The Institutionalization Of The Nanny State

When the benign hand of the bureaucracy starts reaching for freedoms you don’t know where it will stop.  In this case the government of Australia is attempting to legislate the entrenchment of the food police. This will clearly  lead  to  higher taxes for all.

From   Chris Berg 


If there was one area of human existence which should be left to individual choice, you’d think it would be what we eat.


So the National Preventive Health Agency Bill, now ferreting through federal parliament, is quite a big deal. The agency is charged with preventing chronic disease caused by obesity, alcohol and tobacco through education campaigns and the mass-production of research papers.


It sounds harmless, but if it passes, it will represent the institutionalisation of the Australian nanny state.


The agency is to be a government-funded body with the specific purpose of expanding the scope of government – colonise spheres of human existence that have, until now, been left free from state interference.


We got some indication of the ambition of the new agency from the Kevin Rudd’s Preventative Health Taskforce, which, when it reported in 2009, recommended its formation. That and 121 other recommendations to tax, regulate, and impose national standards on food, beverages, and tobacco.


Julia Gillard announced last week the agency will not have the power to impose taxes on junk food. But that misses the point: the agency has no power to impose taxes on anything. It will, however, be empowered to lobby the government incessantly to do so.

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Another Reason for Honouring Veterans on Remembrance Day

Here is a column that clearly outlines the proposal by Lisa MacLeod to make remembrance Day a statutory holiday in Ontario.[click here]

 Local MPP Lisa MacLeod’s proposal to make Remembrance Day a statutory holiday is a good idea that is long overdue. Our veterans and their sacrifices are surely as worthy of celebration as Queen Victoria’s birthday or the Civic Holiday.


The fact that Ontario is one of only three provinces not now recognizing Remembrance Day with a statutory holiday is a pretty good indicator that our province is out of step. The situation is particularly discordant here with federal public servants getting the day off, but most other people having to work.


What MacLeod wants to do is put Remembrance Day on the same plane as Christmas and Easter. In other words, a real statutory holiday where everything shuts down. That would prevent it from becoming just another day off to catch up on shopping.

Don’t forget to vote in the poll this week. As well it turns out Ontario is truly out of line with the rest of Canada when it comes to honoring our veterans.