Institute of Public Affairs

Updated on Jan 17, 2024

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Established 1943 Executive Director John Roskam		Chairman Rod Kemp
Focus The free market of ideas, the free flow of capital, a limited and efficient government, evidence-based public policy, the rule of law, and representative democracy. Budget FYE June 2012 Income: A$4,002,427 Expenses: A$3,689,095 Location Level 2, 410 Collins Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia

The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a public policy think tank based in Melbourne, Australia. It advocates free market economic policies such as privatisation and deregulation of state-owned enterprises, trade liberalisation and deregulated workplaces, climate change skepticism, the abolition of the minimum wage, the repeal of parts of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, In its own words, the Institute believes in "the free market of ideas, the free flow of capital, a limited and efficient government, the rule of law, and representative democracy."

History

The IPA was founded in 1943, partly in response to the collapse of Australia's main conservative party, the United Australia Party. The IPA was one of a number of groups which came together to form the Liberal Party of Australia, and became an important fund raising body for the Liberal Party in Victoria. The IPA returned to prominence as a thinktank in the 1990s, following a merger with the Australian Institute of Public Policy, headed by John Hyde who became Executive Director.

In 2013 the IPA celebrated its 70th anniversary. Notable in attendance at the celebrations were:

Gina Rinehart

Rupert Murdoch

Tony Abbott

George Pell - Australian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church

Michael Kroger - President of the Victorian division of the Liberal Party of Australia

Mitch Fifield - Australian Senator

Donors

The IPA funded by its membership which include both private individuals and businesses. Among these businesses are ExxonMobil, Telstra, WMC Resources, BHP Billiton, Phillip Morris, Murray Irrigation Limited, and Visy Industries.

IPA donors have also included Clough Engineering, Caltex, Shell, and Esso. Other donors were electricity and mining companies, as well as British American Tobacco (BAT).

In 2003, the Australian Government paid $50,000 to the Institute of Public Affairs to review the accountability of NGOs.

Political links

The Institute has close ideological and political affinities with the Liberal Party in Australia. For example, IPA Executive Director John Roskam's byline on a 2005 opinion column in the Australian Financial Review declares that, "during the 2001 federal election he worked on the Liberals' federal campaign". He has also run for Liberal Party preselection. Prime Minister John Howard (Liberal Party) delivered the 60th C D Kemp lecture to the Institute in 2004, titled Iraq: The Importance of Seeing it Through.

Research focus

Since the early 1980s, the Institute has argued the case for a range of free-market and libertarian public policies, such as:

lower taxation;

abolish the minimum wage

deregulation of the Australian economy particularly as affecting industrial relations and trade unionism;

privatisation of government businesses and reduced government spending;

greater transparency in government;

privatisation of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation;

a free market approach to environmental problems, and criticism of aspects of climate change science;

the elimination of existing programs of welfare targeted at Indigenous Australians, with the aim of encouraging transition to work, self-reliance and high incomes.

the reduction of Australian Public Service benefits and allowances.

The IPA has affiliations with think tanks in the U.S., Canada, UK and Asia. It has a close relationship with the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing US think-tank.

The IPA has made the following criticisms of proposals by the Australian government to introduce plain packaging of tobacco products:

Plain packaging may not affect the consumption of those products and

Plain packaging may infringe intellectual property rights in tobacco trademarks and logos.

The IPA adopts a position of doubt about climate change and finances several Australian climate change science doubters.

In 2008, the institute facilitated a donation of $350,000 by Dr G. Bryant Macfie, a climate change sceptic, to the University of Queensland for environmental research. The money is to fund three environmental doctoral projects, with the IPA suggesting two of the three agreed topics.

In 2014 the IPA called for the abolition of the minimum wage in Australia.