Essays For Australia
Essays for Australia is a publication of The Centre for the Australian Way of Life at the Institute of Public Affairs.
The purpose of Essays for Australia is to explain and defend the values that have created the Australian way of life – democracy, egalitarianism, and freedom in all its dimensions.
Unifying An Immigrant Nation
By Dr Tanveer Ahmed According to last year’s census for the first time in Australia’s history more than half our population was either born overseas or had an overseas-born parent. Australia has the second-highest proportion of foreign born residents in the developed world (after Luxembourg). In the United States 13.6 per cent are foreign-born, in the UK 13.7 per cent, [...]
Reflections On The 2022 Election
By John Roskam The 2022 federal election ended eight and a half years of what was, in general, a mediocre Coalition government. I say 'in general' because the two years of Tony Abbott's prime ministership were the exception. Abbott promised to do three key things - 'axe the [carbon] tax', 'stop the boats', and 'fix the budget'. He delivered [...]
Telling The Truth
By Jacinta Nampijinpa Price 'When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.' That's one of my favourite quotes from Thomas Sowell, the great American writer and thinker. Sowell grew up in segregated North Carolina, and then lived in Harlem. His father died before [...]
Their Covid Conceit
The 21st century was, until last year, defined by two pivotal events: the terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Centre in 2001, and the global financial crisis of 2008. The first fueled a massive expansion of security and intelligence services which permanently eroded individual freedom in the name of a “war on terror”. And the second caused a [...]
Australia’s Egalitarian Hope
Distinctively among the nations of the world, Australia was founded as a populist democracy, committed to egalitarianism between individuals and majoritarianism in government. This dual commitment has led to the development of a state that, as W.K. Hancock famously noted in Australia, is treated by Australians as a “vast public utility, whose duty it is to provide the greatest [...]
The Joke’s On Us
To our eternal benefit, Australia has seldom been taken seriously. When Dirk Hartog strayed off course on his way to Indonesia in 1616 and stumbled upon the west coast of our desert-like continent, he took one look around and decided it was of no use to him or his employer, the mighty Dutch East India Company. Hartog had been [...]