Institute of Public Affairs
Encyclopedia
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a public policy think tank
based in Melbourne
, Australia
. It advocates free market
economic policies such as privatisation
and deregulation
of state-owned enterprises, trade liberalisation and deregulated workplaces, climate change skepticism (through its environmental subsidiary the Australian Environment Foundation
), and the accountability of non-government organisations
(NGOs). In its own words, the Institute believes in "the free market
of ideas, the free flow of capital
, a limited and efficient government
, the rule of law
, and representative democracy
."
. The IPA was one of a number of groups which came together to form the Liberal Party of Australia
, and became an important fund raising body for the Liberal Party in Victoria
. The IPA returned to prominence as a thinktank in the 1990s, following a merger with the Australian Institute of Public Policy, headed by John Hyde
who became Executive Director.
, Telstra
, WMC Resources
, BHP Billiton
, Phillip Morris
, Murray Irrigation Limited, and Visy Industries
.
IPA donors have also included Clough Engineering, Caltex
, Shell
and Esso
. Other donors were electricity and mining companies, as well as British American Tobacco
(BAT).
In 2003, the Australian Government paid $50,000 to the Institute of Public Affairs to review the accountability of NGOs.
(Liberal Party) delivered the 60th C D Kemp lecture to the Institute in 2004, titled Iraq: The Importance of Seeing it Through.
public policies, such as:
The IPA has affiliations with think tanks in the U.S.
, Canada
, UK
and Asia
. It has a close relationship with the American Enterprise Institute
, a right-wing US think-tank.
as "incoherent", "corrupt" and "incompetent".
The IPA has made the following criticisms proposals by the Australian government to introduce plain packaging of tobacco products:
and supports most Australian climate sceptics. The IPA supports elements of climate change science, including some link between the use of fossil fuels and rising carbon dioxide levels, however it also disagrees with certain aspects of climate theories . Former staff member Jennifer Marohasy
supports the view that many environmental issues, including climate change, are exaggerated, and that green groups promote solutions that ultimately do not benefit society.
In 2008, the institute facilitated a donation of $350,000 by Dr G. Bryant Macfie, a climate change sceptic, to the University of Queensland for environmental research. The money is to fund three environmental doctoral projects, with the IPA suggesting two of the three agreed topics.
in Canberra
. He has also held positions as Chief of Staff to Dr David Kemp, the Federal Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, as Senior Advisor to Don Hayward
, Victorian Minister for Education in the first Kennett Government, and as Manager of Government and Corporate Affairs for Rio Tinto Group
. He is currently undertaking a PhD and tutoring politics at the University of Melbourne
.
Other staff include:
Former staff include
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
based in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It advocates free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
economic policies such as privatisation
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
and deregulation
Deregulation
Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or...
of state-owned enterprises, trade liberalisation and deregulated workplaces, climate change skepticism (through its environmental subsidiary the Australian Environment Foundation
Australian Environment Foundation
The Australian Environment Foundation is a not-for-profit advocacy organisation. It differs from many other such groups because it accepts most traditional human activities in the environment, such as farming and forestry, seeking to combine these with an enhanced concern for nature...
), and the accountability of non-government organisations
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
(NGOs). In its own words, the Institute believes in "the free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
of ideas, the free flow of capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
, a limited and efficient government
Limited government
Limited government is a government which anything more than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy is generally disallowed by law, usually in a written constitution. It is written in the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 8...
, the rule of law
Rule of law
The rule of law, sometimes called supremacy of law, is a legal maxim that says that governmental decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws with minimal discretion in their application...
, and representative democracy
Representative democracy
Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to autocracy and direct democracy...
."
History
The IPA was founded in the early 1940s, partly in response to the collapse of Australia's main conservative party, the United Australia PartyUnited Australia Party
The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...
. The IPA was one of a number of groups which came together to form the Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
, and became an important fund raising body for the Liberal Party in Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. The IPA returned to prominence as a thinktank in the 1990s, following a merger with the Australian Institute of Public Policy, headed by John Hyde
John Hyde (Australian federal politician)
John Martin Hyde is a former Australian politician. He was elected as the member for the Division of Moore in Western Australia for the Liberal Party....
who became Executive Director.
