Meet the Ron Paul of Australia

[pulp8721]

Elected under the Liberal Democratic Party, he's the first libertarian to serve in the Australia Senate. He gives a 25 minute maiden speech where he explains his philosophy of governance. It's quite impressive.

[William Tell]

Thanks for posting.

[Occam's Banana]

For those who are interested, here's the OP of a thread I started about this guy from almost a year ago:

David Leyonhjelm: The Ron Paul of Australia ... ?
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...l-of-Australia

h/t Charles Burris: http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/...and-australia/

FTA: http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia...ral-democrats/

In Praise of Australia's Liberal Democrats
Far from being dismissed, David Leyonhjelm may spark a genuine libertarian renaissance.



Anyone of good sense, or with a political sensibility placing them to the right of Lenin, couldn’t help but celebrate on Saturday 7 September. Electoral defeat of a disintegrating and duplicitous Labor government was a glorious event. But for Australians whose souls burn with the flame of liberty, that day delivered an additional and more important victory: the election of David Leyonhjelm to the senate.

[...]

If you believe in liberty, you can’t pick and choose rights. You can’t just support those individual rights that complement your temperament and taste, but spit on those that don’t. Denying the freedom of others makes you a tyrant. This applies even in a democracy. Even if you are in the majority, if you disagree with a certain right and your vote helps outlaw it, that doesn’t make you justified, it just means you belong to the tyranny of the majority. Shame on you if you do. More so if you pay lip-service to the ideals of liberalism.

Being a true liberal — today the term libertarian better reflects this position — means that you are often embattled by both the Right and Left establishment (intrusive government is a blight long nurtured by both sides of mainstream politics). It also means yours is a voice of reason in a world where "bipartisanship" has become code for a two-party duopoly introducing overreaching policies that only benefit power-broking special interests and a control-hungry bureaucratic machine. In a recent internet panel discussion, Julian Assange recognised this trend in America: "The only hope as far as electoral politics is concerned in the United States presently is the libertarian section of the Republican party… It will be the driver that shifts the United States around. It’s not going to come from the Democrats. It’s not going to come from Ralph Nader. It’s not going to come from the co-opted parts of the Republican party."

This resurgence of libertarianism among Republicans owes much to Ron Paul. The retired Texas congressman’s steadfast philosophy was marginalised for decades, but paved the way not just for his son Rand Paul (Republican Senator from Kentucky, and 2016 presidential hope for liberty-minded Americans), but a growing cadre of other libertarians.

Leyonhjelm acknowledges the influence or Ron Paul on Liberal Democratic policy. Indeed, when the senator-elect speaks — "There are two guiding principles that determine our approach to legislation: We would never vote for an increase in taxes and we would never vote for a reduction in liberty" — you can hear the spirit of freedom channelled not just from Paul, but from centuries of liberal thought. All too often Australia’s Liberal party loses sight of this original mandate. "The political middle ground is now left of where it once was," Leyonhjelm tells me. "We have to shame the Liberal party into moving in our direction." And while aware he is now just "one voice" in the senate, the Liberal Democrat’s "aspiration" is that his will be "the first of many."

Just as the once solitary figure of Ron Paul paved the way for what is now the only alternative in American politics, David Leyonhjelm may well spark a libertarian renaissance here. This is the real significance of his election to the senate. As George Washington once recognised, "Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth."