{"id":9504,"date":"2011-05-25T12:31:43","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T16:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=9504"},"modified":"2011-05-25T12:31:43","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T16:31:43","slug":"australia-leading-the-charge-to-our-over-nannied-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2011\/05\/25\/australia-leading-the-charge-to-our-over-nannied-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia: leading the charge to our over-Nannied future"},"content":{"rendered":"

There once was a time when the popular image of Australia celebrated its rugged, independent, free-spirited approach to life. It’s hard to recognize that in today’s Nanny State paradise<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Last week, the Preventative Health Taskforce published a report which, in its words, launched a \u2018crackdown\u2019 on drinking, smoking and the eating of \u2018energy-dense, nutrient-poor\u2019 food. This report made 122 recommendations, called for 26 new laws and proposed establishing seven new agencies to change the behaviour of Australians. To take just a few examples related to tobacco, the Taskforce called for the price of 30 cigarettes to rise to \u2018at least $20\u2019 (\u00a313) by 2013, for a ban on duty-free sales, a ban on vending machines and a ban on smoking in a host of places including multi-unit apartments, private vehicles and \u2018outdoors where people gather or move in close proximity\u2019. They even contemplate a ban on filters and the prohibition of additives that enhance the palatability of cigarettes.<\/p>\n

As in so many countries, Australia\u2019s anti-smoking campaign has acted as a Trojan horse in the effort to fundamentally change the relationship between citizen and state. By no means does it end with tobacco. The Taskforce also wants to ban drinks advertising during programmes that are watched by people under 25 — a category so broad as to include virtually every programme — and calls for graphic warnings similar to those now found on cigarette packs to be put on bottles of beer. It also wants the government to establish \u2018appropriate portion sizes\u2019 for meals, to tax food that is deemed unhealthy and to hand out cash bonuses to those who meet the state\u2019s criteria of a healthy lifestyle.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And it’s not just the booze and ciggies getting the full Nanny treatment, either. Australia is very concerned<\/em> about the internet browsing and video game habits of the citizens:<\/p>\n

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It is the professed concern for the well-being of children that props up so much authoritarian legislation in both hemispheres. This does not just apply to smoking, nor even health issues in general. Australia has a unenviable record of internet censorship, for example, and a national website filter has been proposed to protect children from pornography and gambling. It also has a longer list of banned video games than any other Western democracy. And so if you, as an Australian adult, want to exercise your right to gamble and play violent video games, that\u2019s just too bad. The rights of some hypothetical teenager to enjoy freedom from grown-up pursuits trump your own rights to pursue them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There once was a time when the popular image of Australia celebrated its rugged, independent, free-spirited approach to life. It’s hard to recognize that in today’s Nanny State paradise: Last week, the Preventative Health Taskforce published a report which, in its words, launched a \u2018crackdown\u2019 on drinking, smoking and the eating of \u2018energy-dense, nutrient-poor\u2019 food. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[331,8,66,10],"tags":[104,459,58,322],"class_list":["post-9504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-bureaucracy","category-health-science","category-liberty","tag-booze","tag-censorship","tag-internet","tag-nannystate"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-2ti","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9504"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9506,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9504\/revisions\/9506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}