Is Australia Friendlier to Libertarianism Than the U.S.?

Libertarianism is a thing, the
headlines tell us—and that seems to be true now that two
libertarian-leaning lawmakers occupy seats in the Senate.
Wait…two senators? Yes, two: Senator David Leyonhjelm
from New South Wales and Senator Bob Day from South Australia.
After their election, The Australian
proclaimed them “two home-grown Ron Pauls.”

Strictly speaking, Leyonhjelm (at right, above) is
the more overtly libertarian of the two, favoring marijuana
legalization, lower taxes, same-sex marriage, and smaller
government. He was elected as a candidate of the classical
liberal/libertarian Liberal Democratic
Party. A quote on his Facebook
page boasts, “But there are two guiding principles that
determine our approach to legislation—we would never vote for an
increase in taxes and we would never vote for a reduction in
liberty.”

Day has a long history of
free-market activism and was a board member of the libertarian
Centre for Independent Studies, but he was elected as the candidate
(and chairman) of the populist/social conservative Family First Party. Even so,
he told the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “Libertarianism appeals to
the innate desire to be free, to be liberated; people essentially
want to be left alone to enjoy the fruits of their labour.”

If he can stick to that sentiment, his party affiliation won’t
matter.

That article quoting Day also noted that “the former policy
director of libertarian think tank The Institute of Public Affairs
(IPA) has been appointed Human Rights Commissioner.” The IPA has
been called
out during parliamentary question time as a “sinister”
behind-the-scenes player in Australian policy making—specifically,
in
revising the Racial Discrimination Act to strengthen free speech
protections—so it’s apparently having an impact.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation piece also included a
hopeful note that libertarianism may have appeal across the
country’s political spectrum:

Cassandra Wilkinson, a former senior adviser to NSW Labor
Premier Kristina Keneally, hopes new, Labor-aligned think tanks
such as the McKell Institute take classically liberal ideas more
seriously. “The poor can least afford the rip offs of markets made
inefficient by superfluous government intervention or regulation,”
she says.

“Any self-respecting leftie would claim ending slavery
as a left wing achievement along with ending the rule of man over
woman, white over black, straight over gay, adult over child, abled
over disabled; and yet ending the rule of government over everybody
has become characterised as a right wing fanaticism.”

For what it’s worth, on the Heritage Foundation’s Index of
Economic Freedom, Australia
currently ranks at number three, behind Hong Kong and
Singapore, and well ahead of the U.S. at 12.

Australia’s economic freedom score is 82, making its economy the
3rd freest in the 2014 Index. Its overall score is 0.6 point lower
than last year, with a gain in investment freedom outweighed by
declines in monetary freedom and labor freedom.

Australia also does well on the
State of World Liberty Index, which groups the civil liberties
portion of the Freedom House score, the economic liberty scores
from the Fraser Institute and the Heritage Foundation, and the
press freedom scores from Reporters without Borders. The Land
Downunder comes in at fourth place, compared to the United States
at 19.

So Australian libertarians may have a bit of a head start over
their American counterparts. Keep it going, folks.