pressed to explain this policy of committed above all things, recognizes evasion, spokesmen for major human- terrorism as a distinct and uniquely rights organizations argue that the term malevolent form of aggression against Major human-rights ‘terrorism’ lacks a clear definition in civilians; and the attacks themselves international law—which happens not assuredly constituted a massive and organizations argue to be the case. There are, in fact, horrendous violation of human rights, several UN-sponsored agreements, unprecedented in the history of the that the term including the International Con- United States. vention for the Suppression of Terrorist Yet, from the steady stream of Bombings, that speak forthrightly of reports, statements, and open letters ‘terrorism’ lacks a terrorism as a distinct and widely the organizations have sent to leaders agreed-upon category of aggression. A like President Bush and UN Secretary- clear definition in better explanation can be found in the General Kofi Annan, one learns little human-rights community’s profound of this. Although both Amnesty international law— distrust of the governments around the International and Human Rights world that face a terrorist threat—and Watch have issued denunciations of which happens not in the reluctance to acknowledge that the attacks on the World Trade Center security is essential to any meaningful and Pentagon, not once have they to be the case idea of freedom. spoken about the precise nature of It seems that, whatever havoc these vicious acts, or called them by terrorists may wreak on a society, the their proper name: terrorism. They ence to the term. Instead, one reads of more serious human-rights problem in have raised many concerns, to be sure, ‘brutal’ or ‘horrific’ acts, or of ‘violent the eyes of Amnesty International and but terrorism itself has not been part assaults’—phrases that could apply as Human Rights Watch lies in the of their agenda. easily to the aggression of one army methods that public authorities have To understand what is going on, it against another as to the deliberate adopted to combat these ‘indistinct helps to have some idea of how most murder of civilians by political or reli- enemies.’ Nowhere has this attitude of the human-rights community has gious extremists. been more pronounced than in the way treated this question in general in Occasionally, human-rights organ- human-rights groups have treated the recent years—and also how it has izations have resorted to almost challenge posed by radical Islam, treated the United States of America. comical euphemisms. In speaking of which everywhere has resorted to
R E V I E W 6 MARCH 2002 terror as a basic tactic. In a revealing Uzbekistan’s president, Islam Karimov, the armed opposition in Uzbekistan, statement, Kenneth Roth, the director is one of Central Asia’s most pitiless it is because their tenets permit of Human Rights Watch, observed last strongmen, having retained power by violence only when there is a like- May that ‘violent Islam [today] is the jailing and torturing peaceful political lihood of overthrowing the ruler. Communism of ten years ago.’ By this opponents and making others ‘dis- Predicably, President Karimov has he appeared to mean not only that appear.’ His crimes have been chron- resorted to repression against the Party radical Islam was a spent force, like icled and denounced by human-rights of Liberation and has jailed many of Soviet Communism in 1990, but that investigators with justifiable regularity. its followers without a semblance of apprehensions about it were greatly But Karimov has also used the same due process or fair trial. In their exaggerated, and as likely as not were tactics against threats to his power of assessments of Uzbekistan, however, being invoked by governments only as an entirely different sort. both Amnesty International and an excuse for repression. The most fearsome of these threats Human Rights Watch treat these has come from the Islamic Movement jailed Party of Liberation members not IS THIS true? Let us consider, to be- of Uzbekistan, a radical guerilla group as would-be terrorists but as prisoners gin with, Algeria and Uzbekistan, two that, with the assistance of the Taliban of conscience. They are routinely places whose governments have been regime in Afghanistan, has sowed described as nothing more than ‘pious ruthless in dealing with violent Islam. terror not just in its own country but Muslims,’ ‘men who prayed at home For most of the past decade, or in small private groups,’ ‘non- Algerian society has been brutalized violent religious Muslims,’ or ‘those by a fanatical and murderous move- Both Amnesty who belonged to unregistered Islamic ment of Islamic extremists. Islamic organizations.’ Entirely lacking is any guerrillas have routinely invaded International and serious description of the ideology of villages deemed unsympathetic to the Party of Liberation, its clandestine their cause, slaughtering an estimated Human Rights Watch methods, or the danger that it might 100,000 men, women and children. pose. The response of the Algerian gov- ernment has been, by any measure, treat these jailed SINCE ALGERIA and Uzbekistan are ferocious. It has tortured or killed its violent and autocratic regimes, it may enemies and harassed or imprisoned Party of Liberation not be surprising—but it is deplor- journalists and public figures who have able—that the human-rights commu- criticized official policies. members not as nity should have declined to recognize From the standpoint of human their legitimate security concerns. In rights for Algerian society as a whole, would-be terrorists both situations, the task is to choose however, there can be no doubt that between the lesser of two evils, which the triumph of the government is but as prisoners of is hardly these organizations’ forte. preferable to the triumph of its What, then, about the one case—Is- terrorist adversaries. Yet the over- conscience rael—in which a genuinely open and whelming thrust of the criticism issued democratic society has also long con- by the human-rights lobby has been fronted a threat to its survival from Is- directed at that government. Far more throughout Central Asia. Uzbekistan lamic terrorists? important to these groups than the has also seen the emergence of the In recent years, the major human- extraordinary death toll exacted by Party of Liberation (Hizb-ut-tahrir), a rights organizations have been forth- terrorism has been the state’s un- fanatical Islamist group that operates right, it is true, in denouncing the most willingness to prosecute abusive through secretive five-man cells in heinous attacks committed by Pales- members of its own security forces. more than a dozen countries, in- tinians. The suicide bombing of a busy Missing, too, from the analysis of the cluding Great Britain and Germany pizza parlour, or the ambush of a school major human-rights groups has been (where it is likely to have influenced bus filled with children—these are any acknowledgment that the Alger- Muhammad Atta and the other hi- unacceptable in their view, even if ian government, having vanquished a jackers who attended German uni- such acts, too, have never been formidable enemy, is moving gradually versities). Avowed supporters of the described as terrorism. But these toward national reconciliation and the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, mem- acknowledgments of barbarism are the relaxation of state control. bers of the Party of Liberation reject exception. In report after report, the A similar myopia has afflicted the democracy, religious freedom, human burden of responsibility for the vio- organizations’ treatment of Uzbekis- rights, and participation in political lence, upheaval, and killing in the tan, a country with its own deplorable institutions they consider tainted by Arab–Israeli conflict, particularly record of human-rights violations. unbelief. If they have not yet joined during the intifada unleashed just over ▲
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 7 a year ago, has been placed squarely his most severe critics, bears only insecure. Perhaps most pertinent of all, on the shoulders of democratic Israel. indirect responsibility, and which were it employs methods that present Amnesty International and reviewed some time ago by an inde- extraordinary challenges to traditional Human Rights Watch have issued pendent commission of Israel’s military or police tactics. protests against virtually every policy democratic government. And Yasir But the major human-rights or- adopted by Israel in its effort to Arafat? Somehow, neither of the ganizations have in fact not re- prevent further terrorist attacks leading human-rights groups has seen considered. To judge by what they against its citizens. Traffic blockades, fit to demand his indictment for have said since September 11, they border closings that keep Palestinians heinous crimes against humanity are far from recognizing the character from reaching jobs inside Israel, committed not simply on his watch of the enemy against which the restrictions on Bir Zeit University in but at his explicit direction, extending civilized world now finds itself the West Bank—all, we have been arrayed. Instead, at the core of their told, are violations of one or another response has been a fear not of that fundamental human right. As for Like its Communist enemy but of the United States, and Israel’s policy of seeking out and killing in particular of the American re- Palestinians who have participated in predecessor, action—or, as many seem to believe, terrorist operations—a policy designed over-reaction—to the events of Sep- to avoid further civilian casualties— Islamism functions tember 11. this, too, has come under severe Thus, the initial declarations of criticism. Amnesty International and Human Indeed, although it is the Pales- by combining the Rights Watch focused on expectations tinians who have made an explicit of an upsurge of anti-Muslim hate strategy of drawing civilians on both armed struggle of a crimes here at home, of racial profiling sides into the heart of the bloody by law-enforcement officials, and of conflict, it is the Israelis who, in the few militants with a the mistreatment of immigrants. reports of these groups, are much more Subsequently, the organizations have likely to be blamed for civilian deaths. support network attacked the temporary detention of Thus, Israeli military authorities are suspects without charges and the censured for permitting ‘indiscrim- whose hands reach establishment of military tribunals for inate’ firing into areas containing trying terrorists—both of which they Palestinian civilians, while little is said around the globe consider violations of fundamental of the Palestinians’ intentional use of rights. Human Rights Watch has gone such neighbourhoods as shields for so far as to issue a lengthy document their gunmen. Human-rights organiz- back in time for decades, and by now reminding the Bush Administration— ations have paid special attention in too numerous to catalogue. to which the news will no doubt come recent years to the use around the as a thunderclap—that international world of child soldiers, especially by IN THE wake of September 11, one law prohibits the torture of prisoners. irregular forces; but they have said might reasonably have expected Am- To be sure, other commentators nothing about the Palestinian practice nesty International and Human Rights have raised objections to various anti- of putting children in the front lines Watch to entertain second thoughts terrorism measures introduced by the of violent demonstrations, a policy about their assessment of Islamic ex- Administration. But what disting- designed to create young martyrs and tremism. For, as we have had bitter uishes the human-rights world is its thus further inflame Palestinian and reason to learn, the comparison of insistence on denouncing each and Islamic opinion.1 radical Islam to Communism has every proposal to secure the domestic The dismaying stand taken by turned out to be in many respects quite front. This apprehension has been Amnesty International and Human relevant, if not in the sense construed matched by concerns over the conduct Rights Watch is best symbolized in by the human-rights community. of the war in Afghanistan itself, and their agenda with respect to the Like its worldwide Communist other measures by the US and its allies leaders of the two sides. Both groups predecessor, Islamism functions by to destroy terror networks. have called for a criminal investi- combining the armed struggle of a few Initially treating the attack of gation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel militants with a support network September 11 as a problem in law Sharon for his role in the killings by whose hands reach around the globe. enforcement, Amnesty International Christian militiamen that took place It too presents a major challenge to urged President Bush to join with the in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee established democracies and an omi- United Nations in ‘bring[ing] those camps in Lebanon in 1982—killings nous threat to governments that are responsible … to justice within the for which Sharon, even according to weak or whose grip on power is framework of a fair and accountable
