Rhrosty, for once I agree with your every word.

I didn't really intend advocate a return to State income taxes, but to point out that the author had ignored their existence at the start of his rant and thus had presented an apples Vs oranges comparison.

I do, however, see substantial room for reducing centralised control from Canberra of State responsibilities such as in education, health and infrastructure, provided that this does not result in repetition of the rail-guage issue.

States will occasionally still do stupid things, but none as stupid as maintaining the bureaucratic empires in Canberra which exist for no good reason but to get in the way of service delivery by the States.

Sorry, by "second" I meant Rhrosty's post at 4:57:23 PM

As a keen shooter and gun collector and a firm believer that everyone has the right to possess an adequate means of self defence, I none the less consider David Leyonhjelm to be a dangerous person, not because of the guns that he owns but because of some of his ideas and some of the causes that he espouses.

This bloke is only in the Federal senate because of the donkey vote, and a fair bit of fiddling with very minor party's,who he actually represents sounds to me like as per usual the Australian version of the discredited Tea Party,who are on the madder right wing than the present Govt.
Abolish the states fine by me they are a waste of money no great loss,hopefully at the next election I think we are stuck with him for 6 yrs he will retired by the voters,and I bet he grabs a pension and we will never hear from him again,to me Libertarian = creeping Fascism.

How much of the $20 billion allocated to new weapons systems this year will be wasted on agent commissions, jetsetting around the globe for the main players as well as the usual 5-star hotel accommodation and official banquets, and over- and under-the counter financial incentives and corporate taxbreaks for the arms manufacturers ... oh, and state of the art coffee machines.

And how much of the $60 million allocated to WWI celebr ... I mean ...commemorations will be going to cocktail parties at the Australian War Memorial and jetsetting our pollies and their families to Dawn Services in Turkey and hymn-fests at Westminster Abbey?

The whopping big flaw in an otherwise reasonable article is that this warrior against government waste is perfectly fine to allow the most wasteful of all our government departments - the Department of Defence and its subsidiaries like the Department of Veterans Affairs and AWM - to go on ripping off the taxpayer for all they're worth.

I don't know enough about David Leyonhjelm or the LDP to comment on them. Some of the points made in rebuttal have been worthwhile.

I can though agree with the direction of points that David makes and be concerned that some treat them as an all or nothing proposition. It is in my view a question of balance and that some view that the balance is too far in the governments direction.

I object to the level of social responsibility that is heaped on me via the tax system as a wage earner if I work extra hours to meet my own needs. I don't see that same "social responsibility" burden on those who's circumstances allow very different work life balance. We needs roads, hospitals, doctors, police etc but there should be a lot more fairness to how much obligation is placed on individuals. The current system takes no account of need, choice etc. It's just based on the arbitrary criteria of taxable income.

I have concerns for the future with the increasing reach of government both by way of ever increasing regulation and the power technology brings. We need checks and balances in place to limit governments abuse of that power and I really don't believe that it's only wrong doers who need have concerns about ubiquitous policing.

R0bert