Prosper Australia

With the recent passing of our number 1 ticket holder, Clyde Cameron, we were pleased to hear the ABC’s Phillip Adams replay the 1999 Late Night Live interview he held with the Honorable Clyde Cameron. It is a fascinating discussion with Clyde covering the foundation to his Georgist beliefs, involvement in the Henry George League of S.A and his disappointment at the ALP’s drift from its original intention to capture the community generated economic rent in lieu of all other taxes. Insights on ALP history and the Whitlam era abound in this fireside chat.

Download and listen to this essential piece of Australian Georgist history.

With the recent passing of the highly respected Georgist Clyde Cameron, we feel it is timely to look at the wisdom of his core beliefs:

EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS BY THE HON.CLYDE R. CAMERON A.O.

But now it is an oversimplification to say that the lessons of the Maritime Strike of 1890 were the sole reason for the formation of the Australian Labour Party in the following year. In South Australia; the seeds of discontent were sown on 28th December 1836, when the first white settlers came ashore at Glenelg. Among them were unemployed working men in search of work in the new colony.

South Australia was the only Australian Colony that did not at any stage rely upon transported convicts for cheap labour. And yet the real cost of employing what passed for free men was very much less than the cost of housing., feeding and guarding convict laborers in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania.

South Australia was able to prove that wage slavery can provide cheaper labour power than any other form of slavery. Slave owners have the responsibility for feeding and housing their human beasts of burden and of keeping them healthy enough to perform a full day’s work.
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