R E V I E W 8 MARCH 2002 criminal-justice system, and with full AFGHAN CIVILIANS did of course refused to sign a number of inter- respect for international standards for die from errant bombs in the initial national human-rights treaties. And a fair trial.’ Amnesty International phases of the war; the incidents were it is a country that, according to a went on record opposing the extra- well publicized and, in fact, rare. But sweeping indictment issued in 1999 by dition to the US of Osama bin Laden the reports from human-rights orga- Amnesty International, deserves to be and other terrorists should they be nizations conveyed no sense of the grouped with Tibet and Rwanda as a captured—unless the Administration care that the United States took to target of international protest and could guarantee that they would not avoid targets in civilian areas. Nor did concern. face the death penalty. they bother to acknowledge more gen- It has become a commonplace to Once it became clear that the erally the other steps taken by the say that, in matters of foreign policy, United States intended to use its Bush Administration to protect and ‘everything changed’ after September military might to hunt down al-Qaeda promote basic rights both here and 11. Yet for important segments of the and remove its Taliban protectors from abroad—at least as far as innocents are human-rights world, clearly, nothing power, the human-rights world trained concerned. So relentlessly critical has changed at all. That the principal its spotlight on America’s tactics. have been the world’s two leading human-rights organizations should be Under international law, Human voices for human rights and the ex- singling out the United States as an Rights Watch stressed, it was illegal pansion of liberty as to raise a ques- international scofflaw was repre- to assassinate Osama bin Laden or tion about their attitude toward the hensible enough yesterday. Today, it other terrorist leaders. The organiz- United States itself. raises powerful doubts as to their ation likewise issued several urgent That question is, alas, all too easily fundamental sense of judgment, and protests over America’s use of cluster answered. In the reports published in says everything one needs to know bombs, and, in one rather exotic recent years by Amnesty International about their political drift. statement, warned that the war was and Human Rights Watch, America placing the rights of Afghan women NOTES in special peril because, among other 1 In yet another example of the things, the head-to-toe burkhas they It has become a breathtaking double standard were compelled to wear under the they apply to the conflict, both Taliban made it difficult for them to commonplace to say organizations have also endorsed move quickly. the ‘right of return’ for Palestin- Of particular concern to both ians who have left Israel proper major human-rights organizations that …‘everything since 1948. What they blithely were reports of civilian deaths during ignore is that most of these Pal- the American bombing campaign. changed’ after estinians fled at the insistence of Amnesty International called for ‘an their own leaders, that hundreds immediate and full investigation into September 11. Yet for of thousands of Jews were them- what may have been violations of selves expelled from Arab coun- international humanitarian law’ important segments tries upon Israel’s creation, and, arising from US military actions, and most of all, that so massive an it also objected to the Pentagon’s of the human-rights influx would threaten, and may decision to bomb radio stations that be designed to threaten, the very were serving as propaganda vehicles world, nothing has survival of Israel. for the Taliban leadership. This, according to Amnesty International, This article was first published in was insufficient justification for changed at all Commentary, New York in Janu- launching attacks on ‘civilian ary 2002. It is reproduced with objects.’ emerges not as the land of the free but the permission of the authors. At one crucial point in the con- as a country where human rights, flict, Amnesty International even especially those of racial minorities, Adrian Karatnycky is the president of Freedom insisted that special monitors be immigrants, and asylum-seekers, are House and the co-author of several books about appointed to oversee the transfer of routinely and massively violated. It is Soviet and post-Soviet politics. arms from the United States and other the home of rampant police abuses, countries to Northern Alliance com- execrable prison conditions, and, Arch Puddington is vice-president for research of Freedom House and is currently writing a biography manders, with a mandate to keep the according to Amnesty International, of the trade-union leader Lane Kirkland. guns away from commanders deemed a ‘culture of death’ because of the unsuitable because of past human- barbaric practice of capital punish- rights abuses. ment. It is a place that has shamefully I P A
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 9 The Age and Bias
GRAEME GOODING
ICHAEL Gawenda, Editor Miller devoted 70 per cent of her whelming majority were from the of The Age, has stated: first article to anti-timber industry local region. In any case, the motions ‘Journalists have a public views from a tourism operator and a put at the meeting were carried M role. They have the ability protester. The remaining 30 per cent without dissent. Miller later advised to do serious damage to people. They of the article included a timber- Kersten Gentle of Timber Com- are a prime source of information … if industry operator, and a spokesman for munities Australia that her story was we can’t set standards and make sure Environment and Conservation based on advice from Green activists, that information is independent, un- Minister Sherryl Garbutt saying that who had seen cars with NSW plates biased, uncontaminated by commer- ‘the Department of Natural Resources parked in the main street near the cial or other interests, then we have a and Environment Department has meeting and a bus—this in a tourism serious problem’. made consultation with all stake- town with over 1,000 beds! The Mr Gawenda has a serious problem holders a priority through the Mystic impression she gave was that the with The Age’s environment reporter, Mountains Tourism Association’. meeting was stacked with people Claire Miller, who has been a repeat brought in from all over the State and offender in regard to biased reporting. from NSW. In contrast, the protesters’ Moreover, he has failed to address this Michael Gawenda, campaign was presented by The Age problem despite repeated calls from report as being driven by the local individuals, industry, unions and Editor of The Age, community: ‘The community group timber communities. In recent years, has linked with conservation activists meetings have been convened with to organize the region’s first logging editorial staff to hear these complaints. has a serious blockade … Marysville residents are During these meetings, Age staff have supporting the protesters with food agreed that Claire Miller had inappro- problem to address, and equipment’. priately combined her opinion within The report failed to cover the fact news reportage. Factual mistakes have if he wishes to that the tourism views expressed in also been acknowledged, all too few The Age were unrepresentative. In of which have been listed in the ‘We maintain the ideals fact, the tourism industry in the area, were Wrong’ column, albeit buried in represented by their association, the ‘small print’. Some have been to which he and his Mystic Mountains Inc, has co-existed subject to ‘correction’ via follow up with the timber industry for a century. articles. paper subscribe Last year they established a working The latest example is the reporting group from both sectors and the Forest of the Marysville blockade by a green Department to address any conflicts protest group. The protesters’ com- The second article reported that and, more importantly, to work on munication plan seemed to be both to ‘About 350 people from as far afield areas of mutual benefit to grow both present and to foster a division between as East Gippsland, southern NSW and their industries. They do not support tourism and timber, by claiming that the Otways attended a meeting in the protesters. This was noted in tourism operators opposed harvesting in Marysville on Tuesday night’. This several press statements by Graeme ‘pristine forest’ as it was damaging their meeting called on the Victoria Police Brown—Executive Officer of Mystic business. Claire Miller wrote two news and the Department of Natural Mountains Inc—during the protests stories: ‘Loggers barking up wrong tree, Resources and Environment to end and at the meeting in Marysville on say protesters’ (15 January 2002) and the blockade and uphold the right of Tuesday 22 January. Mystic Mountains ‘Loggers urge action by state’ (24 workers to go about their business. had convened a special meeting the January 2002). Despite clear evidence The report made passing reference night before, which 50 people that the tourism and timber sectors were that ‘representatives from the local attended. They reaffirmed that they working co-operatively and that timber tourism body’ were present. endorsed the democratic approach harvesting was occurring in regrowth— In fact more than 400 people that the two industries have adopted not pristine—forest, Claire’s reporting attended, none present were from to address issues and did not support followed the protesters’ ‘script’. NSW or the Otways, and the over- the protesters who were, in fact,
R E V I E W 10 MARCH 2002 currently harming their tourism tressed that she had difficulty breath- The Age code of conduct states that efforts. One person voted against the ing and needed to go on a respirator. the ‘overriding principles are fairness, position taken by the association. The On the previous Sunday (20 Janu- integrity, openness, responsibility and Age was provided with statements by ary), 11 Taungurung people had visited a commitment to accuracy and truth. Mystic Mountains, but none of them the blockade to find out what it was Sustaining the highest editorial was reported. about. They got into a heated debate standards is essential to us retaining Claire Miller also misrepresented with the Greens as they accused them the trust of the community, and the the position of the local Aboriginal of disrespecting the traditional land- freedoms and responsibilities afforded group which entered the debate, owners. The elders who visited the to us by the community.’ ‘Staff should reporting the Green protesters’ claims blockade felt threatened by the beha- seek to present only fair, balanced and without adequate checking. She wrote: viour of the Greens at the blockade accurate material.’ Timber Communities Australia and decided to leave. They contacted The Media, Entertainment and also released a statement by Judy the industry on Monday to see whe- Arts Alliance: Australian Journalists’ Monk, an elder of the Taungurung ther or not they could assist, as they Association Code of Ethics states that people, who told the meeting that did not agree with the blockade or journalists will apply the following the traditional owners did not with the claims being made by the standards: ‘Report and interpret support the protesters. But pro- Greens. This had prompted Judy honestly, striving for accuracy, fairness, testers’ spokesman Dave Marsden Monk, on behalf of the Taungurung, and disclosure of all essential facts. Do said another elder, [……], had to read out a statement at the Marys- not suppress relevant available facts, granted written permission for the ville meeting which noted that: or give distorting emphasis. Do your blockade. utmost to give a fair opportunity for • they had been consulted over the The statement regarding permission reply.’ ‘Do not allow personal interest, last 12 months re logging coupes ‘for the blockade’ is factually incorrect. or any belief, commitment, payment, and believed matters had been It would seem permission for a camp gift or benefit to undermine your dealt with appropriately; was provided on Wednesday 23 Janu- accuracy, fairness or independence.’ •‘the logging industry has been a vi- ary without explaining that it was part Clearly The Age has every right to tal component of our survival over of the blockade. The Taungurung publish Claire Miller’s opinions as well generations’; people have provided the following as those of others with views on these • ‘we are appalled at the lack of re- account. issues—provided that these do not spect and contact shown to the tra- Three women and a child went to include errors, which has not always ditional owners prior and during the CDP Aboriginal Centre in Heales- been the case. Her opinions, however, the erection of the blockade by the ville on Wednesday 23rd (the day after should not be allowed to cross over activists’; the Marysville meeting), wanting into her news reporting. Nor should • they do not support the activists’ permission to camp on traditional she be allowed to selectively exclude actions. Taungurung Land. All the elders facts, to allow language manipulation except one were away at a gathering. This is not the first time that Claire to occur through the use of words such [The name of the remaining elder has Miller has sought to downplay or ig- as ‘pristine’ and ‘old growth’ (to been withheld at her request—Ed.] nore Aboriginal support for the cur- describe regrowth) or to use her ‘news After considerable insistence, a short rent timber plans and their opposition reports’ to present a distorted view to statement was prepared along the lines to Green groups’ modes of operation. ‘market’ the campaigns of Green of: To Whom it may concern, I as a On several occasions, the Moogji Ab- protestors and Green politicians along senior elder of the Taungurung Abo- original Council of East Gippsland, with her own views to Age readers riginal Tribe give permission to set up based in Orbost, have issued state- under the guise of balanced news. camp on traditional Taungurung land. ments of opposition to protesters and Michael Gawenda has a serious She was unaware that these people had support for the industry. These have problem to address, if he wishes to set up a fort/blockade or protest against been published in the local paper but maintain the ideals to which he and the industry. They told her that they never reported in The Age. Instead, his paper subscribe. Inaccurate reports wanted to camp in a dry creek bed. Claire Miller has given prominence to have the potential to do serious The woman and other elders believe an individual Aboriginal from another damage to people and communities. that these women manipulated the group who opposed logging. facts and deliberately hid that they Graeme Gooding, a forester by training, currently were anti-logging protesters. NEWSPAPER ETHICAL STAND- works for the Victorian Association On Thursday night, when the ARDS BREACHED of Forest Industries. other elders informed her of the real The aforementioned and earlier re- purpose behind the letter of authoriz- ports by Claire Miller have breached ation to camp, she became so dis- a number of ethical standards. I P A
