Centre for Independent Studies

While the rest of the world was obsessing over the U.S. elections, China-watchers were digesting the Fifth Plenum communique released October 29, the official guidance to the thinking of the CCP Central Committee. Chairman Xi assured the public that imports stimulate domestic demand, exports reinforce global reliance on China, and FDI contributes to industry upgrading. That's Xi's "dual circulatio...

Superannuation has failed in its original goal: helping Australians to achieve financial independence in retirement. Many Australians still rely heavily on the means-tested age-pension because they don’t have enough money to comfortably retire. Superannuation may increase overall savings, but it also reduces the diversity of savings vehicles. The best example is housing: many Australians take long...

This week, On Liberty, we host James Morrow, opinion editor at The Daily Telegraph and co-host Sky's Outsiders program. Salvatore Babones hosts Morrow for an On Liberty episode not to be missed: Four more years or a Democratic landslide? As the dust settles on the US Presidential Election, will it be President Trump for four more years? President Biden with a radical agenda or will a result be hel...

This week we welcome Tom Switzer, CIS Executive Director. Salvatore Babones hosts seasoned US political commentator Tom Switzer for an On Liberty episode not to be missed: Down to the line | US Elections 2020. The pandemic has killed more than 225k Americans and abruptly ended Trump's economic boom that saw low unemployment and rising wages among broad swathes of workers. Since the death of George...

This week we welcome Sophie York, barrister, law lecturer, and board director. Sophie believes, "religious freedom is a basic, natural human right", and will discuss the importance of religious freedom as the foundation for all our freedoms. We'll ask Sophie is religious freedom cherished in Australia the same way it is longed for in many of our neighbouring countries? Does the Chinese Communist P...

Australia seeks to attract “key businesses and global super talent to Australia”, in the words of population minister Alan Tudge. With a new Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce, will Hong Kong businesses even consider relocating to Australia? Is China’s new security law the straw that will break Hong Kong’s back? Will Hong Kong survive as a global business centre when vague crimes like...

This week we welcome Chinese politics expert Professor Elizabeth Larus of the University of Mary Washington to discuss the implications of the American presidential election for cross-strait relations and the future of Taiwan. Prof. Larus, author of Politics and Society in Contemporary China and Economic Reform in China 1979-2003, will join host Salvatore Babones live from Washington, DC. In the f...

Everyone seems to be cursing 2020. We have seen a coronavirus pandemic, mass unemployment, an impending recession or depression, Black Lives Matter riots, and the scourge of cancel culture continues at pace. All these events have led to another epidemic — fear. We are told to fear the virus, fear economic collapse, and fear…each other. But have you ever wondered how fear works? To answer that ques...

The Most Consequential Budget of our Generation. Covid-19 has blown an unprecedented hole in the budget and rapidly changed policy debates in Australia. Our 30 year run of growth is gone. The recession has returned and predictions of surplus have been replaced by dire forecasts of debt and deficits. The Australia that emerges post coronavirus will be very different and Australia’s think tanks are...

This week, we host a special Episode of On Liberty host by CIS Research Director Simon Cowan. Simon Will speak with Senior Fellow of the CIS Economics Program Robert Carling. On April 16, Prime Minister Morrison signalled after the immediate pandemic-induced crisis, a market-oriented economic agenda is needed to help the economy rebound and drive investment for tomorrow’s prosperity. A growth agen...

"The argument that you need government funding to encourage innovation is not true", Matt Ridley. Matt Ridley’s new book is called "How innovation works and why it flourishes in freedom". The main lesson of the book is: prosperity comes from innovation. Matt focuses on how certain deregulation would improve the rate in which we can innovate and therefore be prosperous. He tells us, "the worst thin...

We welcomed psychiatrist Dr Carlos d'Abrera, a regular contributor to CIS. Carlos has worked in public hospital and community mental health services across Australia and the UK, alongside his written work. He is author of a 2018 CIS paper, Dying with Their Rights On: The myths and realities of ending homelessness in Australia. Since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, Australia’s health system has...

All eyes are on America in the lead up to November 3. When the presidential race comes to an end one thing is certain, the US will be fractured. If Donald Trump is re-elected, outrage by left-wing political and media sophisticates will further alienate tens of millions of Americans who do not share their values. Yet, if Joe Biden wins, a display of anything other than humility would be equally ali...

