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Austin Gough the Quality of Democratic Life Is Being Eroded IPA REVIEW ESTABLISHED IN I947 BY CHARLES KEMP, FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS Vol. 46 No. 3, 1993 Elections and the National Interest 7 C.D. Kemp 57 Tony Rutherford and the IPAs Foundations Can a party which ignores vocal interest groups get Shaun Patrick Kenaelly elected? IPA Director for 30 years, C.D. Kemp brought moral earnestness to Employment Optimism 13 economics. Wolfgang Kasper How Australia can benefit from the increasing global mobility in jobs. ^r Letters Fortress Europe 19 and the Threat to Australia From the Editor Paul Johnson q Longevity has increased, but so have suicides. Efforts to unite Europe and Around the States 11 to liberalize world trade are Mike Nahan coming into conflict. The combined public sector deficit is the largest since the Whitlam era. From Melting Pot to Salad Bowl 30 Neil McInnes Moore Economics 17 Multiculturalism is a policy, not a description of a Des Moore functioning society. Although unemployment has risen, the proportion of the working age population employed has actually Drugs in Sport 33 remained the same. Terry Black The case against the ban. Debate 24 Should schools do more Immigrations Cost is Overstated 35 to teach Asian languages? Ian Mott Research attributing high urban costs to immigration Letter from America 26 is flawed. Harry Gelber Clinton is an interventionist at home, a minimalist overseas. Rethinking the Australian Dream. r . 37 Patrick Morgan mo t ;. Strange Times 28 Australians need unity to face Ken Baker pressing problems: the PM should Tortured prose from the nether world of not be adding solvents. rye J' ' i„ sado-masochism. 50 Years Back, 20 Years On 41 Down to Earth 48 Geoffrey Blainey Ron Brunton Economic policies have hurt Australia, but cultural On the environment, the far Right and the attitudes have been even more damaging. deep-green Left converge. IPA News 63 Amidst Prosperity, the Poverty of 44 Public Debate A new report calls for fewer councils and lower rates. Austin Gough The quality of democratic life is being eroded. Editor: Ken Baker Design: Bob Cahvell Associates. Production Assistant: Tracey Seto. Unnatural Science 50 Advertising: Barry Tctfcr Media, Ph (03) 563 6602, Fx (03) 563 6641. Roger Sandal! Printing: Wilke Color, 37 Browns Road, Clayton, 3168. Resentment of science is intense in our Arts Faculties. Published by the Institute of Public Affairs Ltd (Incorporated in the ACT). ACN 008 627 727. ISSN: 1030 a 177. Not All Cultures Are Equal 53 Editorial and Production Office: Ground Floor; 128-136 Jolimont American anthropologist Robert B. Road, Jolimont, Vic, 3002. Ph: (03) 654 7499; Fx: (03) 650 7627. Edgerton discusses what makes a Subscriptions: $40 per annum (includes quarterly Facts). society sick. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcomed. However, potential con- tributors are advised to discuss proposals for articles with the Editor. Views expressed in the publications of the IPA are those of the Where the IPA Stands 56 authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute. LETTERS Right and Wrong and Old Right have a common interest unemployment figures, in fact, it could in pursuing corrective policies in these well increase them — for the above areas and not just restricting themselves reason. OUR editorial `Is the Alliance to economics. That is why the Alliance The negative social impact of YOver? (Vol. 46 No. 2) must continue. reducing wages would, in the case of misunderstood the significance of the Neo-classical liberals quite correctly single-income families, plunge them New Rights part in the cultural shifts desire the reduction of government in- into poverty. In the case of two-in- initiated by the New Class (i.e. the trusiveness. Nevertheless, that "the Plan come families, it would result in recently affluent and/or influential to end the Plan" may in fact be con- widespread social dislocation. Stand- elites of the baby-boomer generation). tributing to poverty, resentment and in care-givers could be found but there Firstly, the political economy of the cultural relativism is the point of depar- is no real substitute for parental care New Right — or neo-classical liberals ture between the Australian liberal and and discipline. — shares the same starting and finishing the conservative. The political economy There are two other crucial areas Mr point as that of a Benthamite progres- of atomistic individualism is fatally un- Stone did not touch on in his article. sive liberal like Ian Macphee or Gary dermining the basic institutions that Firstly, since tariffs have been slashed Sturgess and that of a left-liberal such as curb the more sinister elements of — starting from the Whitlam era — over Anne Summers or Lindsay Tanner - human nature and promote the more 200,000 