I have admired Paddy McGuinness for many years but now I think the old boy is getting even better. Thank you for bringing him to us.
~ BERT KELLY, Burnside, SA
[The Australian, March 9, 1989, p. 10, letter to the editor]

a. Paddy McGuinness on the ABC (6 items)
b. On arts funding/cultural policy (11 items)
c. On class sizes/state schooling (10 items)
d. On drugs! (7 items)P. P. McGuinness byline in 1975 National Times
e. On healthcare (8 items)
f. On sport (7 items)
g. On religious leaders talking politics (9 items)
h. On affirmative action/discrimination (20 items)
i. On formalising the informal sector (29 items)
j. On business ethics/codes of conduct (14 items)
k. On compulsory voting (13 items)
l. Other McGuinness columns (on immigration, leadership, “Where Friedman is a pinko”, genocidal welfare, etc) (42 items)
m. Paddy McGuinness speeches (1 transcript)P. P. McGuinness, Fin Review Economics Editor
n. On Paddy McGuinness (3 items)

a. Paddy McGuinness on ABC

  1. Time to sell the ABC,” The Australian Financial Review, March 13, 1985, p. 12. Excerpt: “No one, of course, has the slightest expectation that the present Federal Government would consider for a moment a proposal to sell the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Indeed, there is grave doubt that anyone would want to buy it, in its present form.”
  2. Why not pay for the ABC?,” The Australian Financial Review, February 26, 1988, pp. 88-87. Excerpt: “Why not try applying the user pays principle to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation? After all, while there is a case for minority and supposedly quality radio and television, there is no good reason why it should be free of charge.” And: “… no good reason why ABC TV should not become a subscription service, so that those who enjoy it, or cannot stand advertising, could pay for it …”
  3. Watching for media bias,” The Australian Financial Review, July 6, 1988, pp. 64-63. Excerpt: “[Defenders of taxpayer-funded broadcasting] would reply that this is a change from a media dominated by the agenda set by commercial advertisers. Fair enough: this makes a case for subscription television or radio; it is not a case for the use of taxpayers’ funds for propaganda purposes.”
  4. The ABC and the self-evident — “Stop the rot at the ABC: divide and rule,” The Australian, March 9, 1990, p. 13; “Big Brother writes the syllabus,” The Weekend Australian, August 17-18, 1991, p. 2; “Bureaucratic zealots rule the policy roost,” The Weekend Australian, May 30-31, 1992, p. 2; “Politically correct ABC campaigns for Labor,” The Weekend Australian, February 27-28, 1993, p. 2; “Voices of diversity deserve to be heard,” The Australian, February 23, 1994, p. 11; “The Liberals’ media hurdle,” The Sydney Morning Herald, January 28, 1995, p. 30; “Political correctness: intolerance unplugged,” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 13, 1996, p. 34; “‘Our ABC’ under scrutiny,” The Sydney Morning Herald, July 18, 1996, p. 13; “Good riddance to political correctness,” The Sydney Morning Herald, July 12, 1997, p. 41; and “The trouble with censorship is we are two-faced about it,” The Sydney Morning Herald, July 8, 2003, p. 11. Excerpt: “There is a kind of corporate culture which has grown up in the organisation which is shared by, it seems, just about all of its talking heads and which treats what are really controversial and contentious positions as if they were self-evident.” And: “[On the ABC] there will be no balanced presentation of the case for reducing [ABC] funding, changing its direction and introducing genuine diversity into its coverage of social policy issues.” Also: “There is an overwhelming case for some forms of public broadcasting. Nevertheless, there is no open and shut case for any present specific aspect of it. No aspect of the present organisational structure of the ABC ought to be treated as sacrosanct.”
  5. Paddy McGuinnessAunty should hang up her boots in face of premature senility,” The Australian, July 1, 1992, p. 17. Excerpt: “Happy 60th birthday to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. That said, it also has to be added that it is time the ABC, in its present form, was wound up and put out to grass.”
  6. New ABC Tory chief won’t rock the boat,” The Australian, May 23, 2006, p. 12. Excerpt: “ABC TV will continue to invent a need for yet more channels. The ABC octopus will grow and grow.”

b. Paddy McGuinness on arts funding/cultural policy

Is Australian culture a soft boring begging sheltered obedience? — contains these 11 items, as they work nicely together:

  1. “Artists should be told to get themselves a real job,” The Australian, October 25, 1989, p. 2.
  2. “Television debate the theatre of the absurd,” The Australian, February 13, 1990, p. 13.
  3. “We’re safe from foreigners: Most talk of our cultural identity is a smokescreen,” The Weekend Australian, October 12-13, 1991, p. 2.
  4. “A confident nation has no problems with identity,” The Weekend Australian, October 2-3, 1993, p. 2.
  5. “To be an arts bureaucracy … or not to be: How far should the government go in sponsoring the arts and what role should the private sector play?,” The Australian, March 29, 1994, p. 13.
  6. “Art for power’s sake,” The Sydney Morning Herald, October 15, 1994, p. 38.
  7. “Cultural coercion,” The Sydney Morning Herald, October 22, 1994, p. 38.
  8. “Sorting wheat from the chaff,” The Sydney Morning Herald, February 22, 1995, p. 12.
  9. “Politicians should not try to define our national identity,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 16, 1995, p. 24.
  10. “Time we all saw the bigger picture,” The Sydney Morning Herald, June 24, 2000, p. 36.
  11. “Actors’ protests all about losing their own welfare system,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 25, 2003, p. 11.