We are pleased to welcome John Anderson, former Leader of the National Party and Deputy Prime Minister to On Liberty, this Thursday, 24 September. John has published many recent articles on topics including: civic freedoms, global food security, modern slavery and the economy. On top of this he runs johnanderson.net.au, where he hosts regular interviews with prominent Australian and international...

Join us for On Liberty Extra, a one-off live webinar hosted by CIS Research Fellow, Glenn Fahey. In this webinar, Glenn will speak with Peter Achterstraat AM, the inaugural NSW Commissioner for Productivity. Peter has recently launched a Green Paper, titled Continuing the productivity discussion. In these especially challenging economic times, productivity-enhancing reforms are needed more than ev...

On Liberty this week, Thursday, 17 September, we welcome Gene Tunny, Founder and Director of Adept Economics. Tunny, with co-author Ben Scott, has a forthcoming CIS paper: Rationalising Regulation: Helping the economy recover from the corona crisis. Regulatory constraints are impeding business growth and their removal or adjustment would yield large economic benefits. The relaxation of a range of...

On the show this week, Thursday, 10 September, we welcome founder of CIS Greg Lindsay AO. From a backyard shed in Pennant Hills to shop-top above Uncle Pete’s Toys in St Leonards and now Macquarie Street in Sydney's CBD, Greg built the CIS from a one-man operation into the self-sustaining institute it is today. His goal throughout was to "make the philosophic foundations of a free society once mor...

On the show this week, Thursday, 3 September, we are joined by Dr Chin Jin, president of the Federation for a Democratic China. Dr Jin will discuss the prospects for democracy in China today. Chin is a member of the "1989 generation" of Tiananmen refugees in Australia and a longtime activist in the China democracy movement. He will explain how the tianshi, dili, and renhe of social change are all...

On Liberty, host Salvatore Babones speaks with Peter Kurti. Peter is Director of Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies. In his recent paper, he warns that the drive to eradicate offensive words, images, and opinions from the public square is rapidly displacing liberal commitments to freedom of speech. ‘Cancel culture’ campaigns in Australia are inten...

On the On Liberty show this week, host Salvatore Babones will speak with Claire Lehmann. Claire is Australian journalist and the founding editor of Quillette. Covid-19 has vastly accelerated the electronic communication trends that were already occurring. The adoption of digital business, away from bricks and mortar is becoming second nature. Claire will discuss how these changes may, and already...

"Although I don’t support the Tehan plan to steer student demand to ‘national priority’ fields, from day one I have supported increasing the number of student places." Andrew Norton On episode.19, host Salvatore Babones will speak with Andrew Norton, co-founder of CIS Liberty & Society and Professor of Higher Education at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. New fee reforms are send...

On the show, host Salvatore Babones will speak with Dr Oliver Hartwich, Executive Director of fellow free-market think tank The New Zealand Initiative in Wellington. New Zealand is envied for its zero community cases of Covid-19, but the economy is hurting and the current hard border closure is controversial. Right now, all focus is on the present. The upcoming election obscures the political hori...

Join us for On Liberty Extra a one-off live webinar hosted by CIS Indigenous program director, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. In this webinar, Jacinta will speak with Nyunggai Warren Mundine, Chairman and Managing Director of Nyungga Black Group, political strategist and author of recent CIS paper ‘It’s the economy, Stupid; economic participation is the only way to close the gap’. Last week the federal...

A discussion between leading experts on the future of Australian education. Pasi Sahlberg and Greg Ashman, two of Australia’s leading voices in education, to be moderated by respected journalist Jordan Baker, Education Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. In 2020 Covid-19 has rocked education systems in Australia and around the world. Rather than attend schools in-person, many students were learni...

Security trumps prosperity. China, Australia, the US and the Asia-Pacific region. Many people think Canberra can still finesse the US-China dilemma and sit on the sidelines and enjoy the best of both worlds: unconstrained trade with China under the US security umbrella. Are those days over? Has China’s persistent cyber-espionage, its growing intimidation of Hong Kong and Taiwan, its aggressive bui...