It is with great delight that I can finally let you know that registration for the biggest, the best, the most exciting pro-liberty conference in the Asia Pacific region is finally open.

That’s right, registration is now open for the 5th ALS Friedman Conference, with a lineup of speakers, events, and contests you just won’t believe.

In addition to some of the best speakers from not just Australia, but over a dozen international speakers, this years conference will include interactive workshops, hands on activism training, filming with YouTube sensations, debates on topical issues like the Trump Phenomenon, student-led sessions highlighting the leaders of tomorrow, and a chance win a staggering $5,000 in our “Shark Tank” contest! Not to mention our line up of panels, speakers, discussions, and the Gala Dinner & Presentation of the Liberty Awards. If you thought last year’s conference was good, believe me, it has nothing compared to the epic we have planned for 2017.

Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason Magazine, and one of the United States’ most widely respected commentators;Professor Mike Munger from Duke University, considered one of the world’s best public choice economists; Austin Peterson, former candidate for US President for Libertarian Party Nomination; Matthew Sinclair, my personal hero, and known as the best issues campaigner alive today, responsible for campaigns such as “Mash The Beer Tax” in the UK which succeeded in forcing the Government to CUT the beer tax for the first time in a half century; Sam Bowman, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute in London; Rory Bromfield, Director of The Pro-Brexit “Better Off Out” Campaign; Libertarian activist and author Avens O’Brien, Naomi Brockwell, A producer on the Stossel Show formerly on Fox News, and Policy Director of Blockchain Tech Corp, Jordan Williams from the NZ Taxpayers’ Union and Zoltan Kesz, a member of the Hungarian Parliament!

Our Australian speakers include: Ross Cameron, Former Liberal MP and Sky News Commentator; Mark Latham, the controversial former Australian Leader of the Labor Party; Lorraine Findlay, Law Lecturer at Murdoch University and anti 18C activist, Theresa Moltoni OAM, President of the Queensland Chamber of Commerce, Professor Suri Ratnapala, Emeritus Professor at The University of Queensland, Professor Wolfgang Kasper, Dr Tanvir Ahmed,Sydney based psychiatrist and author of Fragile Nation, and Andrew Bragg Director of Policy & Research of the Menzies Research Centre.

I used to take propranolol from https://propranmed.com/ before my presentations in public. Cz I always nervous. I realized that it's simply my personality-type and a complete biological defense mechanism that's almost completely out of my conscious control. Just knowing Propranolol helps.

We are currently going through a period of profound change not just in Australia, but around the world. Disenchantment with politics as usual is at an all time high as people are desperate for something different. This years Friedman Conference will address the heart of these issues, providing a way forward, and is one you simply can not afford to miss. There will be disagreement, there will be debate, but there will be intellectual stimulation, great people, and a fantastic time for all.

The Conference shall be held in Sydney, at the Aerial UTS Function Centre in Ultimo from 28-30 of April. Different packages to suit your budget are available, and for further information and to secure your spot please visit www.friedman17.org. Last years conference sold out with close to 350 attendees attending, so be sure to get your tickets quick!

The 7th WHO Conference of the Parties (COP7) is coming soon to sunny Delhi, India and on the agenda for the 180 odd countries and international associations will be the spectre of tobacco.

We’ve known about the full devastation of tobacco for decades now. We know that it is one of the most potent carcinogens in the world. We also know that it is also one of the world’s most lucrative drugs… for governments – a veritable coughing and sputtering cash cow.

But at a time when it is costing our public healthcare system millions of dollars and killing many Australians despite our best efforts to tax it and to replace its labelling with edgy pictures of decomposing organ tissue, it is time to consider any practical harm-reduction alternative that has proven its effectiveness.

In a shocking attack on fundamental concepts of media freedom and government accountability, the Australian Delegation at the World Health Organisation’s WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Meeting currently under way in Delhi voted to eject all journalists and observers from the room, so that negotiations could be conducted in secret without any public scrutiny.

This meeting, partially funded by Australian taxes, and costing millions, is expected to call for further regulation of life-saving tobacco harm reduction technologies, in a move many say is designed to protect government cigarette tax revenues.

As discussions were going on, in a move fully supported by the Australian delegation, journalists wanting to report on proceedings were physically removed from the room by security:

I was dragged out of #cop7fctc & my press credential was ripped off my neck for the crime of being a journalist in a #WHO/#UN treaty meeting

So it is particularly disgraceful that the United Nations is refusing to apply this rule to itself.

But that’s not all – the FCTC then started blocking journalists on Twitter. Not content with refusing them access to the negotiations, they are now engaging on a vicious campaign of blocking anyone from following them!