c. Paddy McGuinness on class sizes/state schooling

  1. Pay peanuts, get monkeys,” The Australian Financial Review, May 19, 1988, pp. 80-79. Excerpt: “Many years ago, Utopian socialists looked towards the time when at least some commodities could be distributed free, or at only a nominal price. The more sophisticated of them (such as the late Oscar Lange) argued that where the possible use of a commodity was limited, this would be effective and inexpensive. Nobody, they said, could or would want to eat more than a very limited amount of bread a day. The USSR tried to implement this principle, and made bread available at nominal prices. The demand soared. The reason was simple — meat was in short supply, so the consumers were converting the bread to meat by feeding it to their pigs. The principle is the same. If you make education available for nothing, it will be fed to pigs. Moreover, if the producers are paid regardless of quality and know that their product is going to be cast before swine, they will produce a product which is fit for pigs.”
  2. Humanities vital to proper understanding of our culture,” The Australian, April 14, 1989, p. 2. The final paragraph reads: “So the fact that more and more people are studying Latin and Greek is to be praised, but it is not a reason for opposing university fees. By all means let people have the most esoteric hobbies, and even hobbies which are of the greatest intellectual significance — but teaching and learning ought to be as much in the marketplace as Socrates was.”
  3. More teachers won’t solve the problems in our schools,” The Weekend Australian, October 13-14, 1990, p. 2. Excerpt: “A reduction in teacher numbers by say 25 per cent would have no adverse impact on educational achievement.”
  4. Not the size of the class, but what you do with it,” The Weekend Australian, October 20-21, 1990, p. 2. Excerpt: “The terrible thing about all this is that it suggests that just about all the educational fashions of the last 20 years, the huge increases in expenditure on education in the ‘seventies, and the activities of teachers unions have been actually harmful to the children and have had no impact at all, unless it be a negative one, on the performance of schools and the educational achievements of children.”
  5. The trouble with education is democracy says Paddy McGuinness — “Schools bear bureaucratic burden,” The Weekend Australian, May 18-19, 1991, p. 2. Excerpt: “The point, however, is not that schools of either type [in the style of the Left or Right who want to impose their values on others] ought not to exist, but that there should not be a [government] school system of any kind.” Another excerpt: “In approaching reform of the public schools, therefore, the best way to improve their performance would be to take them out from under both political and bureaucratic structures. There should not be a minister of education, nor a department of education.”
  6. Best and less the call for schools,” The Weekend Australian, June 8-9, 1991, p. 2. Excerpt: “Why not pay the good teachers more and let the inferior ones become clerks or labourers?”
  7. The Paddy McGuinness commencement address — “Few school terms of endearment for this old boy,” The Australian, December 20, 1993, p. 11. Excerpt: “The best thing to do about school days is to forget them as soon as you can possibly get on with the real business of life.”
  8. A new angle on teaching,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 24, 1994, p. 14. Excerpt: “Do we really need more schoolteachers? Whenever the condition and performance of our schools are debated, the first cry to come from the teachers’ unions and their supporters in the community, and indeed often enough from governments, is that class sizes must be reduced and more teachers must be employed.”
  9. If education is a right, let’s sue teachers, education departments and state schooling supporters — “Rights in the wrong hands,” The Sydney Morning Herald, January 19, 1995, p. 12.
  10. Extend compulsion of compulsory student unionism to voting, paying back student loans and more — “Student unions — time to end the closed shop,” The Sydney Morning Herald, February 25, 1999, p. 13.

d. Paddy McGuinness on drugs!

  1. Time to legalise heroin,” The Australian Financial Review, November 8, 1988, pp. 76-75. Excerpt: “Unhappily, as has long been the case with gambling and prostitution, there is a de facto alliance to protect the profits of heroin between the dealers on the one hand, and the churches and other moralists who refuse to accept legalisation on the other. No-one opposes legalisation of heroin more strongly than Mr Big, whoever he might be.”
  2. To reduce the problems of crime and corruption, legalise heroin,” The Weekend Australian, March 18-19, 1989, p. 2.
  3. Evidence shows heroin policy is not working,” The Australian, October 4, 1989, p. 2. Excerpt: “Heroin will be legalised eventually. The only real problem is how long it will take, and how much pain our society will inflict on itself before accepting the inevitable.”
  4. Wowsers abuse high ideals,” The Australian, May 29, 1991, p. 11. Opening line: “It is difficult not to get the impression sometimes that the opponents of smoking and drinking are slightly, or not so slightly, unbalanced.” Another excerpt: “The obvious answer is to ensure that you pay the costs of your own demands on the health system, through proper health insurance and full cost pricing of health and medical services. But it is absurd to set up a health system which will be abused and then punish people for behaviour which abuses it. This is entrapment.”
  5. Sorry story has a moral: wowserism breeds corruption,” The Australian, August 7, 1991, p. 11.
  6. Wowsers deny society while killing children,” The Weekend Australian, May 8-9, 1993, p. 2. Excerpt: “[I]f we were genuinely concerned about public health rather than killjoy wowserism, we would be looking for the best way to use drugs, including alcohol and nicotine; and to the extent that they really are harmful when overused, developing pure and healthy mindbending substances which people could use as an alternative to religious and political fanaticism.”
  7. Pure morals equals impure drugs — “Legal, high-quality drug supplies, not moral fervour, will save our children,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 3, 1995, p. 12; and “A view from the moral low ground,” The Sydney Morning Herald, May 22, 1997, p. 15. Excerpt: “It seems to be the preferred activity of many people these days to moralise about other people’s use of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and food; whereas once it was common to moralise about people’s sexual preferences and behaviour, it is no longer acceptable in polite circles to do so.” And: “It is true that people harm themselves by smoking, by excessive use of alcohol and so on. But although this is true, it is only the beginning of a basis for the formulation of social policy.”

