Red tape?????????????

What is this government really about, when they talk about red tape? Is not revision of legislation a part of good governance of all governments?

We have those in the financial  and charity sectors pleading that Labor’s reforms remain in place; that is the Charities Commission, and new laws involving financial advisers. Most seem to be saying these are good legislation and necessary.

This government says they have to go, as it involves red tape.

We have seen all advisory bodies, and the processes to collect information go. Yes, things such as asking industry to inform the government of how they employ women.

They say that they have nine thousand pieces of red tape ready to repeal. How does one assess how much is really necessary regulations, to ensure that people and small business are protected?

Does one get the feeling that this government believes that businesses, especially big business should have no restraints by government on them at all?  That they should have complete freedom to do what they like?

Red tape rarely equals regulations. All or most are brought in to meet a need in society.

Yes, over time, all should be reviewed, as times change. Getting rid of all of it, is another thing.

Federal Attorney-General George Brandis wants to champion a ‘classical liberal’ approach to human rights, but what does this actually mean?

Tim Wilson, Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner, has announced that he will take a “classical liberal” approach to human rights. There is a fair degree of confusion about what this means.

Classical liberalism is not a coherent body of political philosophy. However, in relation to human rights, there are three key ideas that most classical liberals subscribe to.

The first is the idea that all people are born with rights, which they hold simply because they are human. This is the idea that underpins Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Not everyone shares this belief. Many people believe that rights are simply entitlements granted by the state and held only by citizens. But for classical liberals, rights are much more than this. They are universal (held by everyone) and inalienable (they continue to exist regardless of whether or not governments recognise this. Read more here.

Classical liberalism is a political philosophy and ideology belonging to liberalism in which primary emphasis is placed on securing the freedom of the individual by limiting the power of the government. The philosophy emerged as a response to the Industrial Revolution and urbanization in the 19th century in Europe and the United States.It advocates civil liberties with a limited government under the rule of law, private property, and belief in laissez-faire economic liberalism. Classical liberalism is built on ideas that had already arisen by the end of the 18th century, including ideas of Adam Smith, John Locke, Jean-Baptiste Say, Thomas Malthus, and David Ricardo. It drew on a psychological understanding of individual liberty, the contradictory theories of natural law and utilitarianism, and a belief in progress.

In the early 20th century, liberals split on several issue, and particularly in America a distinction grew up between classical liberals and social liberals. Classical liberals supported the rights of captains of industry, who they saw as the natural leaders of society and the wellsprings of progress, while social liberals supported the rights of labor to organize into unions, and also supported the rights of women and minorities. Classical liberals favored small government which allowed businessmen the freedom to pursue profit without government interference. Social liberals favored big government to support the rights of the poor and disenfranchised.

In the mid-20th century, the classical liberals often formed an alliance with social conservatives; in the United States, they did this under the banner of the Republican Party. In Europe, the same two sides formed but with different labels: what are called social liberals in America are called simply socialists in Europe, and their party is usually called the Labour Party [sic]. Neither liberals nor conservatives adopted the ideology of pure Classical Liberalism, the belief that government exists to protect both social and economic civil liberty.