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The Nanny State

liberty-nanny

The state is supposed to set a framework in which people can live peacefully together. Recently, governments around the world have been inclined to go beyond this traditional role. Instead of issuing some basic rules in which we can live our lives as we please, they are now trying to prescribe specific ways of life. Can this ever be justified or are government nannies just infantilizing society?

Publications

  1. Invisible Hand versus Visible Fist: Securing the Future Wealth of Nations

    P.J. O'Rourke | 01 Nov 2009 | Occasional Papers

    In the 25th John Bonython Lecture, PJ O'Rourke presents his views of the economic and financial crisis that is shaking the... Read More...

  2. The False Promise of GP Super Clinics Part 2: Coordinated Care

    Jeremy Sammut | 20 Jun 2008 | Policy Monographs

    The report’s author Jeremy Sammut examines the evidence for the Rudd government’s plan to use GP Super Clinics to boost... Read More...

  3. OPINION: There’s No Such Thing as a Free Parking Space

    Krystian Seibert | 04 Jun 2008 | POLICY Magazine

    Minimum parking regulations ensure there’s plenty of space for our cars at the shops but we pay a hefty price for it.

  4. The False Promise of GP Super Clinics: Part 1: Preventive Care

    Jeremy Sammut | 06 May 2008 | Policy Monographs

    Dr Jeremy Sammut examines the evidence for preventive care programs to help make the Medicare system sustainable, given the... Read More...

  5. ROSS PARISH ESSAY: Fat Kids? Go For Your Life

    Jess Moir | 12 Dec 2006 | POLICY Magazine

    A critique of state intervention to prevent childhood obesity.

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Opinion & Commentary

  1. If only phone hacking were the real scandal

    Brendan O'Neill | 20 Aug 2011 | The Spectator

    For all the tankers of ink that have been spilt analysing Rupert Murdoch’s recent travails, nobody has seen fit to mention ... Read More

  2. Brits recoil from teaching respect for authority at home or school

    Peter Saunders | 15 Aug 2011 | The Australian

    Following last week's riots in Britain, politicians and commentators have similarly been asking the wrong question. What ... Read More

  3. A confident secularist society would tolerate school religion

    Brendan O'Neill | 28 Jul 2011 | The Sydney Morning Herald

    A confident secular society, one that trusted in its rationalist public institutions, should have no problem with occasional ... Read More

  4. Beware pink totalitarianism

    Jeremy Sammut | 15 Jul 2011 | The Spectator

    Gay marriage dissenters deserve the same respect as advocates... Read More

  5. Getting the nanny state out of alcohol retail

    Oliver Marc Hartwich | 28 Mar 2011 | Online Opinion

    To Australian regulators, beer, wine and spirits seem to be in the same danger category as guns and porn – and thus have ... Read More

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Ideas@TheCentre

  1. How (not) to pick a nanny-state winner

    Jessica Brown | 20 Jan 2012

    Government can’t control everything. People who want to gamble online will gamble online....

  2. Lazy not a disorder

    Sara Hudson | 02 Dec 2011

    Kids who are allowed to play video games all day shouldn’t be labelled with a disorder – their parents should be labelled ...

  3. Texting tragedy

    Meegan Cornforth | 25 Nov 2011

    Introduction of laws in Pakistan that ban the use of certain words in mobile texts afflicts the most basic human right - ...

  4. No end to certainty of state paternalism in Australia

    Alexander Philipatos, Jeremy Sammut | 18 Nov 2011

    The insidious reliance on government paternalism is hobbling the responsible growth of the Australian nation and its people....

  5. Nanny state taxation

    Robert Carling | 04 Nov 2011

    If the nanny state insists on new or increased behavioural taxes, then government should also introduce equivalent cuts in ...

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