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 11 The ‘R’ Files ALAN MORAN
Jumping Jack Flash— New Guinea’s Southern Highlands It’s a Gas Gas Gas into Queensland. Press reports in February 2002 suggest that the project, which would cost $3.5 Australia has vast volumes of natu- billion, is getting closer to fruition. ral gas, most of it off the coast in The pipeline itself has access to the remote north. The present gas gas which is virtually free since it is pipeline network has mainly a by-product of petroleum develop- evolved on a State-by-State basis ment, cannot be flared and has no and been reliant on governments alternative market but Queensland. either building pipelines or guaran- And the Queensland Government teeing prices. This government has been most accommodating. To ownership/sponsorship model has assist the gas pipeline (and in the proved to be costly and there is near pipelines in place and projected. process mollify its environmental unanimity that the future is one of Gas is an excellent fuel source lobby) the Beattie Government has private ownership and competition. and is somewhat more flexible than introduced a tax on new coal-fired There remains considerable coal as an input into electricity electricity developments. The tax scope for expansion of the pipeline generation. Per unit of energy, it is requires any electricity seller to network and a good deal of private also a third less greenhouse-gas source at least 13 per cent of new sector interest in doing this. The intensive than coal, a feature that electricity supplies from gas-fired biggest threat is regulatory myopia. gas users and producers are not slow generation. Failure to do so subjects Regulators are seeking to socialize to emphasize. And for gas to make suppliers to a penalty equivalent to any potential profit and privatize greater inroads into Australian a tax of about 30 per cent on the losses by setting prices that fail to energy usage means it must grab a incremental coal-fired electricity. factor in the full costs of risks, but larger share of electricity generation. Even this leaves the pipeline entrepreneurs are refusing to build For many years, there have been hostage to competitive provision. new assets that would be hostage to plans to pipe gas down from Papua Other gas is available, and could be such policies. Pipeline builders are either not pursuing opportunities at all, or else planning under-sized pipelines with their capacity fully committed so that they are beyond the authority of regulators to fix prices. The result is a lack of movement towards a national network, high-priced gas and lost development. Australia’s massive North-West Shelf gas reserves have long proved politically enticing. A quarter of a century ago, the prospect of piping this gas to the eastern states became a fanatical pursuit of Whitlam Government Minister Rex Connor. His bizarre attempts to finance this contributed much to the discrediting of that Government. The accompanying chart shows Source: Australian Gas Association the major sources of gas, and the
R E V I E W 12 MARCH 2002 piped from Bass Strait, from Moomba competition in at least one market’. opers alike. And with pipelines that and even from northern Australia. The regulatory authorities always were built under a regime that gave relate this to the question of them protection from competition, THE POLITICS OF GAS AND ITS whether pipeline prices will be regulating price and access condi- REGULATORY FRAMEWORK cheaper under a regulated regime or tions is a reasonable quid pro quo. Subsidies and government encour- a market-driven regime that relies But here’s the rub! We have now agement are one thing, but gas de- on normal commercial interaction. shifted to a regime where entrepre- velopments would offer more prom- Voluminous reports almost in- neurs are supposed to spot profitable ise if the regulatory framework un- variably produce the answer, ‘yes, a opportunities and step in to meet der which they operate were to be regulated price would be lower’. consumer needs. For new pipelines, reformed. In January, during John In the narrow context of a single users and producers are both auto- Howard’s trip to the USA, Ameri- pipeline, it would, in fact, be matically winners. If the service is can corporate interests expressed astonishing if a different answer not provided, users don’t get the concern about inconsistencies in were possible. Pipeline costs are 95 benefit of the cheaper supply of Australian energy regulation, incon- per cent sunk. Once pipelines are energy, either gas itself or gas that sistencies that are affecting invest- in the ground, price reductions will supplies electricity generation. ment in Australia. not force lower output, while the When pipeline owners observe that During 1997, Australian Govern- the regulatory authorities won’t ments introduced the national Gas allow them the control that they Code—a stepchild of the Hilmer Pipeline builders are want, they cease putting money into competition reforms. Administered new developments. For, although by the Australian Competition and either not pursuing government bodies can force down Consumer Commission (ACCC) prices of existing assets, they are and the National Competition opportunities or unable to force investors to build Council (NCC), it was designed to new assets (though the ACCC is bring about fair competition in gas. planning under-sized seeking such powers). The Code itself and its regulators The industry was, however, pay lip-service to the view that pipelines with their encouraged when, in 2001, the regulation is very much a second- Australian Competition Tribunal best approach to market com- capacity fully overturned the NCC’s ambitions to petition. Even so, supposed ‘market regulate Duke Energy’s pipeline imperfections’ are almost always committed so that from Bass Strait to Sydney. That infinite and invariably offer a pipeline competed head-on with the determined regulatory authority they are beyond the existing Moomba-to-Sydney Pipe- countless opportunities to dream up line (MSP) and a price war had reasons to intervene in the market. authority of regu- already broken out. The result is a regulatory environ- The NCC accepted the Tri- ment that is stifling new develop- lators to fix prices bunal’s decision and MSP therefore ments and morphing the key skills sought reciprocal treatment to of gas firms from commercial into escape its own regulatory prison. But political entrepreneurship. In a customers (and gas suppliers) can the NCC showed a dogged refusal desire to avoid regulatory oversight, only gain by a lower haulage cost. to give up an opportunity for regu- investors are designing pipelines as And to justify cutting the price, the lation. It hired two American single-use facilities. This not only regulators can always claim that the academics to write a report which reduces pipeline capacity and pipeliner spent too much in building said that reciprocity was not appro- increase costs, it also goes directly the asset or underestimated gas priate. The academics also showed against the public interest in building demand, or that future costs will be touching faith in regulators’ business a national integrated gas network. lower. That way, the regulators skills. They maintained that because We are now seeing pipelines spe- maintain the charade that they are an ACCC draft decision proposed cifically designed so that they can not expropriating property rights. to reduce the price on the MSP avoid regulatory oversight—even further than it had fallen in the face where this means additional costs PERVERSE OUTCOMES OF of the competition from Duke, this and reduced flexibility. REGULATORY CONTROLS proved that the company was goug- One of the key criteria in the Regulators frequently maintain that ing the market! Code is that a pipeline should be they are simply administering a re- In response to the regulatory regulated where this ‘would promote gime that is fair to users and devel- decisions, we have two major pros- ▲
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 13 pective developments that are being tailored to ensure immunity from regulatory oversight. One of these, SEAGas, links fields in offshore After Thoughts Victoria with Adelaide; the other, the Darwin-to-Moomba develop- Tesna: One More Nail in the Coffin ment, would fulfil Rex Connor’s by MIKE NAHAN dream of bringing gas across the continent. The developers in both cases propose to design the pipes to The Ansett/Tesna débâcle does productive workplace arrange- cater only for pre-booked gas haul- have one major benefit—it ham- ments such as those at Virgin age, so that they escape regulation. mered another large nail in the Blue flourish, while airlines with This is in spite of the fact that, IR Club’s coffin. arrangements such as theirs go thanks to pipeline economics, costs It is now clear to all that the bankrupt. And it is still fuming per unit carried fall dramatically Tesna deal was just another from the attempts by the unions with size (for the Darwin-to- rendition of the IR Club waltz. as part of the Tesna deal to Moomba pipeline, capacity could be Two tycoons teaming up with the nobble it. doubled at a cost increment of about unions to fleece taxpayers and Thanks to Tesna’s downfall, 30 per cent). consumers through the use of the public is now more fully This sort of sub-optimal outcome is, in fact, the best we can hope for political muscle. The deal was aware that the IR Club exists to under the present regulatory ar- based on the Commonwealth help its members rather than rangements. Some major investors, forking out $1 billion of tax- them. Messrs Lew and Fox were notably AMP, have made it clear payers’ funds and providing set to become richer. The unions that they will no longer invest in protection to Tesna against its were set to remain in control of regulated assets, and it is possible competition. And the quid pro the business. All that the public that, unless greater scope for entre- quo for this largesse was political was going to get from Tesna was preneurial action is permitted, we support during a tough election— a big bill, high-priced tickets and will revert to the hitherto- and the consortium provided this an inefficient airline. abandoned practice of having the in spades to the Labor Party The episode is also an government own these assets, using during the last election campaign. expensive reminder to indus- the private sector only as a sub- As it turned out, it backed the trialists that unions are no longer contractor. Such a consequence wrong horse. The Coalition won in control of the game and are would then leave us vulnerable to the oscillations of grandiose plans and did the right thing by refusing risky partners. followed by ultra-conservatism to dance the dance. The biggest hope is that the which are characteristic of govern- As a result, the aviation débâcle will push the ALP in the ment business decisions. This is industry, which has up until now right direction. Mr Beazley and precisely the sort of outcome that been Club heartland, is now no Mr Crean were central players in the Gas Code and other Hilmer longer. Virgin Blue, with its the scam. Even up to the day reforms sought to combat! highly competitive IR arrange- when the scam officially fell The Commonwealth Govern- ments, is set to expand and fill apart, the ALP leadership was ment has foreshadowed a review of the gap in the discount market— willing to do ‘whatever it takes’ the Gas Code. This cannot come the section of the market that is to get Tesna up. The collapse of too quickly. But it would be folly to likely to grow most rapidly. Tesna will further highlight the leave it to an inter-governmental Qantas, which was a foundation already unhealthy control that process like the one that created the current Code. An expert review member of the Club, has handed the unions have over the ALP mechanism, like that which the in its membership card. It knows and bring forth demands by the Productivity Commission has per- that the days of protected electorate for a divorce. fected, must be the used instead. national carriers are over and Whether the Commonwealth that air travel is now a com- can take advantage of the IR modity business. It has seen Club’s problems remains to be Dr Alan Moran is Director, Deregulation Unit, at the Institute of Public Affairs. airlines around the world with seen, but Tesna should help.
