Libertarian Party

Summary

Policies & Commentary

The Libertarian Party distinguishes itself by being one of the most accurately named parties – no one reading their policy offerings will be in any doubt that these are libertarians. And I’m sure that’s the only reason they changed the party’s name.

Okay, before we go any further: did you notice how lame and unoriginal their slogans were? Well, that’s just a taster for how lame and unoriginal their policies are – at a first glance these are all Trump-inspired. (It’s honestly something of a shock that they’re not calling for more tariffs.) But in fact, their policy position has barely changed over the years – Trump has moved further right to meet them. Still, the similarities are telling. I’m explaining all this up front so you can save time: if you already know how you feel about Trump’s policies, you can safely skip the rest of this article unless you’re really interested in the details.

Still with me? Let’s go.

The Libertarians have divided their policies are divided into nine areas, although there does not seem to be any Ásatrú significance to that. All but one of them are accurately named.

Economy

They come out of the gate hard, with a plan to raise the tax free threshold to $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for couples – and to index this to inflation, too. Income above that is to be taxed at a flat rate of 20% for everyone – and even that they would like to reduce to 10% over time, “in line with the goods and services tax”. But wait, there’s less! Less tax for companies, too. In fact, they’d like to abolish company tax entirely, and “simplify” business taxation by taxing only distributed earnings (i.e. company earnings AFTER dividends are paid to stockholders), also at the 20% rate. They’d also like to make superannuation purely voluntary, and all superannuation amounts would be unpreserved. They want to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Renewable Energy Target.

And then there’s a big hit:

Reduce ATO staff by at least half over 5 years because flat tax rates will require less compliance staff, and it is essential to reduce the possibility of the tax system regrowing; similarly, scale back agencies such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Australian Competition and Consumer Commissioner and the laws they administer; and sell government business enterprises, including the NBN, ABC, SBS, and the Future Fund, and use the proceeds to pay down debt.

Basically, reduce regulations governing business, and reduce enforcement of those regulations, and sell off vital government agencies – what could possibly go wrong? It’s not like anything bad has ever happened from doing this kind of thing before, and definitely not in 2008 (a time at which all current Libertarian candidates were alive, but apparently not paying much attention to the news).

Money

They’d like to constrain the focus of the RBA, so that it “will have no mandate to consider gross domestic product growth, unemployment, or exchange rates in its decision-making”, which would have the effect of making the RBA an even blunter instrument of economic adjustment than it currently is. They also want a hard limit on government debt of 60% of the value of government assets. They will pay for this by selling off government assets – which will, of course, further reduce the actual amount of that 60%, and which is absolutely the goal here, as they note that: “Selling government assets will also significantly reduce the government’s borrowing power.” This might sound good at first glance, but it would reduce the ability of governments to deal with economic shocks – for example, what if a trusted ally and trading partner suddenly levied tariffs on us? What then?

The Libertarians would also like to introduce bitcoin and gold based currencies, and permit banks to create their own private currencies, because this is obviously a responsibility that banks can be trusted with.

Energy

Their first point in this category starts off strong: “No Bans, No Subsidies”. And honestly, it’s hard to argue that the fossil fuel industry in Australia needs to levels of subsidies it gets – we probably could have done something better with the $14.5 Billion we gave the sector in 2022-2023, for example. There’s even a case to be made that the renewable energy sector is now mature enough to no longer need subsidising either. But the only bans in the Australian energy sector are those regarding nuclear power – and just in case that was too subtle for you, the third point in this section is explicitly “repeal the blanket ban on nuclear energy in Australia”, because apparently this ban is the only thing to “drive up electricity costs”¹And if you believe that, I have an Unobtainium mine I’d like to sell you….

The rest of this section concerns abolishing the Renewable Energy Target, and protecting the environment (more specifically, public lands) from “wind and solar farms built on public land solely to meet renewable energy targets”, which of course, won’t exist anyway. Apparently, “these projects harm local flora and fauna, create waste material, and undermine environmental preservation efforts” – an issue so important to the Libertarian party that this is literally the only place they mention it. This is a cynical evocation of environmental issues by a party that appears entirely unconcerned by them otherwise. I mean, you don’t see an Environment heading here, do you?

Education

Naturally, they want to abolish the federal department of education, claiming that this is “to avoid unnecessary duplication with state-level responsibilities” – which suggests that they are unaware that the federal government has responsibility for tertiary education. Which is odd considering that they also want to keep the HECS scheme, although apparently with some tightening of eligibility: “such loans should only be extended to those who are committed to paying them back” – which would presumably mean some sort of means testing, and potentially lock those on lower incomes out of tertiary education. Freedom, but apparently not the freedom to improve your economic chances.

