Commentators and ‘conflict of interest’
The idea that decision-makers have conflicts of interest is well established in law and the governance of private organisations. Those who have a direct or indirect (say, through a relative) financial...
View ArticleNo bribes needed to support the budget
Like last year, Australian voters have shown that they don’t need to be bribed to approve of budgets. The Nielsen poll, like other polls, found between one in four and one in five voters thought that...
View ArticleMore weak conflict of interest claims
Andrew Leigh was one of 21 economist signatories to an apparently Nick Gruen-iniatiated open letter (open op-ed?) defending government debt as an appropriate policy response to the GFC. In broad terms,...
View ArticleThe easiest way to avoid conflicts of interest
Amidst the hyperbole and counter-hyperbole of Ute-gate, some words of sense (yes, really) from Mark Latham: Neoliberalism is not without its shortcomings as an economic philosophy, but one thing its...
View ArticleWhat constitutes successful working of a policy integrity system?
I’m one of the few people who thinks that regulation of political donations already goes too far, at least for NGOs. But I think there is some common ground that nobody – whether donors or not – should...
View ArticleEconomic liberalism and the opportunities for political favours
Today John Quiggin published a post on ‘probity and economic liberalism’, arguments from which have also been appearing in the thread to this post of mine. In response to the argument that economic...
View ArticleThe partisan self-interest behind political donations regulation
In my Australian op-ed for my new CIS paper on political expenditure laws I begin by paraphrasing a famous Adam Smith comment on cartels: ADAM Smith, the great 18th-century economist and philosopher,...
View ArticleIs Christine Wallace’s review of the new Gillard biography an ‘absolute...
In the latest issue of the Monthly, Christine Wallace reviews Jacqueline Kent’s new biography of Julia Gillard. Wallace has her own Gillard biography coming out next year, a fact she discloses in the...
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Does full-fare public transport deter international students?
International students have long campaigned for public transport fare concessions. I have argued before that this is based on a mistaken understanding of why Australian students receive cheaper fares,...
View ArticleThe corruption of campaign finance laws
As the SMH reported this morning, the NSW government has announced plans for the nation’s most draconian campaign finance laws, including: • Political donations from individuals, registered political...
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