Pass the climate parcel Having observed international negotiations for some years now I am tired of how the media laps up another glib Leader's or Minister's communique on the need for 'action' or 'redoubling efforts' for something where there is simply no political will. It couldn't be any clearer than in the climate change debate. Every international meeting there is a call for a solution. But it simply isn't going to happen. Copenhagen will fail. And the sooner governments of the world are honest about it and stop giving political speeches to position themselves as those not to blame, the better. I got so tired of it all, I decided to write a piece in The Australian about it. The article can be found here.

Fighting the good fight on national television | Sex and politics I was very fortunate to get another run on ABC1's Q&A. Q&A is possibly the best public policy gig on Australian television because it runs for an hour, you cover lots of issues and you get to fight for what you believe in. Fortunately the format seems to work for me well and I think my most recent appearance was very positive. The only challenge was getting a word in when The Heff was talking! The video can be found here.

Nanny knows best! I got two bites of the cherry on the National Preventative Health Taskforce report. I got a second article in The Australian and made the point that Australia already has a fat tax - it is called the GST. Under the GST fresh food is not taxed and processed food is. Yet obesity rates are allegedly still rising. Why? Because taxes don't discourage behaviour enough to warrant their introduction to achieve any other public policy objective except revenue raising. The article can be found here.

Health Taskforce wishes you all a long, dull life with nanny The release of the National Preventative Health Taskforce report to make Australia the healthiest country by 2020 is a long list of government-knows-best programs. Increases in taxes and unecessary labelling won't replace the principle requirement needed for people to live longer, healthier lives - individual responsibility. The article can be found here.

Poor farmers have a right to a livelihood too! In New Zealand there has been a bit of a kerfuffle ove the use of palm oil in Cadbury products. Behind the complaints of 'environmentalists' is really just an anti-development agenda. As I point out in an article on the matter here. And it sufficiently stirred up Friends of the Earth that they felt it necessary to write their own article.

Keeping society together - we need to find the middle ground between religious groups and gays on marriage I've long been of the view that there is a lot of middle ground between gay activists and religious groups on the need for respect for each of them and their lifestyles. I have a piece in The Australian which really just re-emphasises what I said on ABC1's Q&A program but lays the ground work for that common ground. The article can be found here.

Bit-by-bit the Labor Party is turning its back on free trade There have been a series of protectionist measures taken by State Labor governments that suggest they are turning their backs on free trade. The same is occuring now at a national level. For the past thrity years there has been a bi-partisan consensus supporting free trade. If Labor keeps going the way they are, that consensus is dead - and Australia will pay the price. The article can be found here.

Another bite of the cherry - taking authors to task on parallel import restirctions II Now that the Productivity Commission's report has been released The Australian asked for another piece on parallel import restrictions. I feel a bit greedy getting two bites of the cherry in a week. It can be found here.

Patents and technologies to tackle climate change The people at the Wall Street Journal are very good to me. They've given me another run on my favourite policy area - patents and low carbon technology. And the best part is that I am in Europe so I can pick up a hard copy myself! The article can be found here.

Taking authors to task on parallel import restirctions The interest in parallel import restrictions is picking up pace since the Productivity Commission has handed its report to the government. Hence I had a piece in The Australian. It can be found here.

Taking authors to task on parallel import restirctions Following on from my recent report on parallel import restrictions I have a piece in The Punch arguing the case for reform. The article can be found here.

Trade protectionism - an idea so bad only the Rees New South Wales government could have thought of it! The New South Wales State government included measures in its State Budget to give local good and service providers preference in government procurement. The NSW government is single-handedly winding back the clock on trade liberalsation and its hard not to just ridicule them. My article on The Punch can be found here.

Exposing the misinformation on the 'benefits' of Australia's parallel import restrictions in Unbinding Book Barriers The Productivity Commission is currently investigating the merits of Australia's parallel import restrictions on books. Similar restrictions existed on CDs until 1998. The Commission is assessing whether import restrictions on books should go the way of CDs. In Unbinding Book Barriers I recommend they should. A copy can be found here.

Virus sharing and patents - an essential mix One of the areas of public policy I focus on is intellectual property and its relationship to public health. For a few years there has been a fascinating debate around the World Health Organisation on the issue of virus sharing. Basically countries are required to provide samples of viruses to the World Health Organisation in periods of pandemics to assist in the development of vaccines. The problem is that a few years ago Indonesia decided not to. And it started a big debate that coincided with the broader debate about IP and access to essential medicines. Normally it is a hard issue to get people interested in. Except at a time of a major influenza break out. Hence I managed to get a piece up in the Wall Street Journal about virus sharing. The article can be found here.

Heavily quoted in the Coalition Senator's dissenting report to the Senate Inquiry into ETS My report into Australia's ETS was included as a submission to the Senate Inquiry into the ETS legislation. I am happy to say that it was referenced extensively in the Coalition Senator's dissenting report. The dissenting report can be found here.

Australia's illegal ETS? The Australian government is currently negotiating the passage of an emissions trading scheme to reduce Australia's carbon dioxide footprint. But the government has done an appalling job in considering the international context of the ETS and whether it breaches Australia's existing trade obligations in the World Trade Organisation and Free Trade Agreements. It is not 100 per cent clear whether it will, or will not. But my report into the area shows the enormous scope of potential problems Australia may be facing. A copy can be found here.

Just a nice shot As part of The Weekend Australian Magazine's Emerging Leaders series I did a photo shoot in Sydney while I was attending the Australia's Right to Know Conference. This is a photo they took of me at the Sofitel Wentworth. I thought it was a good snap. But it was not appropriate for the newspaper because they were after headshots, and this is clearly a full body shot. Special thanks to The Weekend Australian for giving it to me, and allowing me to use it.

The Australian's ten emerging leaders of Australian society Australia's national daily broadsheet, The Australian, is running a series on emerging leaders of Australia. There are twelve different categories. The first is society - which includes people in government, advocacy and society. I was very honoured to be asked to be included in that list with some other very successful young Australians. A copy of the article can be found here.

We shouldn't be turning our backs on free trade! Since Kevin Rudd's absurd attack on neo-liberalism every nutbag has thought it acceptable to attack free trade. And it is my job to defend it. So I have had two articles in the Business Section of The Age. And they are available here and here.

Supporting free trade and free association Summer is a great time to get published. Most journos take time off and regular columnists let their columns be filled by eager young writers. The Herald Sun is surprisingly hard to crack. But I managed to do it twice this January. First on cars here, and then on the right of free association here.