Month: October 2011

Economist Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich is an advocate of a ‘big Australia’. Here are five reasons why he thinks the nation has nothing to fear from a growing population.

Die Isländer machen eben aus Krisen immer das Beste. Aus dem Ausbruch des Eyjafjallajökull wurde so eine Tourismusattraktion; und aus der isländischen Bankenkrise erwuchs eine trotzige Unabhängigkeitserklärung an die Adresse der EU.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has polarised public opinion: Either you regard the protestors as the new political avant-garde or as just plain silly. Either you believe they have a serious message or you think they are a bunch of nutters. But what if the truth is a bit more nuanced than that? Perhaps the nutters have a point?

After the turbulent monetary history of Greece, it was surprising (to say the least) how easily Greece managed to become part of the eurozone. Either Greece had fundamentally changed its whole economic system as grown over two centuries overnight or Greece’s European partners had not learned their lessons from history.

Should local government be recognised in the Constitution? And would such recognition make a practical difference? International experience suggests that constitutional recognition alone does not determine the practical power and influence that local government authorities can exert. A comparison of the legal situation in Germany and Switzerland provides a good illustration.

As eurozone countries were once again engaged in a new round of emergency negotiations over Greece, bank recapitalisations and an extension to the EFSF rescue fund, the latest round of quantitative easing in the UK went almost unnoticed outside Britain.

Merkel won last week’s debate by making a mockery out of democracy, but she lost leeway for any further bailout packages. Meanwhile, the German public has reached the end of its tether with politicians, Greece and the euro.

While population growth isn’t something to strive for in and of itself, it is nothing to be feared either. Our challenge is not how to stop or slow population growth; our challenge is to embrace it. That way, we can ensure that a growing Australia is a prosperous, interesting and liveable place for us all.