At a time of record levels of government spending and intrusion, it is perhaps timely to consider the words of Ludwig von Mises:

The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. 

And speaking of bad governments and evil, this morning on ABC Insiders, former prime ministers Turnbull and Rudd where the guests of honour.

These are two very special men. Very special. In different times, their inability to see their reflections in a mirror might be considered a sign of vampirism. Both men are certain that the failures of their governments and their ultimate removals have apparently nothing to do with their unusual combination of administrative incompetence and political narcissism. Apparently, their failures were all a result of the evil Murdoch Empire.

Their performance on Insiders this morning was a sight to behold.  Turnbull beautifully verballed David Speers, suggesting that Speers left Sky News to get away from News Corp. Turnbull even suggested that The Guardian Australian is unequivocally a small l liberal publication and bringing it to Australia was one of the best things he did.

Rudd continued to advocate for his Royal Commission into the “Murdoch media“ and, of course, Turnbull supported Rudd.  Irrelevant is the fact that the total operating costs of News in Australia would almost certainly be less than $200 million per annum compared to the $1 billion the ABC spends and there is no proposal to investigate the ABC.

Their proposed solutions by the way?  Crickets. 

Well, here’s my solution. Both are exceptionally wealth men. Exceptionally. Let them pool their non-insignificant capital and start their own media enterprise. Between them, they could easily put together $100 million in seed funding. Rudd can write the gossip column. Turnbull the business pages. And Turnbull’s son, he can be the editor in chief.

Don’t like the News Corp product, sell your own. But that would require courage, skin in the game and managerial effectiveness and the very fact that they sit whining on the ABC suggests a lack thereof.

The opening to this piece was a quote from Ludwig von Mises.  An equally valuable bookend are the words of Thomas Sowell:

What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people-like themselves-need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat. 

Malcolm and Kevin. Please do Australia a favour. Go away.