Commentary Using statistics from the Department of Labor, The Wall Street Journal reports that real hourly wages during the Biden presidency have declined. When Biden took office in January 2021, the average hourly wage adjusted for inflation was $11.39. Now, 29 months later, it stands at $11.03, a 3.16 percent decline. Stephen Moore of the…

Commentary A recent Wall Street Journal lead story reported that “Republicans and big business broke up.” The amount of corporate donations to Republicans was cut sharply in the last election cycle to a lower amount than in nearly a decade. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has backed many Democrats running for Congress in close and…

Commentary Three years ago, in the depths of lockdowns, it became obvious that we desperately needed a new citizen movement with a different focus. Prevailing ideological forms were simply not adapted to the enormous exogenous shock to the system that lockdowns implied. It was unexpected, especially under the guise of public health. Every essential freedom…

Truckers are the latest group to hit back at the federal Australian Labor government after it raised a bevy of new taxes to offset welfare and net-zero spending in its latest budget. From July 1, the federal government will increase the Heavy Vehicle Road User Charge to six percent each year, according to a communique…

Commentary Twenty years ago, the newspaper I worked for turned an easy $50 million-plus a year in profit. Less than three months ago, its building was sold and remnants of its once-bustling newsroom work from their homes. Its owners increasingly depend on federal government assistance, the latest version of which, the Online News Act (Bill…

Commentary The First Amendment is at a critical juncture. Recent congressional hearings on the Twitter Files brought the matter into full public view. Freedom of speech and of the press are hanging by a precarious thread. Do we want a future in which information flows freely, or one in which an information elite controls those…

Liberal MP Trung Luu escaped to Australia 44 years ago in search of freedom, but he said the country that had granted him a safe haven is leaning towards a more authoritarian style of government, despite still maintaining a democratic political system. The first Australian-Vietnamese Liberal member of the Victorian parliament, Luu’s family was amongst…

Liberal MP Trung Luu escaped to Australia 44 years ago in search of freedom, but he now says the country he adopted now risks adopting a more authoritarian government. The first Australian-Vietnamese MP in the Victorian Parliament, Luu’s family was among thousands of refugees fleeing communist Vietnam after the fall of Saigon, with nothing but…

The rejection of traditional values and principles has led to the embrace of big government to solve all of society’s problems, says former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson. The formal Nationals leader, who served in the Howard ministry from 1999 to 2005, said a consequence of this phenomenon is an increasing lack of confidence in democracy…

Commentary Before President Joe Biden entered the White House, he consulted with several prominent historians about how to be a great commander in chief. Their answer: Grow government. Spend, spend, spend. Don’t worry about blowing up the debt. It was the worst possible advice, and that meeting no doubt contributed to our economic calamity. So,…