Funding
The IPA funded by its membership which include both private individuals and businesses. Among these businesses are ExxonMobilExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
, Telstra
Telstra
Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....
, WMC Resources
WMC Resources
WMC Resources Limited was an Australian diversified mining and fertilizer company formerly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. WMC was an acronym for Western Mining Corporation. It was delisted on 29 June 2005 following a successful takeover by BHP Billiton...
, BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...
, Phillip Morris
Altria Group
Altria Group, Inc. is based in Henrico County, Virginia, and is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. It is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations...
, Murray Irrigation Limited, and Visy Industries
Visy Industries
Visy Industries was established in Melbourne, Australia in 1948 and is headquartered at Level 11, 2 Southbank Boulevard,Melbourne, Australia. It has grown to become one of the world’s largest privately-owned paper recycling and packaging companies. In 2003, Visy employed more than 8000 people...
.
IPA donors have also included Clough Engineering, Caltex
Caltex
Caltex is a petroleum brand name of Chevron Corporation used in more than 60 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and southern Africa.-History:...
, Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
and Esso
Esso
Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
. Other donors were electricity and mining companies, as well as British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco p.l.c. is a global tobacco company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s second largest quoted tobacco company by global market share , with a leading position in more than 50 countries and a presence in more than 180 countries...
(BAT).
In 2003, the Australian Government paid $50,000 to the Institute of Public Affairs to review the accountability of NGOs.
Political links
The Institute has close ideological and political affinities with the Liberal Party in Australia. John Roskam, the IPA's Executive Director, worked on the Liberal Party's 2001 election campaign. He has also run for Liberal Party preselection. Prime Minister John HowardJohn Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
(Liberal Party) delivered the 60th C D Kemp lecture to the Institute in 2004, titled Iraq: The Importance of Seeing it Through.
Research focus
Since the early 1980s, the Institute has argued the case for a range of free-market and libertarianLibertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
public policies, such as:
- lower taxationTaxTo tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
; - deregulationDeregulationDeregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or...
of the Australian economy particularly as affecting industrial relations and trade unionism; - privatisationPrivatizationPrivatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
of government businesses and reduced government spending; - greater transparencyTransparency (humanities)Transparency, as used in science, engineering, business, the humanities and in a social context more generally, implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed...
in government; - opposition to perceived left wing ideological bias in Australia's public broadcaster the Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
; - a free market approach to environmental problems, and criticism of aspects of climate changeClimate changeClimate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
science; - the elimination of existing programs of welfare targeted at Indigenous AustraliansIndigenous AustraliansIndigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
, with the aim of encouraging transition to work, self-reliance and high incomes.
The IPA has affiliations with think tanks in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. It has a close relationship with the American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
, a right-wing US think-tank.
Position on smoking
The IPA has been critical of scientific research on the dangers of passive smoking. A paper published by the IPA in 1996 described a major report of the National Health and Medical Research CouncilNational Health and Medical Research Council
The National Health and Medical Research Council is Australia's peak funding body for medical research, with a budget of roughly 700 million dollars a year...
as "incoherent", "corrupt" and "incompetent".
The IPA has made the following criticisms proposals by the Australian government to introduce plain packaging of tobacco products:
- Plain packaging may not affect the consumption of those products and
- Plain packaging may infringe intellectual property rights in tobacco trademarks and logos. "Bad anti-intellectual property laws by State and Federal Parliaments could require taxpayers to gift up to $3.4 billion per year in compensation to film companies and big tobacco for the loss of their trademarks"
Position on climate change and environmental issues
The IPA adopts a position of climate change scepticismGlobal warming controversy
Global warming controversy refers to a variety of disputes, significantly more pronounced in the popular media than in the scientific literature, regarding the nature, causes, and consequences of global warming...
and supports most Australian climate sceptics. The IPA supports elements of climate change science, including some link between the use of fossil fuels and rising carbon dioxide levels, however it also disagrees with certain aspects of climate theories . Former staff member Jennifer Marohasy
Jennifer Marohasy
Jennifer Marohasy is an Australian biologist, columnist and blogger best known for her work on the Murray River. She was a senior fellow at the free-market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs between 2004 and 2009 and director of the Australian Environment Foundation which she says was...
supports the view that many environmental issues, including climate change, are exaggerated, and that green groups promote solutions that ultimately do not benefit society.
