Tom Switzer

2 weeks ago | afr.com | Tom Switzer

Times may be grim and getting grimmer for the Liberal and National parties, but things could be worse. The Coalition, for example, could be living in 1967. Following the drowning of then-prime minister Harold Holt, John McEwen – the then-Country (as the Nationals were then known) party leader and deputy prime minister – vetoed deputy Liberal leader Bill McMahon from becoming leader of the party and country.

1 month ago | afr.com | Tom Switzer

Nearly 40 years ago, during her transformative and market-driven prime ministership of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher famously said: “You can’t buck the markets.” She was right. But US President Donald Trump thought he could do just that when he imposed what appeared to be a largely random selection of tariffs on America’s trading partners. Within weeks, Trump has been, to quote another great conservative thinker, Irving Kristol, “mugged by reality”. Loading...

2 months ago | afr.com | Tom Switzer

The nation goes to the polls on May 3, and everything continues to point to a hung parliament. That’s too bad because the status quo is an unsatisfactory state of affairs. Our regulated housing sector continues to price people out of the property market. Both parties have delivered higher energy prices. Government spending as a percentage of GDP continues to rise, as do the budget deficit and national debt. Australians are experiencing the longest decline in real household incomes on record.

Nov 5, 2024 | afr.com | Tom Switzer

Donald Trump’s election victory marks the greatest political comeback in modern history. The last successful attempt to come back from a re-election loss was Grover Cleveland, who was denied re-election in 1888 before rebounding in 1892. Donald Trump at an election rally in North Carolina, the first crucial swing state that he won.  Bloomberg via Getty ImagesLoading...

Oct 8, 2024 | afr.com | Tom Switzer

The Austrian economist and intellectual Friedrich Hayek was a victim of cancel culture long before the term entered the political vernacular. Eighty years ago, three US trade publishers rejected his now-classic The Road to Serfdom, suggesting it was “unfit for publication by a reputable house”. One publishing adviser later conceded that the quality of the scholarship was not disreputable, just its politics.