e. Paddy McGuinness on healthcare

  1. Youth victims of the welfare con,” The Australian, July 31, 1992, p. 11. Excerpt: “How far into the next century can the welfare State last? This is a question which once might have thought to be absurd — the welfare State surely was here to stay. But it may emerge that the next generation will see the welfare State as a gigantic swindle, a confidence trick by their parents.” And: “The cant phrase, ‘I’ve paid taxes all my life and now I’m entitled to the pension’, much heard on both sides of the Tasman, is the exact contrary to the truth.” And: “a nation of ageing parasites, wielding immense electoral clout, and pushing the burden of adjustment to a new and more competitive world on to the young, while still expecting them to finance the privileged position the young themselves will never enjoy.”
  2. Warning: health is a budget hazard,” The Weekend Australian, August 1-2, 1992, p. 2. Excerpt: “The ‘healthy’ activities, while they may avert heart disease and some other complaints, such as diabetes, will give rise to a new set of complaints among the spavined struldbrugs, as a result of the injury strains of football, netball, jogging, aerobics, etc. To relieve the demands on the healthcare system all the pleasurable activities that are unhealthy will be blamed — the witch-hunt against smokers and drinkers will redouble in ferocity. And yet, heavy smokers and drinkers are public benefactors — they contribute heavily to taxation revenue and shorten their lives (they more than pay for their demands on the health budget), thus relieving the future pressures and demands on the working-age generations.”
  3. The Paddy McGuinness diet — “Health fascists make a meal of latest diet statistics,” The Australian, June 24, 1993, p. 9; “New research indicates that a little of what is bad for you does you good,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 29, 1995, p. 14; “One fat lady who knew how to live,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 19, 1999, p. 17; and “Boo to body beautiful: eat, drink and be merry,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 21, 2000, p. 10.
  4. Paddy McGuinness proposes inheritance tax equal to handouts received by deceased — “Take from the dead to give to the living,” The Weekend Australian, July 17-18, 1993, p. 2; “Tide starts to turn against reign of the baby boomers,” The Weekend Australian, December 11-12, 1993, p. 2; “Baby-boomers must pay their final dues,” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 27, 1996, p. 26; “Young to carry old tax burden,” The Sydney Morning Herald, July 27, 1996, p. 32; and “Why the buck stops at the nursing home,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 8, 1997, p. 42.
  5. The baby-boom bust — “Matter of equity between generations,” The Australian, January 31, 1994, pp. 1-2; “The blight of the baby-boomers,” The Weekend Australian, February 5-6, 1994, p. 2; and “A Recipe for Warfare,” The Australian Magazine, February 26-27, 1994, pp. 18-19. Excerpt: “The baby boomers gave us the silly sixties, the snouts in the trough seventies, and the cash hungry eighties: the speculative boom and the greed of that decade was merely the application by the younger baby boomers of the lesson they had learned from their elders — under the hypocrisy of the language was the simple message, taught by public servants, teachers, welfare bureaucrats, and middle-class socialists — grab all you can at someone else’s expense. Now they are trying to impose the politically correct nineties.”
  6. Do-gooders should glorify smokers — “Smokers need encouragement, not abuse,” The Australian, February 8, 1994, p. 48. Excerpt: “Those baby-boomers who have smoked heavily all their lives can even be considered as public benefactors. They have paid heavy taxes on their smokes all their lives, their life expectancy has been considerably shortened and, as a result, they will impose a much less burden on the young of the next generation than the fitness fanatics and the health fascists.” And: “smokers and drinkers paid over $2.5 billion in exchange for $1 billion of health and medical services necessitated by their vices.”
  7. Class action may be smoking gun,” The Australian, March 1, 1994, p. 43.
  8. Quantify the benefits of alcohol? — “Alcohol abuse? It’s in the blood,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 22, 1994, p. 10; “Drink, and be merry,” The Sydney Morning Herald, June 8, 1995, p. 14; and “Let’s all drink to lower alcohol prices,” The Sydney Morning Herald, July 30, 1998, p. 13.

f. Paddy McGuinness on sport

  1. Let them swim nude,” The Australian Financial Review, September 16, 1988, pp. 92-91.
  2. The Olympics: to nationalise or commercialise? — “Let’s give the Olympics a big miss,” The Sun-Herald, November 13, 1988, p. 48; and “Let the Games begin — in Athens,” The Sun-Herald, November 20, 1988, p. 50.
  3. Ban crowds at sporting events — “Shattering the urban myths about mindless football mobs,” The Australian, April 19, 1989, p. 2.
  4. Sport as intellectual plaything, political football, business opportunity and social fabric — “Sport and business,” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 8, 1995, p. 38; and “A society’s foundations,” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 12, 1995, p. 18.
  5. Check this, mate — nude chess,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 4, 1999, p. 44.
  6. We should ban Olympics,” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 1, 2000, p. 46. Excerpt: “The whole area of competitive and spectator sports catering to humanity’s worst instincts and the wealth to be derived from it leads to the worst kind of human behaviour and abuse of the body. About the only kind that might seem exempt is physical exercise in a gym or by way of jogging. But as the entrepreneurs and ‘personal trainers’ of this business have now discovered, they are catering not to health or longevity but to narcissism and self-worship of the worst kind. That’s where their money comes from.”
  7. It’s about money — and there’s nothing wrong with that,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 28, 2000, p. 8. Excerpt: “They are marketing the prestige of the Cuban state, and are paid handsomely for this. What makes this any different from flogging sandshoes? Only one thing — you can move from one manufacturer to another without penalty; one would not want to be in the shoes of the Cuban athletes’ families if their champions should decide to defect. At least in the evil world of commerce and capitalism it is possible to transfer from one sponsor to another without penalty.”

g. Paddy McGuinness on religious leaders and politics

The McGuinness and the Devine — At that link are the following unconventional articles, from the Devine to the McGuinness (and the sublime to the ridiculous), on religious leaders talking politics and economics. They remain relevant, have nice tension of perspectives and occasionally refer to each other.

