Viv Forbes, The Australian, January 26, 1987, p. 8, as a letter to the editor.

SIR — “Slip-shod Australia” was surely made on our political production line where 14 houses of Parliament and hundreds of other government authorities turn out an annual avalanche of laws and regulations, many of which undermine the standards of our society and should be subject to recall.

The problem starts in school where compulsory attendance laws, the abolition of external examinations and minimum wage laws have converted many of our schools into remand centres or unemployment offices for dropouts (on both sides of the desks).

For those who escape school without permanent damage, our political pygmies have created a tax tangle which penalises success and discourages initiative and a welfare blanket which pampers failure and fosters idleness.

Other perverse laws are undermining the family, causing unemployment, protecting monopoly and creating industrial lawlessness.

Amid a cacophony of calls to protect our physical heritage, the vandals in Parliament are smashing down the legal heritage which protects centuries of traditional rights to liberty, property, privacy and equality before the law.

Finally, a bipartisan record of slip-shod financial management has given us levels of taxation, spending, deficits, debts, inflation and interest rates which threaten to bankrupt our industry and destroy our currency.

The label “Made in an Australian Parliament” has become the hallmark of slip-shod legislation. Maybe in 1987 we can start to recover the once-great British reputation for just laws, sound currency and good government.

A growing band of informed and angry editors and letterists can play a leading role in this recovery.

VIV FORBES
Indooroopilly, Qld