John Humphreys

I was always frustrated when I went to a politician’s website to find out their philosophy, and all they tell me is that they like dogs and long walks on the beach. Yes, yes… very nice. But politicians get to control other people’s lives. And if somebody has the power to control my life, I want to know what sort of consistent and logical framework they use to think through political issues.

The truth is that many politicians don’t understand the first thing about political philosophy or public policy analysis. I do. This is my philosophy:

* Freedom — I believe that all people have an inherent right to self-ownership, and the freedom to control their own life and build their own life story. This means that human interaction should be voluntary, and that people should be able to do what they like with what they own (so long as they don’t directly impact other people against their will). This does not necessarily mean that freedom will always lead to good outcomes. People make mistakes. But I believe that living a free life (including mistakes) is the only way to have a meaningful and fulfilling life.

* Responsibility — The flip side of freedom is responsibility. You cannot have one without the other. If a person is free to choose a course of action, they must take responsibility for the consequences. Linking freedom with responsibility is a matter of justice. It is not just if one person makes a mistake and they force another person to suffer the consequences.

* Community — Humans are a social animal, and we have always formed into groups, clubs and communities. All relationships, from a marriage to a local rugby team, involve compromise and tolerance. So long as the relationships and communities are voluntary, they make our lives better. For most people, the “community sector” of their life (friends, family, social groups) is the most important.

* Free market — While community groups are a great way at achieving some things, other times it is the free market — making use of the profit motive and the price mechanism — that can achieve the best results for society. The word “profit” is not a dirty word. Some people wrongly think that trade is a zero-sum game (so if I win, then you lose), but the truth is that trade creates win-win outcomes. When you buy an apple, you get a benefit (because you value the apple more than the money) and the seller gets a benefit (because they value the money more than the apple). Indeed, market competition and the profit motive actually create an incentive for businesses to try and meet the needs of consumers with better products and lower prices — which is why a private business tends to be more effective and efficient than a government business.

* Small government — Despite the fact that I have run for election 3.5 times, it is my opinion that government should be the least important part of our lives. While community and the free market are voluntary (whether for “love” or “profit”) and fairly efficient, the political sector is not voluntary and often wasteful. The stated reason for government action is that sometimes the free choices of free people will lead to an unacceptable outcome, and so the government may need to intervene to fix the problem. That’s fair enough. However, we need to remember that (1) freedom is important; (2) the government also makes mistakes; and (3) policy should only be introduced if the benefits exceed the costs. I know that free people in the community and the marketplace make mistakes, but I believe they generally do a better job than politicians and bureaucrats, and so it is better to have a small government and leave most things to the free market and/or the community sector.

* Decentralisation — When the government does intervene, I believe it is important for the political power to be as close to the people as possible. This means I want to see power devolved from international treaties back to the Australian government, power devolved from the Australian government back down to State governments, and power devolved from State governments down to local or regional communities. The benefits of decentralisation are that it allows diversity (Bundaberg is not the same as Brisbane), gives voters a bigger voice in their government, creates competition between governments so that they improve over time, and forces politicians to be more responsive to the needs of the people. The current political system does not work because too much power and money is centralised in Canberra.

* Public policy — The government should not have any taxes, laws and regulations unless the benefits clearly exceed the costs. It is inappropriate to introduce policy without full analysis (like the National Broadband Network), and it is bad policy to introduce new schemes that fail a benefit-cost analysis (like the Emissions Taxing System). Further, the government should always be checking on their current policies to ensure that they are providing a benefit, and removing those that fail such a test.