I P A
R E V I E W 14 MARCH 2002 Greenhouse and Green Energy: Ten Realities
BRIAN J. O’BRIEN
EARS after Australian for refurbishment of its 1924 John • Larger Greenhouse Successes may Governments took their Gorton Building being a ‘Success’. incur real costs Viagra competition pills, Shell Coal is now flaring methane Y as prescribed by Dr Hilmer, • Many Greenhouse ‘Successes’ are just from the coal seams at Queensland’s they are still confused about what to commonsense, saving money by re- German Creek, saving 200,000 do with all their energy. Part of the ducing waste of electricity or fuel tonnes at a cost of $320,000. Shell confusion comes from misinformation Australia Post encouraged staff to be continues to investigate alternative, about the interrelationships between energy-conscious, including washing commercial use of the waste methane. energy, Greenhouse and ‘Green En- tea cups in a sink rather than in the The Lifetimes Emissions Savings ergy’. Political correctness always boiling water unit. The cost saving is project of Woodside Petroleum re-in- plagues Greenhouse debates in Aus- $260,000 for an emissions saving of jects greenhouse gases into the Lami- tralia. 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annu- naria-Corallina and Legendre oil- ‘Green Energy’, a.k.a. Green ally. To put this into perspective, Aus- fields, saving a total of 13 megatonnes Power, a.k.a. Renewable Energy, a.k.a. tralia has to reduce emissions by some at a cost of $105 million. Sustainable Energy, is both the great 50,000,000 tonnes per annum to meet hope of greenhouse advocacies and a its Kyoto commitment. • Few official Greenhouse Successes great source of confusion. It is the ge- Kalari Transport’s success lay in involve Green Energy neric name given to electricity ‘gen- modernizing its fleet and optimizing We can also use the official Success erated from clean, renewable energy its use, saving 885 tonnes. The story Stories to make reality checks on sources’ such as photovoltaics (solar reports removal of bull-bars from ‘Green Energy’. Despite much media cells), wind-powered generators, trucks, but I am advised that after a promotion of Green Energy and de- hydroelectric systems or tidal systems. couple of bad accidents in the out- spite mandated incentives of the To assist informed debate, I made back, some bull bars have been re- Commonwealth Renewable Energy a reality check of Greenhouse and placed. Net cost is not stated. (Electricity) Act 2000, only five of the Green Energy, using the official data- My favourite Success Story is the 38 Greenhouse ‘Success Stories’ bases of the Australian Greenhouse ‘Smart Building Management’ of the relate to the production of ‘Green Office
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 15 wind power and hydro—are as unpre- and 400 respectively. There are about require an alarm to be sounded ur- dictable as the weather. eight million Australian households. gently. Consider two high-profile Success • Few customers of Green Power are • Collateral costs and Greenhouse Stories. EnergyAustralia ‘supplied all supplied actual Green Power emissions of Green Energy are of- major venues for the Sydney 2000 Actual Green Power from any of the ten ignored Olympic and Paralympic Games.… 23 eligible Green technologies and Consider the Success of Macquarie with 100 per cent renewable energy….’ sources
R E V I E W 16 MARCH 2002 Education Agenda
KEVIN DONNELLY
Secret Education the OFSTED Internet site to find In answer to those resisting out how well schools perform in change. First, comparing schools is Business national tests. In primary schools, not simply a matter of comparing for example, all 11-year-old students apples with bananas. In England, Imagine. You are moving to a new take tests linked to the national research into how schools ‘value- city from overseas or interstate and curriculum. add’ to student performance is based you want to know which school will The test results are then posted on comparing schools with a similar best meet the needs of your chil- on the Internet. Parents can search socio-economic profile. dren. a database by postal code, by local Thus, schools from a wealthy If you live in England, the education authority or by the name area, with good facilities and answer is simple. Look at the Office of a particular school. Shown parents able to afford the extras, are for Standards in Education against the national average and the compared against similar schools, (OFSTED) Internet site and you average grades achieved by the local and not against those in less can search for the name of a particu- education authority are the grades privileged areas. Second, making lar school and download the achieved by individual schools. results public, in most cases, leads school’s inspection report. Greater accountability and to under-performing schools Government-funded schools are transparency are also being forced receiving additional funding and to inspected every six years and a on American schools. President standards improving. written report is made publicly Bush’s recent national education As parents will agree, there is available. The report addresses bill (to the value of $US26.5 also the reality that good test results, questions such as: What sort of billion, 2002) requires state testing by themselves, are not the sole school is it? How high are standards? in reading and maths for every child reason why they might choose one How well are pupils taught? How from grades three to eight. school over another. But when such well is the school led and managed? The bill also provides incentives results are made public, parents are Not only do inspectors evaluate for under-performing schools to in a position to make a more the school, but schools are also improve. First, under-performing informed decision. identified as successful or under- schools receive additional funding; All Australian departments of performing. In the language of second, if results still do not im- education have been collecting data OFSTED, inspectors have to decide: prove, students receive funding to about school performance for some … whether or not the school, pay for private tutoring. years. State and Territory govern- although providing an accept- Finally, if particular schools ments also have the results of literacy able standard of education, consistently fail to meet the grade, and numeracy testing, generally at nevertheless has serious weak- students will be allowed to transfer grades three and five for all primary nesses, in one or more areas of to more successful schools. Again, schools, since being introduced over its work; whether or not the this is unlike Australia, where the last eight to ten years. school, although not identified education departments and govern- In addition, school Year 12 as having serious weaknesses, is ments allow failing schools to put school results are also available to judged to be underachieving. students at risk year after year, rank schools. Given the rhetoric Unlike schools in Australia, where without any attempt to address the about accountability and empower- there are no official sanctions or re- root cause of the problem. ing communities, one wonders wards, English schools are evaluated Of course, those most to gain when the Ministers of Education of and, if found wanting, face the con- from keeping Australian parents in the State and Territory Labor sequences. Such transparency is the the dark—teacher unions and governments will make such opposite of the situation in Victoria, faceless education bureaucrats— information freely available. for example, where the Govern- argue that test results or inspectors’ reports should never be released. Dr Kevin Donnelly is Director of Education ment refuses to rank schools or to Strategies, a Melbourne-based consulting group. make test results widely available. Public exposure will destroy a E-mail:[email protected] In addition to inspectors’ school’s reputation and students’ reports, it is also possible to search self-esteem. I P A
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 17 The Secular West and the Dangerous Quest for Meaning
ANDREW MCINTYRE
HE success of globalization portant insights into why the Muslim don School of Economics and author and the Western, secular world is averse to science and why it is of False Dawn: the Delusions of Global free-market system have incapable of producing wealth through Capitalism, dismisses Western moder- T been brought sharply into research, innovation and technology. nity as ‘an era of delusion’. He imag- focus since the events of 11 September. Ibn Warraq [Why I Am Not a Muslim, ines ‘how closely the market liberal In recent decades, a coalition of 1995] explains clearly why the secu- philosophy that underpins globaliza- environmentalists, anti-globalization larization and reformation of Islam is tion resembles Marxism. Both are es- socialists, human rights activists, vari- a necessary process if it is to move into sentially secular religions’. ous church groups and the media have the modern world. Jean-François Revel, the distin- waged a concerted campaign against The distaste in many parts of the guished French writer [La Grande Pa- the very mouth that feeds them. With Christian Church for our secular world rade, 2000] offers an important correc- the ‘rise’ of Islam and the attacks on is expressed by various writers. Paul tive to these misunderstandings from New York and Washington, a re- Johnson, in his biography of John Paul both religious conservatives and the invigorated debate has focused on II, claims that ‘we have caught our first Left: secularism, free markets, and the glimpse of a totally secularized world Another misunderstanding con- search for meaning in an economic and it has filled us with terror’. Dr cerning liberalism rests on the system that apparently does not pro- belief that it would be, like social- vide any. Curiously, the Left, with its ism, an ideology. Nothing could be anti-empirical, anti-scientific ap- The irony in all this is more false, for liberalism never had proach to modern-day problems the ambition of constructing a (greenhouse, the environment, GM perfect society.… Unlike socialism foods, immigration, Aboriginal issues, that the secular West and communism, liberalism has the free trade and globalization itself), has capacity to reform itself and correct found a vigorous ally in Islam. tolerates … almost its faults.… It is based on experi- Common to both groups is a dis- ence. It is not an aberration, nor is taste for modernity, an ignorance and every conceivable it a utopia. Because one never misunderstanding of the claims of sci- evaluates a utopia. ence and, most importantly, a human creed and religious The irony in all this is that the secu- desire to appeal to a higher moral au- lar West—in addition to its democ- thority (either religious or ideological) group in existence racy, rule of law, separation of pow- to provide meaning and direction to ers, relative absence of corruption, their lives. freedom from slavery, poverty and With regard to science and objec- Michael Casey, private secretary to starvation, universal education, an tive reality, much has been written. Archbishop George Pell, in his recent underlying merit-driven, open, caste- Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt book, Meaninglessness: The Solutions of less and classless society—tolerates, in wrote a devastating critique of univer- Nietzsche, Freud, and Rorty, expresses a way that is unique in human his- sities in Higher Superstitions, the Aca- his profound doubt that we can live in tory, almost every conceivable creed demic Left and its Quarrels with Science. a world without meaning, a world he and religious group in existence, along Alan Sokal perpetrated a stunning attributes to an aggressively secular, with nearly every extreme ideologi- hoax on cultural studies academics free-market society. John Hirst, in his cal view imaginable. On a prosaic with Towards a Transformative Herme- introduction to the book, also ex- level, put by Victor Hanson [‘Why neutics of Quantum Gravity. On the Is- presses concerns about Australia’s The Muslims Misjudged Us’, City lamic side, Pervez Hoodbhoy [Islam and ‘modern wasteland’. Journal, 2002], most of those in the Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the In a similar vein, John Gray, Pro- Middle East on a diet of al-Jazeera tele- Battle for Rationality, 1991] gives im- fessor of European Thought at the Lon- vision, screaming in the street at the