jobs have disappeared. namely that the individual ought to be noble in a public culture. This may not Australia has lost 50 per cent of its free from all restraints. The New Right be the intended effect of the New Right: manufacturing capacity since 1973. If helped to create a glut of speculative it would be surprising if the New Right further severe reductions in tariffs take capitalism and credit-hungry con- welcomed a climate and a culture hos- place, another 100,000 jobs could be at sumerism in Australia with deregula- tile towards private property, initiative risk. Therefore, tariffs should be in- tion of the financial sector. Sections of and responsibility. creased,just as Mr Menzies did back in the corporate elite were glorified ex- the 1950s to protect Australian in- Brendan T. Dairy, amples of freedom from responsibility dustries and jobs. Biiregu1ra, Vic. and shame. By the end of the 1980s, all Secondly, Mr Stone has not men- corporations seemed to have been tioned the effects of equal oppor- tarred with the same brush in the tunity/affirmative action on publics mind. Protecting unemployment trends. Research con- Not everyone in the New Right or Employment ducted in the US (and no doubt this is big business encouraged such reckless true for Australia as well) has found that behaviour or policies. For example, NEMPLOYMENr is the greatest so- as more and more women join the work- John Stone and Nobby Clark did not. cial evil of our age, but John force, unemployment also rises. Since However, the overall effect has meant StonesU solutions (Vol. 46 No. 2) were the late 1970s, when equal opportunity public, corporate and household debt, too narrowly focused. was first introduced in Australia, and a cargo cult based on freedom from Regarding wages, the truth is that around one million jobs that would have all restraints except those dictated by Australia cannot compete with traditionally gone to men, mostly male supply and demand. countries like China where convicts are breadwinners, have gone to women who Secondly, the Menzies era is ad- `employed to work for 60 cents per now are taking 66 per cent of all new mired by Old Right conservatives not hour. Australians enjoy a much higher jobs created. primarily because public expenditure standard of living than most of their Modern education enforces the view was kept at around 20 per cent of the northern Asian neighbours, hence the that women have as much right to work economy, but because it instilled virtues requirement of a reasonable wage to as men. If the expectation is that every such as love of country and heritage, fund that lifestyle. Australia, with its adult person in Australia should regard thrift, security, commonality, service small population, does not have the a career in the paid work-force as nor- and duty. The individual as a respon- economies of scale to match the large- mative, then our economy would have to sible, honest, courageous, sincere agent population-based economies of Asia. expand at a constant rate of over five per in a community of industry and reflec- Is Mr Stone serious about reducing cent to accommodate all school-leavers tion was the ideal of Menzies The For- wages by 30 per cent? Ill believe it and gradually reduce unemployment. gotten People. when he publicly announces, as an ex- This is a big task. Public expenditure grew in ample to the rest of us, that he will Present government policies dis- Australia because of the unwillingness forgo a 30 per cent slice of his income. criminate heavily against mothers. and failure of the Right (both in the After you, Mr Stone. Treasurer Dawkins recent an- Liberal and Labor Parties) to fight If wages are reduced by 30 per cent, nouncement in the Budget to raise the against welfare schemes that have been this will force virtually every married retiring age of women to 65 will further inducing poverty among the very people woman into the work-force to supple- exacerbate unemployment. Jobs will these schemes set out to help, including ment her familys budget. Therefore, it now not become available to others Aborigines, women, the homeless, is doubtful whether reducing wages when women retire at 60, but will be youth, and ethnic minorities. The New by such a high margin would reduce held over for up to five years. IPA Review, Vol. 46 No. 3, 1993 The number of jobs held over could (two were RAF). And she grievously mention? It seems so. be quite substantial. Around 140,000 lost Royal Navy capital ships in the With these glaring insults, need people retire from the work-force each Pacific. Her troops suffered bestial anyone ponder why so many British year. Women hold around 30 per cent Japanese treatment. residents prefer not to be Australian?. of all full-time jobs. This could mean Only Britain cops the flak. Who asks, My family chose to be the exception.
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