  1. Frank Devine, “Fred leads the charge of the Light brigade,” The Australian, October 15, 1990, p. 11. On Fred Nile.
  2. Padraic P. McGuinness, “Shepherds of faith — not economics,” The Australian, October 23, 1990, p. 11.
  3. Padraic P. McGuinness, “A flaying for the faithful,” The Australian, November 7, 1990, p. 9.
  4. Frank Devine, “Welfare: a taxing problem,” The Australian, November 29, 1990, p. 13.
  5. Graeme Cole, “Charities: the head or the heart?,” The Australian, December 7, 1990, p. 12, as a letter to the editor.
  6. Greg Lindsay, “Give givers a say,” The Australian, December 14, 1990, p. 10, as a letter to the editor.
  7. Padraic P. McGuinness, “Divine light glows dimly,” The Australian, January 31, 1991, p. 13. Excerpt: “Many aspects of the welfare system in fact deprive people of their human dignity, and corrupt them morally, as well as promoting the disintegration of the family, so necessary to the welfare of children.” And: “[M]uch of the content of the document is a load of codswallop. It is a hotch-potch of all the stuff about income redistribution, wealth redistribution, the ‘preferential option for the poor’ (a frequently repeated piece of jargon), Latin American liberation theology, anti-imperialism, women’s rights, and so on that grew out of the 1960s and 70s. It is what one might sum up as ABC social theory, all prejudice and feeling and precious little analysis or factual support. It is the economics of the warm inner glow.”
  8. Padraic P. McGuinness, “Secular welfarism can’t replace Christian charity,” The Australian, February 1, 1991, p. 13.
  9. Frank Devine, “Rendering unto Caesar a dimension of morality,” The Australian, February 4, 1991, p. 11.
  10. Archbishop William J. Foley, “Reflection is also a path to wealth,” The Australian, February 6, 1991, p. 10, as a letter to the editor.
  11. Padraic P. McGuinness, “Selling economics as a market force,” The Australian, February 13, 1991, p. 11.
  12. Frank Devine, “On a mission from God, not a political drive,” The Australian, December 5, 1991, p. 11.
  13. Frank Devine, “How Horatius united Left and Right,” The Australian, May 11, 1992, p. 9. On B.A. Santamaria.
  14. Frank Devine, “Marxist mirage mars truth and justice the Catholic way,” The Australian, September 21, 1992, p. 13.
  15. Padraic P. McGuinness, “Churches lose the plot on political stage,” The Australian, October 16, 1992, p. 13.
  16. Frank Devine, “Thank the Lord for the vision of this free-market priest,” The Australian, May 24, 1993, p. 9.
  17. Padraic P. McGuinness, “Faith and hope, but scant authority,” The Australian, June 23, 1994, p. 13.
  18. Frank Devine, “Impossible to overlook the power of church authority,” The Australian, June 27, 1994, p. 11.
  19. Padraic P. McGuinness, “Religious analysts fail to grasp the scriptures of economics,” The Weekend Australian, July 23-24, 1994, p. 2.
  20. Padraic P. McGuinness, “Greatness born of faith and fantasies,” The Sydney Morning Herald, February 28, 1998, p. 40.
  21. Frank Devine, “Remember him as an intellectual: Farewell B. A. Santamaria — rigorous Catholic thinker,” The Australian, March 2, 1998, p. 11.

h. Paddy McGuinness on affirmative action/discrimination

Dis crim nation: Law a bad substitute for manners in age of political correctness — At that link are the following McGuinness rippers:

  1. [Unsigned editorial], “Discriminatory nonsense,” The Australian Financial Review, January 30, 1981, p. 12. Given its style, subject, judgment, venue and references, Paddy McGuinness probably wrote it; but generalising like that is what results in those who reason thus getting called ageist, sexist, racist and/or homophobic.
  2. [Unsigned editorial], “Is the cure worse than the disease?,” The Australian Financial Review, January 13, 1986, p. 6.
  3. “Talkback v hate-back: a censorship issue surfaces,” Times on Sunday, November 22, 1987, p. 2.
  4. “Germaine, even in silliness, commands respect,” Times on Sunday, December 6, 1987, p. 2.
  5. “A blast of the trumpet,” The Australian Financial Review, February 3, 1988, pp. 44-43.
  6. “The facts about sex,” The Australian Financial Review, June 29, 1988, pp. 76-75.
  7. [Untitled “McGuinness” column], The Australian, March 23, 1989, p. 2. Excerpt: “[T]he tendency to appeal to the coercion of the law as first resort instead of last is typical of the proliferation of heavy-handed moralism in ordinary life.” And: “Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut?”
  8. “Enforcing false equality insults women’s intellect,” The Australian, December 8, 1989, p. 2.
  9. “Sisters in suits equal to none,” The Weekend Australian, March 7-8, 1992, p. 2.
  10. “New feminists want the Old Boys’ privilege and power,” The Australian, July 30, 1993, p. 13.
  11. “Law a bad substitute for manners in age of political correctness,” The Australian, November 24, 1993, p. 12. Excerpt: “[T]he law is a lousy substitute for faith, morals or good manners. All we are really doing is creating a tawdry, secular equivalent of a theocracy.”
  12. “Feminist law reformers out of their depth,” The Australian, August 17, 1994, p. 13.
  13. “Understanding the ethnic lobby’s lack of diversity,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 13, 1995, p. 14.
  14. “Why equality won’t work,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 1, 1997, p. 38. Excerpt: “[T]he 50-50 rule must ultimately imply more incompetent women at the top than incompetent men.”
  15. “Some wimminists are stupid,” The Sydney Morning Herald, February 13, 1999, p. 41.
  16. “And the winner of the Meredith Award is …,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 4, 1999, p. 40.
  17. “We’re blinded by the slight,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 30, 1999, p. 15.
  18. “The law gone mad — again,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 25, 2000, p. 40. Excerpt: “If the law is frequently an ass then anti-discrimination law is an ass’s ass.”