R E V I E W 18 MARCH 2002 Great Satan, actually desperately want all those things the West pro- vides. The Blair Files How does the West, then, defend itself against this informal alliance of enemies of secularism? Way back in TIM BLAIR 1959, CP Snow [The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution] clearly under- stood what was at stake: Poverty Causes poor countries,’ Britain’s Interna- There is a moral trap which come tional Development Secretary through the insight into man’s Te rrorism? Clare Short told the BBC. ‘But the loneliness: it tempts one to sit back, conditions which bred their bitter- complacent in one’s unique trag- Poverty causes terrorism. This must ness and hatred are linked to pov- edy, and let the others go without be true; after all, so many intelli- erty and injustice, there is no a meal.… As a group, the scientists gent, educated people believe it. doubt’. fall into that trap less than CNN founder Ted Turner an- Oh yeah, Clare? In fact, the others.… If the scientists have the nounced in February that ‘the rea- bitterness and hatred of most mod- future in their bones, then the son that the World Trade Center ern terrorists are more usually traditional culture responds by got hit is because there are a lot of linked to wealth and education. wishing the future did not exist. It people living in abject poverty out Bill Ayers was the son of a Chi- is the traditional culture, to an there who don’t have any hope for cago bank executive. He grew up extent remarkably little dimin- a better life’. South African Presi- to become a member of the bomb- ished by the emergence of the dent Thabo Mbeki told the United happy Weather Underground, scientific one, which manages the Nations last year that poverty spouting lines like: ‘Kill all the rich Western world…. ‘breeds a deep sense of injustice’. people. Break up their cars and If we forget the scientific culture, Argentina’s then-President Fer- apartments’. He could have started then the rest of Western intel- nando de la Rua said last Novem- with his fellow members: another lectuals have never tried, wanted, ber that ‘unequal distribution Weatherman, Silas Trim Bissell, or been able to understand the causes frustration and despair’. was grandson of the Bissell carpet- Industrial Revolution, much less (Unfortunately for Fernando, cleaning founder. (By the way, the accept it. Intellectuals, in particu- Argentina’s very equal distribution same area of California that lar literary intellectuals, are natural of unemployment and debt forced spawned most Weather Under- Luddites.… For, or course, one him to resign one month later.) ‘At ground members also gave us John truth is straightforward. Indus- the bottom of terrorism is poverty,’ Walker Lindh, son of a rich lawyer trialization is the only hope of the declared South Korean President turned bin Laden warrior.) poor. Kim Dae-jung. And Bishop Des- Italy’s murderous Brigate Rosse We simply have no choice. The ca- mond Tutu claimed that ‘external was founded in 1970 by students tastrophe of the Muslim world (in circumstances such as poverty and who thought it cute to foment Hanson’s view) and the problem for a sense of grievance and injustice revolution in Milanese car facto- the Left and to some extent various can fill people with resentment and ries. They’d drop by, yell some sects of the Christian Church in the despair to the point of desperation’. Marx at the puzzled workers, then West, is their failure to grasp the Problem is, it’s almost impos- slouch off to their afternoon lec- nature of Western success. To reject sible to find an actual poor terror- tures. Well, that’s how things our world because it provides no evi- ist. Osama bin Laden is worth more started; by the early 1980s the Red dence for, or utility in, arbitrary or than the combined annual earn- Brigade had killed nearly 400 irrational belief systems—beliefs ings of the people his goons killed people. which indeed impede the rational in the WTC. The goons them- Ulrike Meinhof, second banana decision-making and consensus at selves were middle-class; in his fi- in Germany’s Baader-Meinhof the heart of secular liberal progress— nal telephone conversation with Gang, was born to a fantastically could mean a return to an infernal his father, September 11 terrorist rich Hamburg family. In nine years, new barbarism and primitivism that Ziad Jarrahi was promised a new car she and her commie comrades does not bear thinking about. when next he returned to Lebanon. killed 31 people, most of them Mere facts shouldn’t destroy our poorer than Meinhof herself. Andrew McIntyre is Public Relations Manager at faith in the poverty–terror nexus. Notoriously impoverished the Institute of Public Affairs ‘The suicide bombers of Septem- 1970s Japan saw the rise of the I P A ber 11 appeared not to come from Japanese Red Army, led by ▲
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 19 teacher’s daughter Fusako Shigen- munists. When the communists obu. Her group had to go offshore withdrew their cash in 1965, a des- to find injustices; in 1972, at Israel’s perate Meinhof added pornography Notable Quote Lod Airport, JRA operatives killed to konkret’s drab sociopolitical text. 26 tourists. Sales soared. Meinhof had un- Reality versus Myths But wealth and education by wittingly hit on a formula we see Bjørn Lomborg themselves do not terrorists make, echoed today in magazines like otherwise the Young Liberals black + white, right down to the It is crucial to the discussion would be smuggling Semtex in- lower-case title. Instead of sticking ‘about the state of the world that stead of guzzling champagne, and with her job, Meinhof hooked up we consider the fundamentals. Sydney’s Palm Beach would be a with Baader, and ended up killing This requires us to refer to long- hotbed of revolutionary fury. Some herself in gaol. term and global trends, consid- other ingredient is required before Two years ago, after decades on ering their importance especially the money/university mix becomes the run, the JRA’s Fusako Shigen- with regard to human welfare. volatile. obu crept back into Japan, believ- But it is also crucial that we cite That ingredient is stupidity. ing her false name and changed figures and trends which are true. Blind, wilful stupidity. appearance made her safe. But This demand may seem glaringly Examine any terrorist group and Fusako didn’t alter any of her obvious, but the public environ- within minutes you’ll encounter strikingly individual mannerisms, ment debate has unfortunately spectacular dumbness. The such as smoking a cigarette as been characterized by an un- Weather Underground took their though it were a pipe, and con- pleasant tendency towards rather name from a Bob Dylan lyric— tinuously exhaling smoke rings. ‘It rash treatment of the truth. This lucky they weren’t was that little is an expression of the fact that founded during something that the Litany has pervaded the de- the disco era; got her,’ a police bate so deeply and for so long they’d have been In fact, the spokesman told that blatantly false claims can be known as the the Japanese Shake Your bitterness and papers. made again and again, without Groove Thing You don’t any references, and yet still be not Collective—and hatred of most need to go to Ja- believed. Take notice, this is due to primary research in the specialized in ac- pan or the US environmental field; this gener- cidentally blow- modern terrorists or Lebanon to ally appears to be professionally ing up themselves, find delusional competent and well balanced. It rather than their zeal. In the Mel- are more usually is due, however, to the commu- enemies. bourne student nication of environmental The Symbion- house I shared ese Liberation linked to wealth knowledge, which taps deeply with various Army chose as its into our doomsday beliefs. Such leftists during first victim Mar- and education propaganda is presented by many the early 1980s, cus Foster, a black environmental organizations, I was one day California school such as the Worldwatch Insti- superintendent. His crime? The denounced for reading The Age’s tute, Greenpeace and the World SLA believed he wanted high sports pages before turning to the Wide Fund for Nature, and by school kids to carry ID cards. front. Such distractions, I was told, many individual commentators, Those Symbions didn’t read would ‘delay the revolution’. and it is readily picked up by the many newspapers. Foster had with- None of my firebrand house- media. The number of examples drawn his support for the ID plan mates ever became revolutionaries, are so overwhelming that they by the time he was murdered. however. Perhaps they weren’t rich could fill a book of their own. The moron Meinhof should enough. ’ have become a publishing tycoon but was too stupid to realize she’d Bjørn Lomborg, The Skeptical En- Tim Blair is a Sydney-based journalist, who was a stumbled upon a dynamite maga- former writer for Time Magazine, an ex-columnist at vironmentalist: Measuring the Real zine idea. In the early 1960s she was the Daily Telegraph, and editor of Sports Illustrated. State of the World, Cambridge appointed editor of konkret, a University Press, 2001. boring political journal secretly funded by East German com- I P A
R E V I E W 20 MARCH 2002 What’s A Job?
KEN PHILLIPS
IR Works Against to IT workers. And there is a steady Nurses register with lots of agencies stream of people training to enter the while shopping around for the best Workers IT sector, which has not depressed pay prices. Hourly rates have, as a conse- rates significantly because of the grow- quence, risen well over the $25 paid Generally, we are expected to believe ing demand for skilled people. under the award, to above $85 an hour that the Australian industrial rela- Compare this to what is happen- and as high as $150 per hour. This free tions system exists to protect workers ing to nurses. For 20 years or more, market in nurses has begun to reflect from the evil effects of ‘market forces’. nurses have suffered from increasing the rates and dynamics of the IT sec- Such moral posturing maintains that educational, performance and respon- tor—much to the annoyance of the if wages weren’t regulated, free mar- sibility expectations while their in- employer. kets would push down wages to cre- comes have been suppressed in a Now a desperate Victorian Gov- ate more profit for greedy bosses. In highly regulated industrial relations ernment has moved to try and depress fact, this proposition masks the re- environment. The near-monopoly nurses’ incomes. It wants to destroy verse intent of the industrial relations the market for nurses and set up a cen- system, namely, to control and sup- tral tendering agency through which press workers’ wages. The IR system all nurse placements must occur. The has more to do with the state seeking The IR system has primary intent of the employer is to to protect employers from high labour force nurses’ pay down near the low costs than it does with the protection more to do with the award rates. This regulation route is of workers’ rights. The trade-off is sup- state seeking to being attempted because nurses have posed to be more jobs. deserted the industrial relations sys- This simplistic nineteenth-cen- protect employers tem for the free market. The govern- tury-based analysis of labour econom- ment is desperate to control the mar- ics, however, implodes when com- from high labour ket for its own budgetary purposes. To pared to the reality of labour markets, succeed in this effort, it has applied such as those in the information tech- costs than it does to the Australian Consumer and nology sector. Competition Commission for exemp- The IT industry is typified by high with the protection tion from the Trade Practices Act on labour costs that find high natural lev- the grounds of ‘public interest’. els because market forces prevail. In of workers’ rights And before anyone jumps to the the market for IT labour, even rudi- defence of this re-regulation on the mentary technicians start at hourly need to contain health costs, first con- rates of $40, rising to $100 per hour employer, in this case government, template why health system costs are and more, even on long-term con- has tried to use the IR system to con- exploding. Is it the fault of the nurses? tracts. Read any IT magazine and a tain labour costs. But the long-term Or of the employer—the government, common complaint of IT companies regulation of nurses has finally caught which has failed to create an efficient is that they cannot find and retain the up with the employer and there is now system? IT people they need, and that pay a severe shortage of nurses. There are Whatever the answer, the key rates are out of control. Read the com- plenty of highly trained nurses—it’s point remains strong: labour regula- ments of IT contractors and their de- just that they refuse to work. The tion is designed to save employers sire is to prevent IT companies from regulated labour market for nurses has from their own inadequacies by de- dominating the market or securing suppressed nurses’ incomes and cre- pressing the incomes of the people regulation that will limit the ability ated an availability crisis. who do the work! of contractors to shop around for the As happens whenever markets are highest price for their services. Even rorted, other market mechanisms Ken Phillips is a workplace reform practitioner who with the current slump in the sector, have moved in to fill the void, in this promotes the principles of ‘markets in the firm’. the existence of a non-price-regulated case, with the emergence of a vigor- market delivers real financial benefit ous nurses’ labour-hire industry. I P A
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 21 S T R A N G E T I M E S
Compiled by IPA staff, columnists and consultants …
