The Policy Post

  Too many guns. For three decades, Australia’s much-praised gun laws almost eliminated mass shootings. But we now have more guns than ever; and this post from almost three years ago has suddenly, and appallingly, become relevant again.

  A bill of rights is now tantalisingly close. Australia is the only western liberal democracy without a mandated charter of human rights. It’s now closer than at any time in 40 years.

  WA’s $40 billion fraud on the rest of us. Jim Chalmers has just added $11 billion to the cost of Western Australia’s dodgy GST deal. It’s an extraordinary case of political extortion. But is it even legal? And will WA have to give the money back?

  These are the people we’re locking up. Prisons don’t work. When you look at the lives of people being imprisoned, it’s no wonder.

  New laws try to kill protests. Here’s why they will fail. Governments can now send non-violent protesters to gaol but face massive backlash. These laws have been tried for centuries – and for just as long, they’ve backfired.

  Crime levels sink. Prisoner numbers soar. What’s going on? In Australia’s smallest state, a natural experiment shows a humane and rational approach to crime works – and tough-on-crime strategies fail.

  Progressive politics always (in the end) wins. Here’s why. Throughout modern history, conservatives have won battles but lost the wars. It’s the other side – the reformists or ‘progressives’ – who eventually shape the world.

Is our unwritten constitution worth the paper it’s not written on?   When it finally became known that Scott Morrison, in darkest secrecy, had made himself the Lord High Everything Else, the solicitor-general said there wasn’t anything illegal about it. But was there?