The Institute of Public Affairs is demanding that a returned Morrison Government effectively abolish all modern workers’ rights and implement a string of bizarre policy initiatives including a royal commission investigating whether the Bureau of Meteorology doctors climate data and doubling the size of the House of Representatives.
These demands are included in the IPA’s election manifesto “20 Policies to Fix Australia”, released last week. It is a blueprint for a cruel, unfair country ruled by multi-nationals and billionaires where working people have no rights and no voice.
The manifesto might seem laughable but should be of concern to all Australians, as the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Government has implemented or attempted to implement roughly a third of the IPA’s previous election manifestos.
The IPA is the ideological foundation of the modern Liberal Party and this manifesto reveals their plan to end modern workers’ rights and undo decades of progress for working people.
The full paper, which can be viewed here https://ipa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/IPA-Research-20-Policies-to-Fix-Australia.pdf instructs the Morrison Government to adopt regressive positions across a range of policy areas:
Abolishing workers’ rights: a flat income tax, reducing corporate tax which would necessitate massive cuts to government programs, abolishing super, and eliminating the existing protections in the Fair Work Act to be replaced with nothing.
Nonsensical changes to government: Giving the states the ability to appoint High Court judges and doubling the size of the House of Reps.
Taking Australia back in time: Repealing 18C, withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, privatising the ABC, abolishing the renewable energy target and implementing the one in-two out regulation rule.
Far-right conspiracy theories: Holding a royal commission into former One Nation Senator Malcolm Robert’s pet theory that the Bureau of Meteorology alters climate data to ‘create’ climate change.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus
“This manifesto would abolish workers’ rights from legislation and replace them with nothing. This would be a catastrophe for working people in Australia.
“It might seem unbelievable that any politician would consider policies which would have such a disastrous impact on the average Australian, but we know that the IPA is listened to in the Coalition party room.
“These policies would undermine job security, cut wages and see massive cuts to government services while increasing the cost of living for low-paid workers, making life harder for all working people, while providing a windfall for the very rich.
“We need to go forward and create a better life for all working people, not return to the 1920s free market fantasy that the IPA is trying to bring to life.”