LAWYERS: SOCIALIZING The Australian Kennel Council Somehow we don’t think that even PRIVATE PRACTICE has taken the dog by the collar and Uncle Fidel would support his organic Lawyers have been doing it tough. The banned the export and sale of all dogs comrades. Cuba relies on antiquated national competition policy has to any country where they may be agricultural methods not from choice stripped them of a number of lucra- consumed as food. The Australian but out of necessity; technology has tive monopolies, such as conveyanc- Government is now working on been essentially frozen for over 40 ing, and now they face a flood of new drafting a bill to enforce the ban in years by the enforcement of sanctions graduates—with the number of people law. and a lack of money. studying law exceeding the number Will the issue go to the WTO? Will Nor should the rest of us support practising law. the dispute threaten our livestock this nonsense. As Indur Golkany of How have they responded? Well, trade with Korea? Will dog meat be a the Political Economy Research with outstretched hands. The Law hit with soccer yobbos? Center stated, ‘Imagine the devas- Society of NSW has launched a tation that would have occurred had campaign to save the bush lawyer, SPOT THE INCONSISTENCY agricultural technology been frozen at claiming that competition policy is The Gallop Government, under the 1961 levels.… Massive deforestation, driving lawyers out of the bush and banner of individual rights, has put a soil erosion, greenhouse gas emis- threatening the very fabric of rural bill before the WA Parliament that sions, and losses of biodiversity would society. The Society’s solution? You will give teenagers over the age of 16 occur with the more-than-doubling guessed it: government subsidies— years the right to participate in homo- of land and water diverted to agri- that is, for taxpayers to subsidize sexual acts with other consenting culture.…’ lawyers to sit around, in rural areas, adults. This will supposedly allow for the good of the community. teenagers to negotiate and explore FISHMONGER SUED FOR Somehow we think that they are their sexuality without interference SELLING FRESH FISH going to have to do better than this. from the state or third parties. In a world first, a fish seller in Norway The Gallop Government also has is being sued for selling fresh fish. No IT’S A DOG’S WORLD a bill before Parliament, which, under this is not a typo. The activists from A major conflict is brewing between the banner of protecting youth from People for Ethical Treatment of Ani- Korea and Australia and it has to do exploitation, will remove the right of mals (PETA) have taken action with dogs and food. teenagers below the age of 18 years to against a fishmonger for selling fish No, not restriction on dog food enter into contracts of employment. that were still moving. exports, but rather restrictions on That is, the bill will remove the Understandably a little perplexed, export of dogs as food. erstwhile rights of teenagers to nego- the fishmonger countered that he was Dog meat is very popular in Korea, tiate and explore their work options, only doing what his customers de- indeed its consumption is often and instead hand them over to Dr manded. Moreover, he reasonably perceived as part of a cultural tra- Gallop and his mates in the unions to asked, ‘what is the difference between dition. The trouble is that legally its a determine. a fish dying on ice in his shop and grey area—neither food nor pet. dying on ice on-board a boat?’ In response to pleas from restaurant THE ORGANIC VISION: BACK The answer from PETA, whose real owners anxious to popularize the TO THE INGLORIOUS PAST aim is to stop fishing altogether, is that eating of dog meat in the run-up to The Institute for Food and Develop- it is cruel to kill fish—no mater how the World Cup, Korean lawmakers are ment Policy (an organic farming lobby or where. working on a bill which would classify group) has just released a book on ‘sus- PETA may be a bunch of crack- dog meat as livestock. tainable agriculture’ which finds pots, but with an annual budget of over This, naturally, has dog lovers Cuba’s agriculture system to be the $50 million and the support of celeb- barking, claiming that ‘Never before model for the world. rities such as Paul McCartney, they in the history of the world have OUR Why? Because Cuba uses little can wipe the floor with any little fish pets been exported for food’. The fertilizer, herbicides or machinery, and seller in Norway. Koreans have countered with claims exports little—in short, because it is of cultural imperialism. stuck in the past. I P A
R E V I E W 22 MARCH 2002 Letter from London JOHN NURICK
So Joined-up It’s was the first such check for nine months. They asked an Australian Stationary customs inspector what he thought about that; he could hardly believe it. Changing planes at Paris in the New These two examples are from areas Year, I exchanged the French and Bel- where central government holds both gian francs left over from holidays and the stick and the carrot (central grants business trips for crisp and shiny new account for more than 80 per cent of euro banknotes and coins. It took local government funds). Where about one minute. That seems typical central government has less power, or of the introduction of euro notes and does not wish to exercise it, joined-up coins in the 12 eurozone countries. On government involves a mass (or mess) the whole, there was very little of regional agencies, task forces, trouble—except for retailers, who had strategies, and action plans. For to decide whether to convert (say) Meanwhile, new regulations on instance, the European ‘Objective 1’ DM14.99 accurately but unenticingly accessibility and safety are making economic development funding pro- to €7.66, round it up to €7.99 or down things worse. Many nursing homes gramme for West Wales and the to €6.99. can’t afford to widen all their doorways, Valleys involves the Welsh European The euro is a done deal. Two of the install new ramps and lifts, and so on, Funding Office (WEFO) and other hold-out countries—Sweden and and are closing instead. The amount Welsh regional agencies; a monitoring Denmark—are likely to join before the government pays for nursing home committee; five ‘regional partnerships’; long. Only in Britain is it the European accommodation is anyway so small seventeen ‘local partnerships’; and issue: everywhere else, the hot topics that, even before the new regulations, three ‘crosscutting themes’. Each has are enlargement (how and when to many private nursing-home businesses its strategies, objectives, priorities, admit countries such as Slovenia, were worth less than the value of their action plans, output targets, guidance Cyprus, Poland, and Estonia), and the assets. for applicants, and axes to grind. constitution (the constitutional con- Last year’s foot-and-mouth out- In fact, it’s almost unworkably vention started work in February). break gives us another example. It complex and parts of it are way behind I was in Paris on the way back from probably originated with some illegal- schedule. I’m involved with a project Christmas in WA. It had been just like ly imported meat (though its rapid that’s seeking a few million pounds home: the newspapers were full of spread was due partly to farming under an Objective 1 ‘measure’ to ‘hospital crisis’, but local governments practices and partly to government subsidize ten ‘strategic sites’. Eighteen clearly had buckets of money to spend delays). Everyone knew that people months after the programme started, on traffic calming and fancy paving. were illegally bringing meat into the WEFO had only managed to select one I don’t know what Geoff Gallop country—there were stories of suit- site. Even if all goes well, there seems said, but Tony Blair promised us cases dripping blood arriving on flights no chance of ‘our’ project receiving any ‘joined-up government’, and hasn’t from West Africa—but nothing was money before about March 2003, 30 delivered it. We’ve got thousands of done. The port health services—part months after first lodging an appli- hospital beds occupied by people who of local government—don’t have cation. don’t need to be in hospital, because power to inspect baggage, arrest people Would you ever believe that all this there aren’t enough nursing home beds or impose fines, while Customs—who is meant to encourage entrepreneur- or home help services. Hospitals are do—weren’t interested. ship and small business? part of the National Health Service, What’s amazing is that more than but nursing homes and home help are a year after the outbreak began, John Nurick is a management consultant based in the the responsibility of local government nothing seems to have changed. When South of England. From 1985 to 1990, he was editorial director of the Australian Institute for Public social services—who don’t get the an incoming flight was spot-checked Policy, and later edited newsletters reporting on the money that’s being spent on chicanes in February, the BBC reported that UK Parliament and European Union institutions. and speed humps by other parts of local 300kg of illegal meat had been found government. in passengers’ baggage—and that this I P A
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 23 R E V I E W Free_Enterprise.com by Stephen Dawson File View Go Bookmarks Options Directory Window Help
The cynic could well argue that My answer to him then, and for males, and from around two the War Against Terrorism, like to all who ask me, is a heart-felt to nearly four for females. other wars, makes a wonderful ex- ‘No!’ But the question is ir- Between 1979 and 1999 opiates’ cuse to impose a range of measures relevant. The drug prohibition responsibility for accidental drug that the population of a free na- policy will not prevent my son deaths increased from 31 per cent tion wouldn’t tolerate in ‘peace- from becoming a drug addict. Nor to 63 per cent. Go to: time’. So it may not be surprising will its abolition increase the www.abs.gov.au that the longest currently running chances of him doing so. ‘war’, the War on Drugs, has had But if, despite everything, he Enter ‘Drug-related deaths’ into just such an effect. became addicted, then under the the search box at the bottom of Before proceeding, I shall state current policy my son would have the page then click the ‘Go’ but- up front that the rest of this a much higher chance of becom- ton. On the resulting list of docu- column is in favour not of decrim- ing a dead drug addict. And that ments, click the one entitled inalization, nor even in favour of is what I would seek to avoid most ‘Drug-related deaths’. directing drug ‘offenders’ away of all. A heroin drought over the from the criminal justice system past couple of years has likely and into medical treatment. HOW MANY? reduced the number of drug Here, I am providing resources for The Australian Bureau of Statis- deaths since 1999. But recent those interested in discovering tics maintains comprehensive fig- reports suggest that this is easing, why all drug laws should be ures on all kinds of aspects of Aus- so it is likely that the pile of repealed. tralian society, so it is no surprise corpses will resume its growth. I must hasten to add that this that this includes figures on how may not be the official position many Australians die due to mis- ON LIBERTY of the Institute of Public Affairs use of drugs. In 1999, opiates (for Laws against drugs are pretty (remember, I just write for this example, heroin and morphine) much an invention of the Twen- publication—I am not an em- tieth Century. But consider this ployee of the IPA). Indeed, that remark: body and the Editor of this journal [T]he only purpose for which may find this view repugnant. power can be rightfully exercised Nevertheless, if ever there over any member of a civilized were an issue demanding a recon- community, against his will, is to sideration of public policy, the prevent harm to others. His own prohibition on certain drugs is good, either physical or moral, is surely one. After all, hundreds of not a sufficient warrant. He can- Australians in the prime of their not rightfully be compelled to do lives die each year under the or forbear because it will be better current policy. for him to do so, because it will A final personal note: several make him happier, because, in the months ago I briefly discussed the were significant contributors to opinions of others, to do so would issue with the Executive Director the accidental deaths of 699 Aus- be wise, or even right. These are of the Australian Christian Lobby tralian males and 178 Australian good reasons for remonstrating
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R E V I E W 24 MARCH 2002 R E V I E W Free_Enterprise.com by Stephen Dawson File View Go Bookmarks Options Directory Window Help
This was published in 1869. Of ingly, it has conducted plenty of is worth remembering that the course, it is an extract from John work on drug prohibition. The overwhelming majority of those Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (Chapter emphasis is on the US policies, are members of inner-city gangs One). This passage should be the but their reasoning is applicable who are either defending, or try- end of the argument. Heroin may to most Western nations, includ- ing to expand, their market share be bad for me. Still, what right has ing Australia. in the drug trade. anyone, other than those close to It is the illegality of drugs, me and upon whose opinion I rather than their inherent proper- have chosen to place great ties, that is the cause of the weight, to tell me what I should monstrous death toll. Quality or should not do to my own body control is minimal, heroin purity and mind? Is it because by hurt- is variable (the greater the quan- ing myself I am hurting society? tity making it into a market, the Am I owned by society? If so, then more pure the street product— those who do equivalent harm to the steady trend upwards in purity society through potential or ac- is a clear indication of increasing tual harm to themselves (sky- supply). There is a another cost divers, footballers, gluttons) levied by the War on Drugs: the should be similarly restrained. destruction of lives by grinding The products of illegal markets The odd thing is that while On them up in the criminal justice are exceptionally expensive Liberty is primarily a utilitarian system. (since the selling price must cover treatise, Mill’s argument here is The Cato Institute points out unconventional importation essentially moral. Copies of this that the cost of enforcement routes, bribes, and premium prof- through a decade of alcohol pro- its to offset the risks), so they be- hibition came to less than $US1 get crime as addicts attempt to billion (in 1993 dollars). In the raise the money to feed their hab- United States, the Federal Gov- its. ernment alone spends $US19 bil- How much of an impact does lion each year on drug prohi- prohibition have on, say, murder? bition, leading to 1.5 million drug In Homicide Rates and Substance arrests per year and a drug-related Control Policy, a fascinating study prison population of 400,000. published by the Independent Go to: Institute, it is revealed that out of several control variables, US murder rates are most closely www.cato.org/current/drug- linked to drug or alcohol prohi- war/index.html work are scattered all over the bition enforcement policies. Go Web. A nicely formatted copy is to: available at: BLACK MARKET FALLOUT www.independent.org/tii/ www.bartleby.com/130 Illegal markets have other effects WorkingPapers/DrugWar.pdf besides poisoning their customers and having both merchants and GO DIRECTLY TO GAOL consumers sent to gaol. They also The Cato Institute, a very promi- make for robust competitive prac- FEEDBACK nent pro-liberty think-tank in tices. When you hear figures I would welcome advice from the United States, is always a about the appalling number of readers on any other sites of interest valuable source of analysis on ‘children’ killed with firearms to IPA Review readers. E-mail me public policy issues. Not surpris- each year in the United States, it on [email protected].