This is a meeting funded by Australian taxes. Our taxpayers have a right to know how our money is being spent and it is a shameful disgrace that our government has acted to suppress transparency, accountability, and freedom of the press.

It has been revealed that thousands of parents are earning more by going on welfare than they do by working. This harmful policy development is both unfair and unsustainable for Australian taxpayers. Extensive reforms are necessary to ensure that there are plenty more incentives to work, rather than to stay on the dole.

Led a Human Rights Commission which denied the human rights of the QUT students: despite spending 14 months on the complaints, they only told the students days before proceedings commenced ensuring no time to get legal advice or achieve a resolution before the case escalated to the Federal Court.

Potentially breached Federal Law in improperly delegating her role to others regarding the QUT complaint, and conducting no inquiry despite this being a requirement of the legislation.

The recent changes to the touring visa system for foreign performers are designed to cut red tape by moving the process online. In theory, this should foster the live music scene in Australia by cutting through the bureaucracy concert organisers face when bringing in acts from overseas. Unfortunately, this won’t be the case since the costs for the new system are being recouped by hiking up visa fees and scrapping the group touring discount previously relied upon by organisers of festivals and other events bringing in multiple performers.

James Penny explains the opportunity cost of a divisive plebiscite, which could instead be used to uphold basic legal rights in court.

For many of us, we think we have our rights at trial. Right to silence, counsel, innocence, trial by jury and those other things we seem to think apply as a result of U.S television shows. Welcome to Australia, home of ‘she’ll be right mate’ and where your rights get taken from you. Make no mistake about it, you are living in a police state. Especially those on the Eastern States. Let us not forget the removal of rights at Commonwealth level too, such as preventative detention orders. The free Australia you thought you were living in, is well and truly gone. The other issue, coinciding with all of this, is spectacularly huge cuts to legal aid. Which is grinding our criminal justice system to a halt.

Imagine there was a way to save hundreds of thousands of lives and save the Australian taxpayer hundreds of million dollars a year in healthcare costs.

Imagine if such a technology existed. And experts all over the world have proven that there was no risk involved – just the potential to save lives.

Wouldn’t this be something? Wouldn’t it be miraculous? We would be singing and dancing in the streets!

The fact is that such a technology does exist – and the Australian government has made it illegal.

Smoking is one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in Australia. Millions of Australians can’t break the habit and die as a result.

Yet now a new technology – vaping – has arrived which helps smokers to quit. By delivering nicotine through water vapour, they still get their fix – but with none of the carcinogenic tars or chemicals involved in the burning of tobacco. It is a proven safe way to get people to quit and save lives.

This is not a case of the government being wrong or misguided. This is a case of the government standing in the way of saving people’s lives. It is morally reprehensible, and we need to do something about it.

This is why the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, in conjunction with MyChoice Australia, have launched a new campaign for the Australian government to legalise vaping.

Please join our campaign at www.thrnow.com and tell your representatives that you support legalising vaping.

Because lives are literally at stake. Click HERE to join the campaign. It will take only a minute – but will make a real difference.

The United Nations Health Agency has recently called on all countries to implement of “at least 20%” on sugar sweetened beverages to curb the epidemic of global obesity. This is a sensible suggestion at first glance, but this exact tax has been tried in many countries and has had no or minimal effect on obesity. This is a public policy suggestion based in intentions and not actual results, leading to many unintended consequences.

The tax is meant to increase the price of sugar sweetened beverages which leads to a decrease in consumption and improved health outcomes of people. But this tax has led to a minimal reduction in energy consumption with the Rural Health Minister, Fiona Nash calling this tax “a lazy solution to a complex problem.”

Firstly, the tax gets partly absorbed by the business’ and partly by the consumer. Secondly, consumers instead of reducing energy consumption, have moved to inferior goods which are more affordable, along with substituting energy in other areas like food. People are inelastic with their energy consumption which means it’s hard to tax people into health, without causing many other problems. This was exemplified with the Danish fat tax which saw 90% of people not change their dietary habits. And also New Zealand where sugar consumption decreased 11% for males while obesity soared 63%.

This tax has the potential of threatening many sugar industry jobs and incur huge economic costs for minor health benefits. For every $1 of health savings from the sugar tax in the UK, taxpayers’ pay about $65. The indirect health outcomes are minuscule compared to the tax paid.

This tax, like any other consumption tax, is regressive, and affects the poorest people the most. This is especially bad since the poorest people are the least elastic group with their food consumption.

This is an irresponsible band aid solution from the UN which will cause more harm than good.