Property Rights Articles

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Australian regulatory attacks on modern agriculture have vastly reduced the capacity of the farming sector to adapt to new technologies and markets and have damaged the nation’s agricultural productivity. 

In the case of the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’s only really significant irrigated agriculture province, until recently farmers used about 

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A FUNDAMENTAL feature of sound administration is that government must pay full compensation if it takes anyone’s property. Without this, people’s incentives to save and invest would be much diminished, and living standards would fall. Laws preventing government seizure of property are both implicit and formally stipulated under the Constitution. And judges adapt common law to cover new situations and technologies.

In her address to the Minerals Council, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said: "You don't own the minerals. I don't own the minerals. Governments only sell you the right to mine the resource. A resource we hold in trust for a sovereign people. They own it and they deserve their share."

Many commentators correctly attribute the UK rioting to decades of misgoverning and miseducating youth. Contributing to this has been the breakdown of family discipline, the replacement of working fathers as role models and the creation of a culture of entitlement.

New South Wales landowner Peter Spencer recently ended a hunger strike protesting about a state government zoning that prevented farming on his property. His actions have drawn attention to the abilities of state governments to take people's property without compensating them.

The Rudd government was criticised by a near consensus of journalists and media commentators for its decision to leave in place parallel import restrictions on books. These restrictions allow authors to negotiate contracts

The Productivity Commission has recommended terminating restrictions on the parallel imports of books. Such restrictions require the permission of the author's agent, usually the publisher, for the import of the author's books.

Peter Costello and Bob Brown are unlikely bedfellows in opposing Chinese state-owned company Chinalco buying into Rio Tinto. Mr Costello proudly publicises his record as Treasurer in restraining government spending, upholding free markets and promoting private ownership.

If terrorists were to invade Bob Brown’s house and create hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to his antique collection, he would be understandably irked. His anger would hardly be muted

The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) participates in an annual assessment of economies compiled by Canada's Fraser Institute. Called the Economic Freedom of the World, the compilation assesses 141 countries against 42 criteria to determine how open they are to private enterprise.

Stable and well-understood laws underpin our business and personal arrangements. Laws originally were derived from texts like those written down succinctly in the Ten Commandments. These have been extended and modernised but their principles remain. Gradually during the 20th century this started to change. Communist regimes overturned individual property law.