# 2021-10-09 Watercooler 201- Reclaiming our precious liberties Your weekly MRC newsletter ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌Those of us who have stuck with disposable paper masks as a gesture of hope that all things must pass will have taken heart from the first four days of the Perrottet administration. In part, that’s because the NSW Premier is handing back our precious liberties ahead of forecast. Dominic Perrottet’s most significant announcement, however, was that his government would move out of crisis mode and get back to governing normally. By abolishing the NSW crisis cabinet, scrapping the daily melodrama of 11am press conferences and removing chief health officer Kerry Chant from the limelight, Perrottet has set an example that every premier should follow. The extraordinary powers given to chief health officers since the start of last year has eroded the authority of parliament, diminished the standing of our state political leaders and devalued democracy. It has delivered the kind of policy blunders that are inevitable when too much power is placed in the hands of a few. And we have seen the kind of tin-eared insensitivity to human feelings that results from empowering bureaucrats paid to follow the rule-book. The Menzies Research Centre has been arguing for the return of normal government process since last July. It was one of the key recommendations of the Ergas report in which we set a deadline of September 30 for emergency powers to be relinquished. That was September 30, 2020 by the way, but better late than never. Not everyone was as delighted as we were with developments in NSW this week. Journalists were naturally furious at losing their right to ask fatuous and impertinent questions for an hour a day. One accused the Premier of disrespecting his chief health officer. Perrottet’s reply was priceless: "As the new premier, we're the elected officials." The Australian Medical Association’s reaction gave us more reassurance that the Premier is on the right track. AMA President Omar Khorshid said the association was "very concerned" by the shift in approach to the pandemic. "The NSW Government’s Crisis Cabinet has morphed into an Economic Recovery Committee," said Khorshid. Perrottet should take that as a compliment. In the wake of the Federal Coalition's victory in 2019, I hosted a Watercooler podcast interview with then-Treasurer Perrottet, who had only two months earlier celebrated the NSW Coalition's return to government at the state election. His comments on liberalism, fiscal responsibility and the amplification of divisive ideologies by an elite minority ring as true today as it did two years ago. Have a listen to it here. As I wrote in Monday’s The Australian, also available as a podcast, the freedoms we have surrendered to the state in the cause of fighting this pandemic are not trivial. They include the freedom of association, the freedom of movement, the freedom to peacefully protest, the freedom of worship, freedom of commerce and the freedom of Australians to enter or leave their country without hinderance. And that’s just the start of it. In an essay published in Australia Tomorrow, a book edited by Jake Thrupp, I argue that winding back the power of the state is the most important duty we have to perform after this extraordinary lurch towards authoritarianism. We must overcome our aversion to risk, recognising that governments are not there to mollycoddle. Their job is to create an environment that encourages people to take risks and the hope of reward without the need to seek permission, knowing that the rules are fair. I write: "Whatever it is that divides good people on the centre-right, we can be confident we have a unity ticket on this one. The economic arguments that split Liberals in the 1980s have been settled. Anyone who is still not convinced of the primacy of competitive markets in most sectors most of the time is in the wrong party." I highly recommend Thrupp’s book, not because of my modest essay that you can read on our website, but for the thought-provoking contributions from John Howard, Peta Credlin, Tony Abbott, Rita Panahi, Elizabeth Lee, Jason Falinski and 32 others. A few years ago, Peter Kurti wrote a book called The Tyranny of Tolerance exposing one of the great hypocrises of the social justice movement. The tolerance and diversity brigade cannot tolerate diversity of thought. The bigoted, sectarian reaction to Perrottet’s promotion to premier was a frightening reminder of the threat to free speech and freedom of religion. Janet Albrechtsen gave a reasoned response in The Australian to the anti-Catholic, anti-white male, anti-family prejudice displayed on the ABC and in the Nine Media press. That Perrottet should be declared unsuitable for office simply because of his Catholic faith harks back to the sectarianism Robert Menzies worked so hard to overcome. David Furse-Roberts' recent book, God and Menzies, tells that story. Furse-Roberts will join me next Wednesday evening for a discussion with Greg Sheridan, author of The Urgent Case for Jesus in Our World, about the growing crisis in secularism. You can join on the MRC’s YouTube channel or listen as a podcast. May I thank all of you who joined us, many for the first time, for last Wednesday’s event when John Howard launched Tony McLellan’s inspiring book, A Glorious Ride: From Jumble Plains to Eternity. Tony is the first guest in a new series of podcasts we are launching this week: "Considerations: Serious Lives Examined". I’d welcome your feedback on this new venture, inspired by the huge growth in podcast listening in the last year. I would also welcome suggestions of serious lives we could examine in future episodes. The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a stress test for government service delivery. While the results have been mixed, it is clear that those governments that have invested most in public service delivery reform have performed relatively well in exceptionally challenging circumstances. Next week the Menzies Research Centre will release a timely report setting out the practical steps all governments can take to improve the quality of the services they provide to the community. The report, "Competitive Tension: The value of contestable public services in a post-pandemic world", will be launched online by former BCA President and MRC Director Tony Shepherd, who headed the 2014 National Commission of Audit.