"One of the best public intellectuals on the conservative side of politics" says ANU’s Andrew Leigh. "A very thoughtful writer on the liberal side" says Mark Bahnisch at LP. A "radical neoliberal" says the University of Wollongong’s Damien Cahill. Earlier this week Andrew Norton left Catallaxy (the libertarian blog of spontaneous disorder) to launch his own blog — Andrew Norton’s blog: Observations from Carlton’s lone classical liberal .
A Research Fellow with the Centre For Independent Studies, Andrew well known through his opinion columns, radio interviews, and the 2004 Ernie Award he shared with Paddy McGuinness. Left wing activists will know him from references on sites like SourceWatch.
Andrew describes himself as a classical liberal. And as he once said, "There are no enduring Australian works of liberal political philosophy, no major political is unambiguously in liberalism’s favour, and no mass movement combines economic and social liberalism." Now, at least, there’s a liberal blog.
Sorry, Don. I’ll leave mine there, though, since it takes a slightly different angle.
Apologies to those who might be trying to look at my site – I think the number of blogs linking to it today is exceeeding its capacity.
I’d never seen the Sourcewatch page, which rather exaggerates my role at ADFA – far from holding a ‘senior position’, I was a sessional tutor.
and no mass movement combines economic and social liberalism
A good point. This is also one of the reasons why the left-right dichotomy gets on my goat. If you are socially and economically liberal then you end up centrist on that axis – when the embrace of liberalism in the social and economic spheres leaves you anything but.
Add cultural liberalism to economic/social liberalism and you have Australian Republicanism.
Andrew – You’re mentioned on at least three Sourcewatch pages. I think Damien Cahill’s thesis is the source.
what a hoot! Dame Leonie Kramer is a ‘radical neo-liberal activist’. Someone break the news to her…
None of my former ADFA colleagues are still there, and Chandran’s surname is Kukathas, not Kukathus. These foreign names are so hard to spell!
I loved the Leonie Kramer reference. I’m seeing a Patty Hearst manque in camo twinset and pearls.
Andrew – I think you can blame that on Damien.