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R E V I E W MARCH 2002 25 Letter from America
NIGEL ASHFORD
Enroning Capitalism privatization of Social Security would be dangerous. (See IPA The collapse of Enron, the seventh Review, December 2001.) Senate largest company in America, is the Majority Leader Tom Daschle stated, biggest story in the US media after ‘I don’t want to “Enron” the people the war against terrorism. Unsur- of the United States. I don’t want to prisingly, critics of a capitalist soci- see them holding the bag at the end ety have tried to portray Enron, and of the day, just like Enron employees especially its CEO Ken Lay, as the have held the bag’. He uses this to posterboy of a rampant, laissez-faire oppose the Presidential commission capitalism that needs to be regulated. on Social Security recommendation They argue that more controls over that individuals should be allowed to companies are needed, that cam- invest part of their Social Security paign finance reform is required to Congress is likely to pass cam- taxes in investment funds. The remove the influence of such com- paign finance reform that would problem with Enron was that many panies, and that the privatization of restrict soft-money donations to employees had placed a very high the Social Security system would be political parties and increase the percentage of their savings in Enron dangerous. The real message of the amount of hard money that can be stocks, whose collapse left them with Enron affair is the direct opposite: donated to candidates. (See IPA insufficient savings. The same would namely, that capitalism works. Review, March 2000.) Previous occur if the government Social Enron was not the free-wheeling, attempts to pass the legislation had Security system collapsed, as many capitalist enterprise portrayed by the only just failed. The perceived predict. Privatized accounts, on the media. It sought to use political scandal of Enron was the decisive other hand, would be invested in power to engineer the market in its factor in getting the bill through the highly diversified stocks or bonds. favour, a classic example of what House this time. Yet the media failed Savers would thus be protected from public choice economists call ‘rent- to note that almost all Enron dona- the Enron problem. seeking’. It tried to rig the so-called tions to campaigns were in the form The story of Enron demonstrated ‘deregulation’ of the energy markets of hard money, which was increased not capitalism’s flaws, but its by advocating the banning of elec- by current legislation, and not soft strengths. Enron’s problems led to tricity utilities from the generation money, which will be banned. This media predictions of widespread market, price controls on access to law would have done nothing to energy shortages and massive price transmission grids, and control of the have changed Enron’s contributions increases. In fact, the consumer has electricity distribution systems by strategy. The media has made great hardly noticed the impact. Com- government officials. Rarely men- play of the money donated by Enron petitors in the industry quickly tioned in the media is the fact that to Bush’s political campaign. What moved in to replace Enron in the Enron was an active supporter (and has received less attention is that market. The result has been no thereby a quiet contributor to the Enron failed to get the Bush Admin- energy shortages and no increase in Green movement) of the US’s istration to act on its behalf when it energy prices. Once again the media signing the Kyoto agreement on was in trouble. It is a favourite ploy has preferred to avoid the real story global warming, in order to cripple of the media to concentrate on the to concentrate on specious fears, coal as a competitor. The Bush motives of political actors rather which lead to bad policies. Once Administration wisely refused to sign than the substance of issues. They again the media has failed to carry the declaration that would have can then avoid the more difficult task out its function of providing in- devastated the US economy. (See of explaining arguments to their formed and balanced debate. IPA Review, June 2001.) Enron was readers or viewers. more successful in obtaining $1.5 Another theme has been to use Dr Nigel Ashford teaches in the Institute of Humane Studies at George Mason University, and is co-author billion in subsidies for investments the fate of those who had, and thus of US Politics Today (Manchester University Press). abroad from the Clinton Admin- lost, much of their superannuation istration. in Enron stock as evidence that the I P A
R E V I E W 26 MARCH 2002 The ABC: Unique Unto Itself
JOHN STYLES
HE Sydney Morning Herald taneously challenged its existence. difficult in the ABC because the pro- reported on 1 November ‘Give me the evidence—where’s the gram makers or the people who gen- last year that, following significant lack of balance ... ?’ he was erally work for the ABC are focused T the announcement of reported to have asked in an interview on things which are not easily mea- Jonathan Shier’s resignation, the [The Australian, 22 February 2001]. surable.’ As if we did not know it! champagne flowed in the taxpayer- What hope did Shier have? The ABC’s unbusinesslike environ- funded Ultimo news room of ABC The danger now is that the ABC ment, therefore, according to Gribble, Radio National. You have to under- staff and their supporters, having ef- seems to close the door on anyone with stand, as the friends of the ABC keep fectively destabilized and deposed recognized business qualifications. ‘I telling us, this isn’t like a private-sec- Jonathan Shier, will, through the suc- think anyone who came into the ABC tor workplace. It’s different. It’s pre- cess of their campaign, tacitly influ- with the kind of MBA kind of approach cious. It’s, well, it’s the ABC. ence the selection of the next MD. If to management technique, a kind of Whether that exuberance contin- the ABC Board placates them, and manual, a kind of “management 1” sort ues after the appointment of the next pragmatically selects someone from of approach, would be absolutely at sea. managing director remains to be seen. All of the kind of books that “wanna- Shier may not have eliminated left- be” managers would read about man- wing bias at the ABC, but he recog- If a managing aging corporations or whatever, it’s very nized its existence and was trying to different in public broadcasting.’ bring about change. According to a director comes into Another thing. The new MD report in The Australian [22 February should have ‘a very broad, cultured 2001], his quest to find a ‘right-wing the organization, mind’. And if a managing director Phillip Adams’ was spurred by the ad- comes into the organization, like mission of some of his own staff that like Jonathan Shier, Jonathan Shier, wanting change, for- the national broadcaster lacked ‘diver- get it. ‘[T]he role of the employees of sity of opinion’. wanting change, the ABC is different from the role of Of course, a ‘right-wing Phillip employees in another kind of company. Adams’, or even two, did not and will forget it. They have, they bring a particular set not balance the overwhelming left- of skills and there’s a tremendous sense wing influence on news selection, inside Australian public broadcasting, of ownership.’ analysis and commentary at the ABC. the self-perpetuating nature of the That ‘sense of ownership’, call it It is ingrained and inbred. It perme- ABC ‘collective’ will be confirmed. ‘staff capture’, ‘the ABC collective’ or ates every area of news and current af- Just a few hours after Shier’s resig- whatever you like, is precisely why the fairs broadcasting. nation was announced, former ABC ABC needs a managing director who The fact that some close to Shier deputy chair Di Gribble was on air in will continue the work which inside the organization recognized the Melbourne. She provided an ‘identikit’ Jonathan Shier started. distorted nature of the news and cur- picture of her ideal ABC managing di- If, following the shrill and unrelent- rent affairs coverage, and were even rector. ing anti-Shier campaign, the Liberals prepared to admit it, is one thing. According to Gribble, ‘The ABC resolve for ABC reform is at all falter- Rooting it out of the place is something is not like a private corporation at all ing, those with influence should turn else. Shier’s departure clearly showed … I don’t really think that you can once again to the bottom of page 255 that, despite all the hysterical propa- see the ABC in the same way as you of Neal Blewett’s A Cabinet Diary and ganda about Howard Government ap- see a commercial corporation’. A man- re-read the Paul Keating quote from pointees, reform does not have the aging director, she said, would not be the entry for 2 November 1992: ‘Any- numbers on the ABC Board. able to wield the same kinds of man- how, the ABC deserves a decent go, The behaviour of the chairman, agement tools as are used in private because it has done well by the ALP Donald McDonald, on the issue has organizations. ‘In a commercial com- in the last two elections’. been disappointing. While Shier was pany it’s possible, for example to talking about eliminating political bias “incentivise” staff to achieve returns John Styles is a Melbourne-based media analyst. inside the ABC, Mr McDonald simul- for shareholders … That’s really very I P A
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 27 Drugs: Surrender Is Not A Winning Strategy BILL MUEHLENBERG
OHN Hyde’s article the bottom of the cliff. Every dollar cent). The former is illegal, while the ‘Drugs: Time for a we spend on prevention and deter- latter is not. In America, there are Rethink’ (IPA Review, rence programmes will save hundreds 14,000 people killed a year by illicit J September 2001), was fol- of dollars on treatment programmes drugs, but 500,000 killed a year by lowed immediately by an article en- later on, as well as save many lives. licit drugs. Moreover, in the US, titled ‘Surrender is not a Winning And if full legalization is marijuana use is down by 50 per cent, Strategy’. At first glance I assumed achieved, it will increase the pool of cocaine use is down by 79 per cent that this was a rejoinder to his piece, drug users. By removing the penalties and alcohol use is down by 13 per but it was not. The title is appropri- for usage, and by (in theory) reducing cent—all because of the get-tough ate, however. I believe that Mr the costs, demand will increase. This approach to drugs. Hyde’s reasoning offers a policy of is a simple function of supply and Milton Friedman favours drug surrender which will not help the demand: make something easier and legalization. He said several years drug problem. cheaper to obtain, and you increase ago, ‘Legalizing drugs might increase Indeed, we don’t use such a the number of people who will try the number of addicts, but it is not defeatist attitude in regard to many it. At the moment, there are millions clear that it would. Forbidden fruit other social ills. Most governments of alcohol and tobacco users in is attractive, particularly to the do not argue that we must live with Australia, but only thousands or tens young.’ But as James Q. Wilson pollution, racism, or rape. In certain of thousands of illicit drug users. The pointed out, ‘I suppose that we areas, we take exactly the opposite should expect no increase in Porsche approach. sales if we cut the price by 95 per Consider the area of tobacco use. Mr Hyde’s advice cent, no increase in whiskey sales if We tell young people to just say ‘no’. we cut the price by a comparable We have ‘Quit’ campaigns. We place amount—because young people only very high taxes on tobacco products. tackles drug problems want fast cars and strong liquor when And what has been the result? they are “forbidden”’. Whereas 30 years ago over 60 per from the wrong end. We can learn from history here. cent of the population smoked, today After Europe imposed the opium that figure has fallen to under 30 per It asks us to manage trade on China in the mid-19th cent. Harm prevention, in other century, by 1900 there were an words, works. Social trends are not the problem, instead estimated 90 million opium addicts irreversible. Problem social beha- in the nation. When British physi- viours can be turned around. of preventing the cians could write prescriptions for Also, Mr Hyde’s advice tackles heroin in the 1960s, the nation’s drug problems from the wrong end. problem in the junkies increased 30- to 40-fold. It asks us to manage the problem, instead of preventing the problem in LEGALIZATION MYTHS the first place. But prevention is first place Mr Hyde suggests that legalization always better than cure. It is more will solve problems of crime, the cost-effective and more compas- main reason for the difference in black market, and so on. Let me ex- sionate to keep people off drugs in numbers is related to the legality or amine some of the supposed advan- the first place, than to try to get them illegality of the drug. tages of such an approach: off drugs. The old fence parable is Consider some recent figures. appropriate here: Better to invest in Five per cent of all Australians use It will empty our prisons. Critics a good fence at the top of a cliff than marijuana on a weekly basis, com- claim that there are two million to invest in a fleet of ambulances at pared to weekly alcohol users (66 per Americans languishing in prisons,
