Policy Winter 1989
Vol. 5 No. 2 (Winter, 1989) POLICY Winter Issue 1989.-
FEATURE: Does Australia Really Have a Current Account Problem?
| 06 Jun 1989Australia's current account deficit consists very largely of additions to the private sector's foreign debt. John Pitchford argues that no good case has been made for government intervention to inhibit private debt-creation, and concludes that the government's present macroeconomic approach to reducing the deficit is not cost-effective.
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FEATURE: Some Doubts About a Consumption Tax
| 06 Jun 1989The introduction of a broad-based consumption tax in Australia is widely regarded as inevitable. Terry Dwyer and John Logan argue that all its alleged benefits could be realised by changes to the income tax without the risk of an increase in the overall tax burden.
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FEATURE: Faulty Lines in the Telecom Bill
| 06 Jun 1989In its May 1988 Economic Statement the federal govenrment foreshadowed a Telecommunications Bill that would promote access, innovation and accountability in the telecommunications industry. "The Bill now before parliament falls far short of these objectives."
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FEATURE: Telecom, AUSTEL, and the Exclusion of Competitive Carriers
| 06 Jun 1989An edited version of a paper given by Warren Pengilley at a University of NSW Law School seminar of NSW Law School seminar on 'The New Telecommunications Law' on 3 April 1989.
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FEATURE: Home Ownership- Auistralian Dream or Australian Disease?
| 06 Jun 1989Government ministers sometimes criticise the banks for charging high mortgage interest rates but in fact rely on them to fulfil the objectives of tight monetary policy. Professor Tom Valentine shows how present housing policy distorts the housing market and discriminates against would-be home-buyers.
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FEATURE: The False Promise of Urban Consolidation
| 06 Jun 1989Urban consolidation is being promoted in New South Wales as a way of economising on infrastructure and housing costs. Tony Sorensen casts doubt on this claim and argues that the real need is to remove the planning contorls that prevent the expression of people's residential preferences.
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FEATURE: The Failing Symbiosis: Labour Market Regulation and the Welfare State in Australia
| 06 Jun 1989'Symbiosis' is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as 'union between organisms each of which depends for its existence on the other.' An explanation of the failure of the relationship between the labour market and the welfare state. These insights are part of his work for a forthcoming CIS monograph that presents a reform agenda for the labour market and the welfare state in Australia.
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FEATURE: Auctioning the Immigration Quota
| 06 Jun 1989The immigration debate is at present off the boil, but is unlikely to remain so for long. Mark Harrison suggests a way of clarifying and quantifying the benefits of immigration both to resident Australians and to immigrants themselves.
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FEATURE: Privatising The Immigration Market
| 06 Jun 1989A proposal for further steps towards liberalising the allocation of immigration rights.
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FEATURE: Cultural Regulation: Government Assistance to the Australian Film & Television Industry
| 06 Jun 1989Australia's film and television industry is riddled with protection and subsidies. Ross Jones argues that this does nothing to promote Australian culture.
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FEATURE: Art Subsidies: Killing Canadian Culture
| 06 Jun 1989
An edited version of a talk given by Steven Globerman at a 1989 CIS seminar, claiming that government support for the arts was retarding the development of Canadian culture and discrediting it in the eyes of the Canadian public.
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FEATURE: Why Banning Cigarettes Ads Doesn't Reduce Smoking
| 06 Jun 1989As pressure grows for the prohibition of all cigarette advertising, research has failed to establish that adverts increase the incidence of smoking. Martha Rogers summarises the evidence.
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FEATURE: Are There Any Welfare Rights?
| 06 Jun 1989The standard arguments justifying the welfare state in terms of a moral right to welfare remain controversial and inconclusive. A suggestion for a more secure philosophical foundation for welfare rights theory.
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FEATURE: Liberty and Corporation
| 06 Jun 1989
In March 1989, Hugh Morgan received the 1988 Adam Smith Club Award for outstanding services to liberty. An edited version of his acceptance speech.
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FEATURE: The Open Society Revisited
| 06 Jun 1989Dr Naomi Moldofsky insists that the Open Society that Karl Popper advocates is impossible without an open market system.
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BOOK REVIEW: The Rule of Law
| 06 Jun 1989The Rule of Law by Geoffrey de Q. Walker (Melbourne University Press, 1988.)
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BOOK REVIEW: No Sympathy for the Welfare State
| 06 Jun 1989Not Only the Poor: The Middle Classes and the Welfare State by Robert E. Goodin and Julian Le Grand (Allen & Unwin, 1987.)
