Too much government ? Join the LDP !

I think that a fair and honest look at the amount of taxes we pay in Australia, the level of regulation that controls our lives, and the size of the public sector, will overwhelmingly prove that Australia has too much government, taxes and central planning. The facts and figures are plain to see, even to individuals without a libertarian or classical liberal perspective.

Even the left-leaning socialists and welfarists can see the writing on the wall, but its up to them whether they choose to ignore it or to process it. John Humphreys at Thoughts on Freedom summarises the situation:

Next financial year the federal government will spend about $230 billion of your money. They will pay for this by taxing your imports, taxing your income, taxing your spending, taxing your driving, taxing your drinking & smoking, taxing your super and various other taxes, charges & levies.

It is no secret that the government has been spending more and more of our money every year. Some commentators have suggested that government spending should grow over time because the government is involved in growth industries, such as health and education. However, the reason for government involvement in health and education (& welfare) is to help people who don’t have enough money. As we get richer, there should be less need for government. Yet they have been spending more.

And he puts forward a scenario that can only leave us wondering what could have been:

But what if they hadn’t been? What if at some point in the past we had frozen government spending in real per capita terms? How much tax money would we have saved?

If the Howard government had managed to keep their spending constant (all numbers adjusted for population & inflation) we could be saving an extra $30 billion per year.

If the government hadn’t grown in the last 30 years we could keep an extra $65 billion per year.

And if we had the same sized government as the year before Whitlam (1971) then we’d be taking home an extra $120 billion every year. Our total tax burden would be less than half what it is today and we could afford to abolish personal income tax.

Even under the so-called Liberal party, and their 10 years in power, taxation and the size of government continue to expand. The "Liberal" party would be doing us all more justice if they renamed themselves to the "Conservative, Social-democratic" party. They have mostly implemented a range of conservative social policies coupled with socialist tax and economic policies.
There is only one party which truly represents Liberal principles.. the Liberal Democratic Party.
This is one party that would cut red tape and stop increasing the size of government. It probably wouldn't acheive much in reducing the size of government initially, but it stands for a moderate approach instead of unrestrained spending and government control.

There are several parties which are committed to more tax, control, spending and less free trade. This includes the ALP, Greens, Democrats, Family First and Liberal party.

Only the LDP will commit to more freedom, liberty, property rights and free trade. I've already joined... what about you ?