And two more McGuinness columns on these subjects read better like so:

  1. Thomas Sowell, McGuinness, Aborigines and other minorities — “Why ‘positive policy’ harmful,” The Australian Financial Review, September 29, 1988, pp. 92-91; and “Helping the Aborigines?,” The Australian Financial Review, October 11, 1988, pp. 96-95.

i. Paddy McGuinness on formalising the informal sector

At this link is, for me at least, a helpful compilation of these helpful articles:

  1. “Welfare, mainly for social workers,” The National Times, January 13-18, 1975, pp. 33, 37.
  2. “The poor and the social workers are always with us,” The Australian Financial Review, September 16, 1975, pp. 3, 6.
  3. “Prayers from a Marxist litany,” The National Times, week ending March 24, 1979, p. 54.
  4. “Providing proper child-care facilities is the major issue,” The Sun-Herald, June 5, 1988, p. 32.
  5. “How to create more jobs,” The Australian Financial Review, July 15, 1988, pp. 84-83.
  6. “Homeless used as cannon fodder,” The Australian, March 2, 1989, pp. 1-2.
  7. “What price marital sex?,” The Australian, February 27, 1990, p. 13.
  8. “Just what is a woman worth?,” The Australian, January 9, 1991, p. 11.
  9. “Economic arteries hardening,” The Weekend Australian, August 24-25, 1991, p. 2. On compulsory superannuation.
  10. “Why welfare is of poor benefit,” The Australian, October 8, 1991, p. 13.
  11. “We need to make people want to work,” The Australian, February 28, 1992, p. 13.
  12. “A poor show when private welfare stays in the shadows,” The Australian, May 22, 1992, p. 19.
  13. “Vested interests leaving young out in the cold,” The Australian, July 7, 1992, p. 13.
  14. “Older but no wiser on jobless,” The Australian, July 8, 1992, p. 15.
  15. “Ideology burdens the state of welfare,” The Australian, July 9, 1992, p. 17.
  16. “Unemployed plight the shame of mindless militancy,” The Australian, July 10, 1992, p. 13.
  17. “Sacrifices vital to overcoming unemployment,” The Weekend Australian, July 11-12, 1992, p. 2.
  18. “Childcare figures reveal zealots behind statistics,” The Weekend Australian, July 18-19, 1992, p. 2.
  19. “Domestic work holds the key to unemployment,” The Weekend Australian, May 22-23, 1993, p. 2.
  20. “No-nonsense charity converts a nation,” The Australian, January 26, 1994, p. 9.
  21. “Workplace welfare costs poor their jobs,” The Australian, August 12, 1994, p. 23.
  22. “Women and work,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 23, 1994, p. 20.
  23. “Machinations of the system,” The Sydney Morning Herald, June 21, 1995, p. 14.
  24. “Bleeding hearts with tight fists,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 31, 1996, p. 33.
  25. “Old-style families at a financial loss,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 21, 1996, p. 34.
  26. “Young people are the losers,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 14, 1996, p. 34.
  27. “Rights-based view of welfare is wrong,” The Age, June 23, 1997, p. A15.
  28. “Why raddled old feminists are wrong on parenting,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 29, 1998, p. 41.
  29. “What price the housewife on the open market?,” The Sydney Morning Herald, October 19, 2000, p. 12.

j. Paddy McGuinness on business ethics/codes of conduct

Paddy McGuinness on ethics — at that link are the following articles on ethics, especially in business, politics and journalism, where he, and his father, had some experience.

  1. “Ethical questions: how to keep the businessmen honest,” The Australian, March 11, 1992, p. 11.
  2. “Right or wrong? Ethical questions above the law,” The Australian, April 8, 1992, p. 13.
  3. “Lying can be good, as long as you know when it’s not,” The Australian, April 9, 1992, p. 11.
  4. “The journalists’ ‘shield’,” City Ethics: Newsletter of the St James Ethics Centre, Spring 1992, p. 1.
  5. “Risk of jail comes with the job for journos,” The Australian, July 23, 1993, p. 15.
  6. “Corporate honesty is the best policy,” The Australian, December 1, 1992, p. 44.
  7. “Those bold entrepreneurs may not have been all bad,” The Sydney Morning Herald, October 6, 1994, p. 21.
  8. “Elusive ethics,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 17, 1994, p. 20.
  9. “Ethical standards for journalism should not become a pretext for control of media,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 5, 1995, p. 12.
  10. “Lies, damn lies, and politicians,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 24, 1996, p. 35. Excerpt: “The Government broke many of its election promises in its first Budget and everyone knows it. But this is the inevitable outcome of an election process — and the media — which demands that candidates must lie or be subjected to a hurricane of unfair criticism.” And: “The reality of an election campaign is that we vote for the party which … can be trusted to break its promises to the extent that they are irresponsible.”
  11. “The silly season of electioneering is about to begin,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 2, 1995, p. 32. Excerpt: “The only sensible advice on how to deal with any policy statements or promises by either side of politics from now to the election is to file them unread. That applies doubly to news stories and comments based on them. The promises, etc, of the winning side can then be looked at after the election as a guide to what they will talk about while doing something else.”
  12. “Labor has invented an Opposition capitalist tiger rather than debate policy,” The Sydney Morning Herald, October 31, 1995, p. 12.
  13. “May the best tax liar win,” The Weekend Australian, September 5-6, 1992, p. 2.
  14. “Home truths on the politics of lies,” The Australian, June 6, 1991, p. 11.

k. Paddy McGuinness on compulsory voting

Paddy McGuinness on compulsory, informal and donkey voting, and breaking electoral laws — at that link are all of these:

  1. untitled “McGuinness” column, The Weekend Australian, March 17-18, 1990, p. 2.
  2. “Is the party over for compulsory voting?,” The Australian, December 13, 1990, p. 11.
  3. “Practical protest against the compulsory vote,” The Weekend Australian, September 12-13, 1992, p. 2.
  4. “Silenced by a mouthpiece of democracy,” The Australian, March 10, 1993, p. 15.
  5. “Labor Party’s bully boys appear in formal dress,” The Australian, May 26, 1993, p. 11.
  6. “It’s time to stop dragging the unwilling to the polls,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 30, 1994, p. 13.
  7. “Leaving well alone,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 13, 1994, p. 16.
  8. “A question of free speech,” The Sydney Morning Herald, February 18, 1995, p. 28.
  9. “Troublemaker Langer challenges the whole Federal election,” The Sydney Morning Herald, February 2, 1996, p. 16.
  10. INTERMISSION: Robert Haupt, “Unforgettable Albert Langer,” The Australian Financial Review, February 16, 1996, p. 14.
  11. “Mr Langer is entitled to be an agitator, not a prisoner of conscience,” The Sydney Morning Herald, February 17, 1996, p. 40.
  12. “Why we can’t encourage Langer’s way, but can say ‘free Albert!’,” The Sydney Morning Herald, February 21, 1996, p. 14.
  13. “We can vote for Tweedledum, Tweedledee and Albert Langer,” The Sydney Morning Herald, March 2, 1996, p. 34.
  14. “Don’t force the vote on those who don’t care,” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 19, 2001, p. 12. Excerpt: “The origins of compulsory voting are shrouded in mystery. No historian has ever written a satisfactory account of the reasons why the Federal Parliament adopted it virtually without debate or opposition in the 1920s.” And: “It made life much easier for the parties (and, subsequently, the pollsters) since instead of having to persuade people to come to them, they had the law drive people like cattle to the polling places.”

