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I’ve spent a lot of time arguing with assholes. Because I’ve spent a lot of time arguing with all sorts of people.

I was at Berkeley for many years, and argued with all sorts of people–anarchists, Democrats, environmentalists, evangelicals, feminists, Libertarians, Maoists, Moonies (they were terrible-car–crash-can’t-look-away bad at arguing), Republicans, Stalinists, Trotskyites, vegetarians. If you’re paying attention, then you’ve noticed I argued with everyone, including people with whom I agreed, but I disagreed with them on some point that seemed important to me. And some of them, even people with whom I agreed, argued in a way that I’ve come to call “arguing like an asshole.” By the way, so did I from time to time (and not everyone with whom I disagreed argued like an asshole).

By Maria Paula Nieto

What does gender have to do with a city government’s ability to adapt, innovate, and learn?

At first glance, not much. Dynamic capabilities seem to point towards relatively abstract organisational qualities. But scratch the surface and you find they are shaped by who is in the room.

Here’s the puzzle: despite decades of evidence from Brazil, Peru, India, Sweden, and beyond, the link between gender and state capabilities is still overlooked in mainstream debate. Yet studies show that leaders’ gender influences how governments set priorities, manage resources, and build legitimacy. In this blog I look at dynamic capabilities through the lens of policy capacity, using gender as one example of a structuring condition that shapes how these capabilities are deployed. Ignoring this dimension means overlooking a vital part of how state capabilities work.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk—a law-abiding man peacefully speaking his mind in a public place to a crowd of people gathered to hear him—has touched off a new debate about “cancel culture.” Some on the Right who are understandably disgusted by seeing some on the Left gloat about, or even justify, Kirk’s murder have attempted to get such people fired from their jobs, with success in a number of cases. In response, the Left has accused the Right of hypocrisy for reversing course on the cancel culture that it very recently deplored.

What are we to make of this? Are there any principles to guide us besides the one infamously associated with Lenin: “Who, whom?”

In the first place, there is a difference between cancel culture and the idea that there are just and reasonable limits on the freedom of speech. There is a big difference between getting someone fired for expressing a provocative view on a controversial public question and condoning—or even celebrating—a political assassination.

A free and democratic society can only survive if people feel free to express their views on questions of public import. But such a society cannot survive if we allow the approval of political murder to be normalized.

Hundreds of live music venues have closed. A string of once-popular festivals have been cancelled. Australia’s artists continue to be desperately underpaid.

The cost-of-living crisis has left our creative sector for dead, despite 73% of Australians saying the arts had improved their quality of life during the pandemic.

Art pays its way. It doesn’t just create joy and happiness for Australians and overseas visitors; it creates jobs and economic growth – on a shoestring budget compared to other industries.

The Australia Institute has written a submission to the NSW government ahead of its Art of Tax Reform summit next week.

Key recommendations:

• Collect tax properly to pay for arts funding.
  • Lobby the federal government to reform the GST so it keeps up with economic growth, as it was originally designed to do.
  • Increase coal royalties and end fossil fuel subsidies in NSW.
• Introduce Youth Cultural Passes, similar to the $200 Dine & Discover vouchers during COVID.
• Introduce a Book Bounty, like the national bounty which was scrapped by the Howard government after 28 successful years.
• Make art prizes and grants tax free.

“The cost of living crisis has had a devastating impact on the arts,” said Skye Predavec, Anne Kantor Fellow at The Australia Institute.

Power is the only measure of a politician that matters. How they win power. How they wield power. How they lose power. This new edition of an Australian classic features a new introduction by the author taking into account the latest developments in Australian politics.

Catch and Kill is an inside account of the beguiling and nomadic nature of that unholy trinity of politics. Taking us into the inner sanctum of state and national politics, Joel Deane investigates how four friends – Steve Bracks, John Brumby, John Thwaites and Rob Hulls – beat the factions, won office in Victoria, achieved progressive reforms, then tried to hijack Canberra. ‘We were’, Bracks says, ‘a government that could catch and kill its own’.

Drawing on dozens of interviews with key figures, Deane provides a candid insight into the triumphs and failures of the Bracks-Brumby government, as well as those of its federal and state counterparts. He also shines a light on the personalities behind these decisions – their ambitions, their passions and their disappointments.

Joel Deane joined us for our September 2025 John Cain Lunch to discuss the new edition of his book “Catch and Kill: The Politics of Power.” Watch the recording below.

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Policy Hive is Per Capita’s early career policy network for policy professionals, students and anyone interested in learning more about how they can influence policy and politics to build an Australia based on fairness, shared prosperity and social justice. (Long time policy wonks also welcome!)

On Wednesday 17 September 2025 we explored how democracy can survive the rise of AI across industry and politics, with Peter Lewis, convener of the Centre of the Public Square. He is also executive director of the progressive strategic communications agency Essential Media and the founder of the collaborative engagement platform Civility.

Watch the recording of the event below.

The post How Can Democracy Survive AI? With Peter Lewis appeared first on Per Capita.