And another candidate

Troy Rollo's picture

David Leyonhjelm is standing for the "Liberty and Democracy Party". At first glance their positions appear to be liberal, but on closer examination they are libertarian. Interestingly while they have listed their free trade policy in their list of policies, they have not listed their "consumer protection" policy. Assuming they follow the usual libertarian line their position would be that consumer protection laws interfere with freedom to contract and should be abolished.

For the uninitiated, libertarianism is a political philosophy that states that the actions of individuals (including corporations) may only be restricted by law to the extent that they directly injure others without the consent of those others. "Directly" is quite literal - if somebody buys up all of the food supplies and then withholds that food so the people starve, that is OK to a libertarian because the harm is indirect.

The policies on the web site are a selection of libertarian positions, not a complete list.

Submitted by Troy Rollo on Wed, 24/10/2007 - 9:10am
Troy Rollo's picture

The libertarian preference for abolishing consumer protection laws is present in the detail of the LDP policy, although not explicitly. The Privatisation and Deregulation policy discusses the perception that "there is excessive and unnecessary regulation of many aspects of business activity", and that "As long as there is the rule of law and a voluntary system, the profit-maximising behaviour of businesses will lead to the best outcomes." This is where abolishing consumer protection legislation fits into the libertarian philosophy.

So there we have it - for those who prefer their politics libertarian, this year there is a perfect match for their political preference in Bennelong.