l. Other Paddy McGuinness columns

  1. Paddy McGuinness in 1971 on government disincentives for Australian films — “How to kill an industry: The Australian film industry scandal,” The National Times, December 13-18, 1971, pp. 1, 48. Excerpt: “Attempts by Australians to set up a film producing industry have been strangled at birth by the peculiar privileges which overseas companies enjoy in the Australian market …”
  2. Paddy McGuinness on Don’s Party, The Removalists, Petersen and David Williamson — “A master of black humour talks on authoritarianism, plays and films: Williamson looks for his screenplay role,” The National Times, August 21-26, 1972, p. 20; “‘Petersen’ is not son of ‘Alvin Purple’ though there is a trace,” The National Times, October 28-November 2, 1974, p. 53; “A fine piece of Australian gallows humour,” The National Times, October 6-11, 1975, p. 44; and “Don’s Party: an accurate portrayal of a pretty horrible sub-culture,” The National Times, December 6-11, 1976, pp. 48-49. Excerpt: “The major difference between Australians with a university education and a social conscience, and the rest, is that they behave a lot worse than the rest.”
  3. Dr Jim and the clockwork mice: up the wrong street on the tariff,” The National Times, September 4-9, 1972, p. 46.
  4. The naughty-little-boy principle — “The strange case of the ‘close watch’ on rising tariffs,” The Australian Financial Review, September 12, 1972, pp. 2-3; “We are nearly all socialists now,” The Australian Financial Review, October 8, 1974, p. 3; “The cry of the hip-pocket nerve,” The National Times, June 30-July 5, 1975, pp. 47, 51; “The socialists always win,” The Australian Financial Review, December 2, 1975, pp. 3, 6; “How to influence the new Government,” The Australian Financial Review, December 16, 1975, pp. 3, 10; “Tariffs: A case study in academic failure,” The Australian Financial Review, September 5, 1978, p. 4; and “Caught between a frock and a harsh, post-modern place,” The Sydney Morning Herald, March 26, 1998, p. 19.
  5. The arrogance of artists who force taxpayers to fund them — “Film industry’s attitude is to give the public rubbish,” The National Times, May 5-10, 1975, p. 38; “The lively arts aren’t so lively in justifying their $20m a year handout,” The National Times, June 9-14, 1975, pp. 39, 47; “Why subsidise the arts?,” The National Times, October 18-23, 1976, p. 73; “A case of put up or shut up,” The National Times, November 8-13, 1976, p. 62; “The case for reform in subsidising the arts,” The National Times, week ending July 29, 1978, p. 50; “The economics of the Arts,” The National Times, week ending September 29, 1979, p. 66; untitled “McGuinness” column, The Australian, May 31, 1989, p. 2; untitled “McGuinness” column, The Weekend Australian, December 9-10, 1989, p. 2; “Righting wrongs of public patronage,” The Australian, September 13, 1990, p. 11; “Scroungers who claim to be artists,” The Australian, February 25, 1993, p. 13; and “Put GST on books,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 26, 1998, p. 40.
  6. The year’s best film: the plain story of Issie Stone,” The National Times, July 28-August 2, 1975, p. 20.
  7. Canberra’s social revolution,” The Australian Financial Review, September 21, 1976, p. 4. Uses Milton Friedman’s softness to justify collecting statistics. Big contrast to the sentiment on statistics usually associated with Milton Friedman. For example, Friedman said in 1998, “I met Cowperthwaite in 1963 … Hong Kong. I remember asking him about the paucity of statistics. He answered, ‘If I let them compute those statistics, they’ll want to use them for planning.’ How wise!”
  8. The customer is always last,” The Australian Financial Review, November 23, 1976, p. 4.
  9. Wotif there’s no real separation of powers in monopoly Australia? — “Constitutionally Fraser should put up or shut up,” The Australian Financial Review, December 21, 1976, p. 4; “The High Court reviewed,” The National Times, week ending October 7, 1978, p. 56; “Timely look at the law’s role in social change,” The Australian Financial Review, November 30, 1979, pp. 16-17; “The vindication of Murphy, J.,” The Australian Financial Review, May 6, 1988, pp. 100-99; “High Court does it again,” The Australian Financial Review, October 28, 1988, pp. 100-99; “Embarrassing problem of ISC members’ terms,” The Australian, August 24, 1989, p. 2; “Doctrine of separation of powers — don’t you worry about that,” The Australian, October 3, 1989, p. 2; “Just reforms and the State resurgent,” The Australian, September 10, 1991, p. 13; “High Court’s coup d’etat,” The Australian, September 2, 1992, p. 11; “High Court’s role now irrevocably politicised,” The Weekend Australian, November 13-14, 1993, p. 2; “Another High Court revolution,” The Australian, January 25, 1994, p. 43; “Stealth attack on Constitution,” The Sydney Morning Herald, March 4, 1995, p. 34; “More power to the people,” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 4, 1995, p. 14; “Who decides how tax money is spent — judges and lawyers, or parliaments?,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 25, 1995, p. 10; “Courts have replaced poets as the ‘unacknowledged legislators’ of the world,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 13, 1995, p. 16; “High Court’s power is of its own making,” The Sydney Morning Herald, February 22, 1997, p. 41; “Politics hold court in this judgement call,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 17, 2002, p. 13; “By lagging behind, court helps country move forward,” The Sydney Morning Herald, October 7, 2003, p. 13; and “Under Kirby’s law, we are all subject to the whim of judicial adventurism,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 9, 2003, p. 13.
  10. Non-conformity and intellectual cringe,” The Australian Financial Review, September 13, 1977, p. 4.
  11. Where Friedman is a pinko,” The Australian Financial Review, April 4, 1978, p. 4. This is regularly mentioned in histories of and celebrations for McGuinness, Greg Lindsay and The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS).
  12. But perhaps the merchants of doom have a point,” The National Times, week ending May 13, 1978, p. 52. Excerpt: “The cover-up goes even further. The senior OECD officials who control the Country Studies division of the OECD which prepares the report on Australia (and with whom I am acquainted, having worked with them) have forbidden visiting OECD officials to speak to the Australian press, and specifically me. The Australian Treasury has issued a similar prohibition.”
  13. Review of Newsfront — “The way we were,” The National Times, week ending August 12, 1978, p. 46.
  14. Why the jobs debate gets nowhere,” The Australian Financial Review, October 25, 1978, pp. 12-13.
  15. On Australia’s sugar industry featherbed — “Consumers lose in sugar game,” The National Times, week ending October 6, 1979, p. 66; “Sugar protection just a racket,” The Australian, April 30, 1992, p. 11; and “Take sugar claims with a pinch of salt,” The Australian, November 23, 1993, p. 48.
  16. The Libertarian Alternative — “Where Australia might be heading,” The National Times, April 13 to 19, 1980, p. 38. McGuinness explains why he is no libertarian, although the libertarian case was let down by the compromises of the Australia at the Crossroads authors.
  17. Government intervention institutionalises bullying — “New Zealand — an economy of fear,” The Australian Financial Review, August 16, 1983, p. 12. Excerpt: “the management of the New Zealand economy is based on bullying and fear. It is an economy which is laden down with restrictions, licensing, quotas, permits, subsidies, tariffs, instructions and threats by government.”
  18. The wrong kind of help for those most needing the right kind of help — “High wages do not help the young and the poor,” The Australian Financial Review, September 12, 1983, p. 3. The article two below is also on the minimum wage, and is a bit better written I think.
  19. Only government-backed monopolies are monopolies, says Paddy McGuinness in 1983 — “What the IAC did not say about computers,” The Australian Financial Review, October 24, 1983, p. 3.