In 2008, the institute facilitated a donation of $350,000 by Dr G. Bryant Macfie, a climate change sceptic, to the University of Queensland for environmental research. The money is to fund three environmental doctoral projects, with the IPA suggesting two of the three agreed topics.
Staff
John Roskam is the institute's executive director. Prior to his employment at the IPA, Roskam was the Executive Director of the Menzies Research CentreMenzies Research Centre
The Menzies Research Centre in an Australian think tank that began in 1994 to undertake research into public policy issues. The centre is controlled by the Liberal Party of Australia and they share common conservative/neo-liberal values...
in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
. He has also held positions as Chief of Staff to Dr David Kemp, the Federal Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, as Senior Advisor to Don Hayward
Don Hayward
Don Hayward was a Welsh international prop who played club rugby for Newbridge. He won 15 caps for Wales and was selected to play in the British Lions on the 1950 tour of Australia and New Zealand. Hayward is considered to be one of the finest forwards to represent Wales in the early post-war period...
, Victorian Minister for Education in the first Kennett Government, and as Manager of Government and Corporate Affairs for Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group
The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...
. He is currently undertaking a PhD and tutoring politics at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
.
Other staff include:
- Dr Alan Moran, Director, Deregulation Unit
- Mr Chris Berg, Research Fellow
- Mr Tony Barry, Director, Finance and Operations
- Mr Tim Wilson, Director, Intellectual Property and Free Trade Unit
- Mr John Pesutto, Director, Productivity and Employment Unit
- Mr Ken Phillips, Director Workplace Reform Unit
- Ms Louise Staley, Director, Food and Environment Unit
- Professor Sinclair Davidson, Senior Fellow
- Mr John HydeJohn Hyde (Australian federal politician)John Martin Hyde is a former Australian politician. He was elected as the member for the Division of Moore in Western Australia for the Liberal Party....
, Emeritus Fellow - Ms Julie Novak, Research Fellow
- Mr Richard Allsop, Research Fellow
- Ms Carolyn Popp, Research Fellow
- Mr Graham Farebrother, Research Fellow
- Mr Andrew Poon, Marketing Manager
- Professor Bob CarterRobert M. CarterRobert M. "Bob" Carter is an adjunct research professor in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University, Queensland, and the University of Adelaide, South Australia. He is a geologist specializing in palaeontology, stratigraphy, marine geology, and environmental science...
, Emeritus Fellow, Science Policy Advisor - Mr Brad Laver
Former staff include
- Dr Jennifer MarohasyJennifer MarohasyJennifer Marohasy is an Australian biologist, columnist and blogger best known for her work on the Murray River. She was a senior fellow at the free-market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs between 2004 and 2009 and director of the Australian Environment Foundation which she says was...
, Director, Environment Unit - Dr Mike NahanMike NahanMichael Dennis "Mike" Nahan is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly since 2008....
, Executive Director - Mr Don D'Cruz, Senior Fellow
- Hon Dr Gary JohnsGary JohnsGary Thomas Johns is a former Australian politician.Johns was born in Melbourne, Victoria and received a Bachelor of Economics and a M.A. from Monash University. He was elected as the member for Petrie in 1987, and held it for the Australian Labor Party until his defeat in 1996...
, Director, Governance Unit (an ex-HawkeBob HawkeRobert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
LaborAustralian Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
minister) - Mr Jim Hoggett, Senior Fellow
- Mr Michael Warby
Publications
The IPA Review is published quarterly. - January 2008 is Volume 59/4.External links
- Institute of Public Affairs
- Sourcewatch, Institute of Public Affairs
- IPA in the News: Flaws Remain in Bringing Them Home
- Media Watch criticises IPA writer Michael Warby - Media Watch transcript