They would also like to import the disastrous voucher system from the US, although who would administer it in the absence of a department of education is unclear. I guess it will just magically work. They’re big on home education – and largely unregulated home education at that – and also want to cut “the red tape associated with establishing new childcare centres, schools, and universities”, which sounds great until you remember that “red tape” usually means pesky things like overtime, penalty rates and safety regulations, to name just a few.

Women & Children Transphobia

I’m not going to go into much detail here, because I find these policies disgusting. You can safely assume that all the usual conservative talking points – sex assigned at birth, pearl-clutching about sport and public bathrooms (yes, they didn’t even bother to modify that to a more Australian ‘toilets’), restricting gender reassignment surgery to legal adults (newsflash, dingbats: it already is) and repeal of laws mandating gender-affirming care.

Immigration

The Libertarian Party wants to take “unaccountable bureaucrats” out of the immigration system, and replace them with even more unaccountable companies. In place of the current quota system, there will be “market-based solutions” which will also definitely include an immigration fee system, payable to gain permanent residency. They also propose to limit short term visas to no more than 5 years, explicitly to cut them off from being a path to residency. They also wish to restrict access to becoming a citizen, requiring ten years of residency before becoming a citizen – and restricting welfare payments to citizens only. They’d also like for Australia to avoid entering into treaties or agreements that would obligate Australia to take in refugees or migrants, which at least has the virtue of being more honest than entering into such agreements and then ignoring them, like the ALP and LNP do.

It’s interesting that while their phrasing implies that immigration will be reduced, nowhere is that explicitly stated.

Free Speech

Okay, finally something I find worthwhile here: they want a right to free speech enshrined in the constitution, but there’s no follow through here for a complete bill of rights. But they do follow it by making sure that all possible restrictions are torn down – no Section 18C, no laws “regulating misinformation or disinformation”, no restrictions on what “medical and allied practitioners” can tell you, no restrictions on AI-generated or social media content (with the sole exception of “child exploitation material”)… basically, no kind of hate speech or deception or pseudo-medical health endangerment will be off limits. But the ABC and SBS will have no free speech – they must be privatised because apparently they can’t be trusted to be unbiased, unlike, say, the Murdoch Press.

Privacy

And here we reach the paranoid stuff. In the opinion of the Libertarian Party:

Australians have the freedom to buy, sell, and contract with each other, as well as move and communicate freely, without the need to show their digital ID or face intrusive government surveillance tracking their every move.

Again, this is something that is legal now for most forms of buying and selling. The making of contracts is a separate issue, because contracts require records and enforcement mechanisms, which has traditionally been the role of governments. But perhaps this party favours a more Trumpian attitude to contracts.

They also wish to end age limits on social media (or at least, make them at the discretion of the companies), abolish the office the E-Safety Commissioner, “abolish mass surveillance laws” whatever that means (this is the least detailed section of the entire document), stop the collection of metadata, require a warrant to access the metadata they won’t be collecting, and preserve the use of cash. This last is because they are worried about a possible central bank digital currency – despite the fact that the RBA “has not found a strong case study to support a CBDC for retail use” (retail here meaning personal).

Foreign Affairs

When it comes to international relations, they want a strong ADF that can defend Australia and deter invasion. They are opposed to overseas deployments for any reasons other than disaster relief or capacity building (i.e. training, etc). Australia will chart and independent foreign policy and not interfere in any conflicts that do not directly involve it – this would include a ban on any sort of sanctions, too. Furthermore, “Australia will relinquish its membership in the UNHCR, WHO, OECD, G20, ICC and other international organisations” because apparently engaging in any sort of diplomacy – especially if it was to “seek membership in any international body or sign multilateral treaties” at all would “compromise national sovereignty”. Let’s not beat around the bush, here. This is idiocy. Independence and isolationism are not the same thing.

This brings us to the end of the formal policy section, but I have a few stray observations to offer.

It’s never actually mentioned anywhere in their policy offerings, but it’s clear that the Libertarians want to use the US Republican strategy of starving the beast – basically, reducing the amount of money the government takes in, in order to reduce the power of that government. It’s also very notable that the majority of their policies, despite their claims to the contrary, will benefit the wealthy more than anyone else. It’s all very Trumpian, without ever mentioning the name. In fact, it would be fair to say that no experience of the failure of the basically any of the policies they’ve seen Republicans apply in the US has in any way dampened their enthusiasm for bringing those policies Down Under.

“A Libertarian Vision” seems a nightmarish one to me, and the Libertarian Party a fierce competitor for the not-at-all-coveted last place on my ballot.