Comments on: Australian libertarian identities

By: Andrew Norton » Blog Archive » Am I Carlton’s lone libertarian?

Andrew Norton » Blog Archive » Am I Carlton’s lone libertarian? — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:07:52 +0000

[...] I have won a competition I did not know I was in: I have been named as one of Australia’s top libertarian identities. Don Arthur thinks that surely there must have been some mistake, citing these words I wrote last [...]

By: Malcolm Turnbull « Thoughts on Freedom

Malcolm Turnbull « Thoughts on Freedom — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:31:22 +0000

[...] Turnbull in the past, despite the fact that many here seem to like him – even considering him a fellow libertarian. I’ve yet to see anything that would qualify him as such. Maybe I was harsh – after all, [...]

By: terje (say tay-a)

terje (say tay-a) — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:44:57 +0000

Does anybody know where Gerard Jackson rates in libertarian terms. He seems to be an aussie who has a lot to say on free trade:-

http://gerardjackson.com/

By: Terje (say tay-a)

Terje (say tay-a) — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 13:05:56 +0000

Paul,

I think the way that a minor party (like OneNation or hopefully the LDP) can be successfully influential is to threaten the power base of the incumbants. That only happens when you are doing the things that will earn you power. So the desire to exercise power is probably a necessary precursor to success.

Regards,
Terje.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 22:06:32 +0000

Did ACT want to influence policy or exercise power ?

“…not won power and is a long, long way from ever doing so. However it has had most of its ideas stolen by other parties…”

The desire to exercise power almost by definition is anti-libertarian…

Each policy adopted by others is the success of influence.

By: terje (say tay-a)

terje (say tay-a) — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 02:22:07 +0000

I think more reliance on land tax is a good way to go. However rather than it being an annual tax based on a percentage of unimproved market value it should be an annual tax based on a percentage of original purchase price. It should also be used to abolish the stamp duty on puchases and only apply to properties bought after the introduction date (earlier purchases having being frront loaded with stamp duty).

If when the Howard government came to power they had commited to a cap on annual per capita revenue then they could have pretty much abolished income tax by now. Imagine having the level of government services we had a decade ago but with zero income tax.

By: John Humphreys

John Humphreys — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 01:57:43 +0000

My point was that we should aim to get government spending sufficiently low so that we didn’t need any income tax.

By: Jason Soon

Jason Soon — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 01:17:18 +0000

Does anyone know what Peter Walsh get up to these days? He isn’t exactly a libertarian (he favours a wealth tax for instance) but at least on regulation is damned well closer to being one than most members of the Liberal party.

By: Jason Soon

Jason Soon — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 00:51:29 +0000

and replace income tax with what? arbitrarily valued land tax?

I am for moving to greater reliance on land tax but I have my doubts about sole reliance on it. It could end up degenerating into tax farming and extortion.

By: John Humphreys

John Humphreys — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:53:25 +0000

I’ll jump on the bandwagon too — well said Michael.

However, I have wondered if it would be worthwhile if the LDP stated that we have a long-term goal of getting rid of income tax. Introduce 30/30 now and then steadily bring down government spending over time until we can remove the remaining tax on work.