I probably well over the mark here, But Government reforms of the Telco, etc are perfect examples of what was a bloated Bureaucracy, and that Communist mantra of someone else can pay the bill, sorry reality has to hit home and hit hard, perhaps from that type of thinking in the past, that security no longer exists.
And my next point would be Capitolism has been Hy-jacked by Elites in Government, NGO's and in big Buisiness to a point it resembles more of a Maffia regeime than an Enterprising buisiness, so far as Corporations go.
I employ 8 people in a small company, I work and so do my employees, if I can not make money, I can not employ anyone, nor can I pay Taxes to give to some Fat butted idiot that could not be bothered anyway or Governments to spend in Ideological and idiotic mannour that leaves my nation exposed to some Stupid idiotic whims of some Migrant agendas. I'm peed off and so should you all.
We are not the Socialis republic of Never Never, we are Australia, so get off your butt and make it work properly.Hmmm That feels better.

Coincidence notwithstanding, what Latham says here strikes an accord with placing responsibility on the individual rather than abrogating it to the state.

The Liberal Party is no small government party either, Howard has sat at the head of a government that has seen one of the biggest growth of middle class welfare (read pork barelling) since Whitlam. Crowing over budget surpluses is not what I want from a federal government, all it means is that they have been more successful at taxing us than they have been at thinking up ways to bribe us (with our own money, I might add). The only winners here are civil servants and politicians.

Vern Hughes has gotten very close to the heart of Austrlia's problem. We all want "them" to do something "for us" but expect to retain our freedoms and be prosperous, which is an illusion. The government is not the answer! We are the answer when we take responsibility for our own problems and for our own communities. The government can play its role by enabling (not blocking) the functioning of life-giving grassroots social networks, and wealth-generating free enterprise.

mykah "The government is not the answer! We are the answer when we take responsibility for our own problems and for our own communities. The government can play its role by enabling (not blocking) the functioning of life-giving grassroots social networks, and wealth-generating free enterprise. "

I would certainly agree with every word of that.

I want a government which will leave me alone to make my own mistakes, for I know the mistakes I make I can recover from - but government errors, made across the entire population, will be far harder to recover from.

As someone on another thread pointed out my (unashamed) fondness for quoting dear Margaret Thatcher

"We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state."

I think Vern is spot on with his take on community building and the failure that flows from using government (ie force) in trying to "fix" community problems. The only problems that should be fixed using government (force) are threats from violent individuals (criminals) and foreign invaders. We need a smaller state and we need a state focused primarily on the core activities of law and order and national defence. The rest should be left to civil society and the market place.

As for "floating the dollar" being an indication of smaller government I think this is utter rubbish. Instead of fixing the exchange rate they now fix the interest rate. It is not less interventionist just differently interventionist. At the end of the day its still a fiat currency printed by the government and managed according to government policy. They still use open market operations to drive liquidity up or down according to their objectives. Neither a gold standard, nor the US dollar peg was inheriently more statist than a floating exchange rate. Its like suggesting that laws that say we should drive on the left are more statist than laws that say we should drive on the right. Such a conclusion is just bunkum.