  20. Wages and the young unemployed,” The Australian Financial Review, September 3, 1984, pp. 2-3. Excerpt: “if it were true that wage levels did not affect employment, then wage levels are obviously far too low. Why do the proponents of this view not demand an immediate doubling of wage rates? Why do they not demand that school-leavers be paid immediately the full adult rate? If wage rates are not related to unemployment and output, then by what criterion should they be limited?” And: “Hardly anyone has asserted that wage levels are the only cause of relatively high unemployment amongst the young. The matter is clearly much more complex than that. Nor does it follow that a substantial cut in minimum wages of young people would cure the problem overnight. But it would help.”
  21. The Fringe Dwellers: an honest look at the Aboriginal culture of poverty,” The Australian Financial Review, May 22, 1986, p. 14.
  22. Libel laws block insider’s revelations of Australia’s industrial mess,” The Australian Financial Review, August 28, 1986, p. 14. On Alf Rattigan and the Tariff Board.
  23. Will Australia compete?,” The Australian Financial Review, December 1, 1988, pp. 92-91.
  24. Today’s conservatives belong to the Anti-Vietnam RSL,” The Australian, April 25, 1989, p. 2; and, also at that link, “Protestors fighting the phoney war,” The Sun-Herald, May 31, 1987, p. 43.
  25. The Rodney King LA race riots — “Rate of imprisonment nub of black deaths problem,” The Australian, November 22, 1989, p. 2; “Race policies aggravate problem,” The Weekend Australian, May 2-3, 1992, p. 2; “Home help teaches underclasses the art of escape,” The Australian, May 8, 1992, p. 11; and “LA safe from religious poverty,” The Weekend Australian, June 13-14, 1992, p. 2.
  26. The Paddy McGuinness copyright policy and gift to the digital world — “Revision time in copyright lore,” The Australian, February 14, 1990, p. 11; “Discordant disclosures …,” The Australian, December 19, 1990, p. 11; and “Wrong-headed thinking on copyright,” The Australian, May 13, 1994, p. 15.
  27. Paddy McGuinness on leadership — untitled “McGuinness” column, The Weekend Australian, March 3-4, 1990, p. 2; “Follow the leader is a silly game,” The Australian, October 11, 1991, p. 11; and “Beware wishing for a strong leader — you might get him,” The Australian, September 11, 1992, p. 13.
  28. Paddy McGuinness on immigration — “We must not surrender to boat people blackmail,” The Weekend Australian, May 9-10, 1992, p. 2; “We need locks on immigration gate,” The Australian, January 28, 1994, p. 13; “Boat people and the law,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 22, 1994, p. 16; “Laying down the law on refugee status,” The Sydney Morning Herald, October 3, 1998, p. 35; “Why Amnesty has lost its way,” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 20, 2000, p. 19; “Open-door refugee policy is a recipe for destruction,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 30, 2001, p. 12; “Why misdirected sympathy can do more harm than good,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 10, 2002, p. 11; “Misdirected sympathy for illegal arrivals masks Howard’s success,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 17, 2002, p. 13; and “Labor being dragged back to the ’60s by ideologues on high horses,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 10, 2002, p. 11. Has anyone written better or more contemporary articles on Australian immigration policy since Paddy McGuinness in 1992?
  29. NIMBY II: Now It’s My BackYard — “Banish these backyard blackguards,” The Australian, January 14, 1993, p. 11.
  30. Unemployed feel the cruelty of misdirected kindness,” The Australian, July 22, 1993, p. 11; and, also at that link, “White Paper destined to disappoint on jobs,” The Weekend Australian, April 30-May 1, 1994, p. 2. “Paradoxically (though logically, when you think about it), the easier it is to sack people, the better their prospects are of regaining employment. If the cost of retrenchment is high — in terms of payments for length of service, severance bonuses, etc — then employers are going to be reluctant to hire people.” And the second article has McGuinness posing as a pragmatist.
  31. Can primitive black and white minds comprehend nuance? — “Picture of history too black and white,” The Australian, March 4, 1994, p. 13; “We need a closer look at the stolen children,” The Sydney Morning Herald, March 5, 1998, p. 17; “The perils of self-determination,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 12, 1998, p. 36; “A black mark against white parasites,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 27, 1999, p. 46; “Time to bury the stolen myth forever,” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 6, 2000, p. 15; and “Sorry, I can’t walk,” The Sydney Morning Herald, May 27, 2000, p. 44.
  32. Impotent priesthood of the global casino,” The Australian, March 8, 1994, p. 47; and “Anarchy is the only constant in economic jungle,” The Australian, June 28, 1994, p. 53. Bullshitting about financial markets equalled only by calls to regulate them. Excerpt: “We know that total regulation is a disaster, and we know that partial regulation has never worked. Nevertheless, the politicians, the bureaucrats and the central bankers continue to tell us that they can be trusted to interfere. They cannot be.”
  33. Mountainous inquiry will uncover molehills,” The Weekend Australian, May 14-15, 1994, p. 2.
  34. Paddy McGuinness defends race IQ comparisons — “Selective intelligence,” The Sydney Morning Herald, October 25, 1994, p. 14; and “Differing intellects,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 5, 1994, p. 38.
  35. Paddy McGuinness on David Stove — “Not simply cricket,” The Sydney Morning Herald, January 6, 1995, p. 10; and “The art of playing a ‘straight’ bat,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 19, 1998, p. 30. Excerpt: “There are few pleasures as keen as reading an argument with which you totally or partially disagree, but which makes you question your own assumptions and beliefs.”
  36. Genocide with kindness — “Our national disgrace,” The Sydney Morning Herald, February 11, 1995, p. 32; “The true conservatives are those who deny our welfare policies have failed,” The Sydney Morning Herald, October 26, 1995, p. 14; “Truth, sentiment and genocide as a fashion statement,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 14, 2000, p. 12; and “PM, Aborigines and the missionary position,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 9, 2000, p. 33. Excerpt: “There has to be something much more fundamentally wrong with our whole approach. If we go on at present, and this is what a transfer of Aboriginal health from ATSIC to Dr Lawrence’s department would involve, despite the change of bureaucratic arrangements, we may well find future generations accusing our generation of genocidal policies, just as so many people these days make such accusations against the well-intentioned but hopelessly incomprehending policies of the past. Make no mistake. If the term means anything at all, the deteriorating health and life expectancy of Aborigines must be ascribed directly to the policies of the past 12 years, and of the years before that to the extent that the policies remain roughly similar — that is, the Government of Hawke and Keating deserves the charge of genocide if any government in Australia has ever done.”
  37. Reining in the human rights horse — “Put in the dock to face the court of world opinion,” The Sydney Morning Herald, May 29, 1997, p. 17.
  38. Native title, land-tax and Henry George — “One man’s ideas stir land-tax row,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 11, 1997, p. 17.
  39. Champagne socialist shaming — “The truth about the rise of the New Class,” The Sydney Morning Herald, May 3, 1997, p. 42; “It’s time to admit Hanson sometimes gets things right,” The Sydney Morning Herald, July 2, 1998, p. 17; “Labor’s true voice should rise above chardonnay chatter,” The Sydney Morning Herald, June 10, 1999, p. 15; “Labor’s ‘chardonnay socialists’ definitely not a premier crew,” The Sydney Morning Herald, June 17, 1999, p. 19; and “Yuppies now bobos, and the clowns want it all,” The Sydney Morning Herald, June 8, 2000, p. 19.
  40. Mensa — a front for a mutual admiration society,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 24, 2000, p. 12.
  41. Skippy, a sure-fire way to make meat exports jump,” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 5, 2001, p. 14.
  42. New slogan for ageing feminists and their ideological children — “A serious politician takes up cudgels against selective moralisers,” The Sydney Morning Herald, March 23, 2004, p. 11.