R E V I E W 28 MARCH 2002 and if we would stop making drug currently driven by hopes of large of child abuse cases involved pa- use a criminal issue we would see an profits. If drugs were legalized, whole rental drug abuse. end to such appalling figures. What new industries would develop to cash •A 1992 study of NSW inmates they do not tell us, however, is that in on the trade. Greed for gain does found that 67 per cent of prison- while around two-thirds of these not disappear when an activity is ers had been on drugs while com- prisoners are in fact in gaol for drug- legalized. mitting the crime they were im- related offences, very few are in there Fourth, black markets exist today prisoned for. merely for simple drug possession. for all kinds of legal products. Just •A 2000 study of Australian de- Indeed, one study found that only because something is legal does not tainees found that a large per- two per cent of the American prison mean the black market will dis- centage had tested positive for population were convicted of pure appear. People will still want to beat drug use. For example, 70 per cent drug possession. Most were in for ag- taxes, escape government notice, or of adult male detainees charged gravated drug crimes, that is, crimes sell to minors, thus the demand for with violence tested positive to committed while on drugs (murder, black markets will continue, even on any drug, and 86 per cent of adult armed robbery, theft, assault, child legalized products. male detainees on property abuse, etc.) or crimes committed in Fifth, drug use contributes to charges tested positive to any order to obtain drugs. Moreover, the crime. It is the illegal activities drug. majority of these crimes took place people engage in while on mind- Also, cheaper drugs do not necessar- under the influence of alcohol, and altering drugs that is the real prob- ily mean less crime. When inexpen- not illegal substances. sive crack cocaine flooded America in the early 1980s, the rate of addic- It will put an end to the black mar- tion soared, as did crime rates. In- ket and reduce the crime rate. This [O]nly two per cent of deed, police noted that wherever claim is often heard, but there are a drugs were the cheapest, crime rates number of problems with this argu- the American prison were the highest. And when Britain ment. gave out heroin to addicts in the First, the costs to society for drug population were 1960s, a very large proportion re- use are far greater than any moneys mained involved in crime. saved on reduced law enforcement convicted of pure drug efforts. Consider the costs of drug Prohibition has never worked. Crit- legalization to society: lost pro- possession. Most were ics often argue that prohibition has ductivity, increased medical services never worked. But the facts speak for addicts and their families, more in for aggravated otherwise. During Prohibition in highway accidents, etc. A recent America, consumption of alcohol study found that the annual cost of drug crimes, that is, declined substantially, as did the cir- drugs to the Australian community rhosis death rate for men (cut by two- is $14.3 billion. Increase the number crimes committed thirds between 1911 and 1929), and of drug users, as legalization will do, arrests for public drunkenness drop- and you increase this figure as well. while on drugs ped 50 per cent between 1919 and Second, any ‘sin taxes’ raised by 1922. When Muslim societies re- these legalized drugs will still not moved restrictions on hashish in the offset the costs to society mentioned lem. It’s not just that people do bad 15th Century, it resulted in a large above. Indeed, the taxation of things to get drugs; drugs make them number of people from all walks of legalized drugs will still drive people do bad things. Consider some sta- life being in a constant state of in- to crime. In order for governments tistics: toxication. to raise enough revenue from drug •A 1991 US Federal survey found The truth is, the ‘get tough’ taxes to pay for all the costs of that a majority of those arrested approach to drugs has been fairly increased drug use, the taxes will in 24 cities for robbery, assault, successful. It may not be a panacea, have to be high. But the higher the burglary and homicide tested but it does not seem to be competing tax, the more the demand for black positive for drugs. against any other better proposals. market drugs, or the more crime •A 1994 study of 31,000 abused resorted to pay for these higher and neglected children in Cook Bill Muehlenberg is National Secretary of the Australian Family Association priced drugs. County, Illinois, found that more Third, the profit motive abounds that 80 per cent of the cases in- in already legal operations. The volved drugs. alcohol and tobacco industries are • In New York in 1987, 73 per cent I P A
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 29 F U R T H E R A F I E L D Summaries and excerpts from interesting reports
TORT LAWYERS DISCOVER FAVOURABLE EFFECTS OF benefit calculations might be more GOLD IN MOULD IMPRISONING DRUG favourable, because incarceration not For lawyers, household mould could OFFENDERS only lowers crime, but also drug be the next asbestos. Some 10,000 The number of Americans incarcer- consumption. Annual expenditures suits naming contractors and insur- ated on drug-related offences rose 15- of approximately $10 billion on drug ers are building up in US courts. The fold between 1980 and 2000, to its incarceration almost pay for common theme is that mould in current level of 400,000. Despite this themselves through reductions in homes is making their clients sick— enormous increase, there has been no health care costs and lost productivity causing everything from headaches systematic, empirical analysis until attributable to illegal drug use, even and dizziness to neurological dam- now of the implications of the new, ignoring any crime reductions asso- age. tougher drug laws for public safety, ciated with such incarceration. • Mould is the visible growth of drug markets, and public policy. The authors stress that their any of 100,000 species of fungus. In ‘An Empirical Analysis of figures are speculative and may not • While certain types of mould Imprisoning Drug Offenders’
R E V I E W 30 MARCH 2002 F U R T H E R A F I E L D
• Builders and boaters contend that countries where, for example, lo- NO LONGER biologists have put off studies that cal bureaucrats expect bribes and UNTHINKABLE: PAYMENTS could show that manatees are the national government arbi- FOR HUMAN ORGANS thriving and that more restrictions trarily preys on business enter- It has taken a major shortage of or- are not needed. prises. gans for transplants, but the medical • The annual state aerial survey • Those countries still need foreign community is no longer so shocked counted 3,261 manatees in capital, and while they may be that it refuses to consider paying for 2001—up from 2,222 in 2000. undesirable for foreign direct in- them. While it is true that watercraft-related vestment (FDI), they may not be • Some 79,000 Americans are manatee deaths have been increasing equally disadvantaged when it awaiting transplants—and 5,500 in the last several decades, boaters comes to obtaining bank loans who are on waiting lists die each attribute that to growth in the state’s from international creditors. year. manatee populations. • One reason loans are easy to pro- • So a committee of the American Last year, the US Fish and Wildlife cure even when corruption is Medical Association has been de- Services proposed to charge $546 for widespread is that the Interna- signing a pilot programme to test each new boat slip to pay for added tional Monetary Fund and govern- the effects of various motivators— local manatee speed patrols. But the ments of developed nations offer including payments for cadaveric plan was withdrawn after it was considerably more insurance and organ donations. opposed by Florida Governor Jeb protections to lenders than to di- • The committee is already con- Bush. rect investors. vinced that any moral concerns Some observers are disgusted that • The result is an investment port- are outweighed by the needs of the welfare of the manatees has been folio heavily skewed toward loans, patients. lost in the anti-growth debate. In one and given how foreign lenders are • Meanwhile, an advisory commit- instance, the Save the Manatee Club known to flee at the first sign of tee at the Department of Health abandoned its opposition to a de- trouble—while those directly in- and Human Services is discussing velopment project after the developer vested in an enterprise tend to sit ways to alleviate the organ short- offered to contribute $200,000 to the tight—such an imbalance leaves age—including lifting the ban on organization. an economy much more vulner- cadaveric and live donors. able to a currency crisis. The American Society of Transplant Source: Andrew C. Revkin, ‘How Wei and Wu argue that, by discour- Surgeons has already endorsed pay- Endangered a Species?’, New York aging stable flows of investment capi- ment for cadaveric organs to families Times, 12 February 2002. tal, corruption—whose measure they who consent to donate them when a derive from international surveys— relative dies. can be viewed as a sort of corporate The practice would be ethical if CORRUPTION AND tax on assets. For example, they con- ‘understood as a thank you’ and ‘not CURRENCY CRISES LINKED clude that ‘… an increase in corrup- a bribe’, says Francis Delmonico, a Rampant public corruption in emerg- tion from the level of Singapore to professor of surgery at Harvard ing market countries may contribute that of Mexico would have the same Medical School. He says that sums of to the currency crises that have negative effect on … foreign invest- $300 to $3,000 have been discussed. racked the developing world, because ment as raising the marginal corpo- Observers say that if the AMA corruption acts to repel more stable rate tax by 50 percentage points’. endorses a programme that would forms of foreign investment and offer donors or their families small leaves countries dependent on vola- Source: Matthew Davis, ‘How rewards, Congress would probably go tile foreign loans to finance growth. Corruption Causes Currency Crises’, along with it. Researchers Shang-Jin Wei and Yi NBER Digest, August 2001; based on Wu make the following case: Shang-Jin Wei and Yi Wu, ‘Negative Source: Barbara Carton, ‘Doctors, • The most dependable kind of for- Alchemy? Corruption, Composition US Government Move Closer to eign investors—those disposed to of Capital Flows, and Currency Backing Payment When Organs Are long-term commitments to pro- Crises’, NBER Working Paper No. Donated’, Wall Street Journal, 14 jects and businesses—often refuse 8187, March 2001, National Bureau February 2002. to put their money in developing of Economic Research. I P A
R E V I E W MARCH 2002 31 Book Review
The Ultimate Insider of diversity (whether it is on the basis years, is fascinating given his supposed of race, religion, gender or sexual ori- transgression—speaking out. It would Don D’Cruz reviews entation), but not diversity of opinion. appear that the media love whistle- There are times when Australian read- blowers, except when the whistle be- Bias: A CBS Insider ers might imagine that they are read- ing blown is on their own profession. Exposes How the Media ing about parts of our media. Goldberg’s treatment for blowing As an insider, his revelations are not the whistle at CBS is all the more fas- Distort the News as easy for America’s media élite to dis- cinating when one realizes that it was by Bernard Goldberg miss; although the American media did CBS which introduced the concept of make a reasonable attempt at it. the corporate ‘whistleblower’. New York, Regency, 2002, 232 pages Goldberg is simple and fairly old- Given that the media are often the fashioned in his belief that journalism most vocal defenders of free speech, the Bias was released in the United States should be about balance and present- attempts by his networks and col- amid considerable controversy and fan- ing all the facts, not just the ones that leagues to muzzle him reeks of grotesque fare. After years of railing against what you think will help your argument, or hypocrisy. US conservatives saw as the media’s those which you think the public is too Bias maybe written for an Ameri- liberal bias, one of America’s liberal can audience, but many of Goldberg’s media élite finally confirmed most of criticisms and observations are eerily their charges. The media love prescient concerning the Australian Reading Goldberg’s book it is easy media. When he writes that ‘big-time to see why it has made such an impact. whistleblowers, TV journalism’ has become ‘a showcase Goldberg is not a Rush Limbaugh. All for smart-ass reporters with attitudes, too often, even the best critiques of the except when the reporters who don’t even pretend to media on the question of bias have hide their disdain for certain people been easily dismissed by the media sim- whistle being and certain ideas that they and their ply by pointing to the background or sophisticated friends don’t particularly ideology of the author. Another com- blown is on their like’ (page 15), Goldberg could quite mon tactic has been simply to say that easily be writing about sections of the it is in the eye of the beholder. own profession media in Australia. Bias makes this task far more diffi- Bias is an enjoyable and engaging cult because Bernard Goldberg is one of book, often extremely amusing. His them. Not only that, but as the winner unsophisticated to digest or about personal portraits of senior American of seven Emmy Awards and a journal- which it may become confused. journalists will amuse anyone familiar ist with almost 30 years’ experience as Bias became a book after Goldberg with their names. But it is also a sear- a reporter and producer for CBS News, wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street ing indictment of the profession of jour- Goldbderg is the ultimate insider. Journal in 1996, methodically dissect- nalism at times, which leaves one pro- He is at pains to point out that his ing a piece on a so-called CBS News foundly depressed. book is not an attack on liberal values, Reality Check on Republican presi- Still, the fact that we have Gold- many of which Goldberg personally dential candidate Steve Forbes’ flat tax berg’s book should be seen as a source espouses; rather, it is an attack on lib- proposal. Frustrated by years of having of hope. We can only hope that an in- eral bias which he sees as endemic his misgivings ignored by colleagues, he sider of similar credentials at the ABC within the news media. went public. It was a devastating cri- has a similar outbreak of conscience Goldberg takes aim at what he sees tique, both for CBS and for Goldberg and pens an Australian equivalent. as the corruption of straight news re- personally. If you’re interested in the media, porting on television by an arrogant, An intriguing and disturbing part Bias is one book that it is worthy of insular media élite which shares simi- of the book is Goldberg’s account of your attention. lar liberal values, with little time or in- how his colleagues reacted to his voic- clination for introspection and cer- ing his concerns over bias publicly. His Don D’Cruz is a Research Fellow with tainly no time for criticism. It is a por- treatment by his colleagues, many of the Institute of Public Affairs. trait of a medium that proclaims its love whom had known him for almost 30 I P A
R E V I E W 32 MARCH 2002