This week, Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon passionately defended the $46,000 electoral allowance which he, like other MPs, receives from taxpayers each year in order to ‘engage’ with constituents: even though they are allowed to pocket what’s left of the allowance as additional income. This is in addition to his $264,000 annual salary and the over $50,000 he receives for travel.
Read MoreRecent studies are sending the premise of plain packaging up in smoke. Plain packaging does not actually reduce cigarette consumption. In fact, evidence shows that the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has actually increased smoking in low and middle-income countries.
Read MoreLowering the 32.5 percent marginal tax rate to 30 percent and abolishing the 37 percent tax bracket for people earning $125,000 to $200,000 helps women. Australian Taxpayers Alliance Policy Director, Satya Marar, published an op-ed this week in the Daily Telegraph pointing out that this tax cut would not only provide Australia’s economy with a much-needed productivity boost. It would also promote women’s workforce participation and would bring more highly educated and qualified women back into the workforce, and reward them with higher paying jobs.
Read MoreA recent study from Griffith University has found that instead of sobering louts up, lockout laws in Queensland have instead lead to people getting drunker. That’s right. The average blood alcohol content of club customers has increased from .07 per cent to .09 per cent since the implementation of alcohol restrictions. So much for reducing irresponsible drinking to combat alcohol-fuelled violence.
Read MoreLast weekend, Christie Aucamp-Aschutte and a group of friends dancing to the lights of Sydney’s Vivid son et lumière festival with an old boom box were approached by the police and told to ‘move along’ without being allowed to so much as finish their song. Their crime: honestly, no one knows.
Read MoreRegulating when individuals can consume alcohol does little to improve overall alcohol related crime, writes Emilie Dye. We only need to look at America’s failings to realise Australia should abolish its lockout laws.
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