m. Paddy McGuinness speeches

  1. The Economic Guerrillas: A lecture in honour of Maxwell Newton,” presented at the Tasman Institute in 1991.

n. Attempts to understand Paddy McGuinness

I disagree with much of these, but at least they have a good go.

  1. David Bowman, “The Itch for Influence,” Australian Society, August 1989, pp. 17-22.
  2. John Docker, “The Origins of Paddy McGuinness,” Arena Magazine, February-March, 1993, pp. 21-24. This one is particularly interesting.
  3. Damien Murphy, “Paddy’s back on Broadway,” The Bulletin, November 22, 1994, pp. 46-47.

Lastly, here are four nice pieces already available online that I thought I’d link to and list in case SMH ever take them down:
1. “Farm support: remember the lie of the land,” The Sydney Morning Herald, October 8, 2002. Excerpt: “[M]any of our farmers are obsessed with their family history on the land but have never had a serious conversation with a financial adviser who understands the environment. Or they are like shearers on a spree when the weather is good — they live high and throw their money around, rather than investing profits to build up their capacity to survive the next drought. They work hard but stupid.”
2. “Teachers, take a lesson from Harry. The kids already have,” The Sydney Morning Herald, July 1, 2003.
3. “Media at fault for annual budget hype,” The Sydney Morning Herald, May 11, 2004. Excerpt: “Tonight we see conducted one of the most boring and pointless rituals of the year — the presentation of the annual budget of the Federal Government. There is good reason to present budgets, but they have become surrounded with a degree of artificial excitement and hypocritical behaviour perhaps exceeded only by Christmas Day and Mother’s Day combined. All that remains is for some empty-headed radio jock wishing listeners a Happy Budget Day.”
4. “Better to have quality of life, not quantity,The Sydney Morning Herald, August 26, 2004, p. 17.