Centre for Independent Studies

Join us on Liberalism in Question as Senator Kerrynne Liddle shares her insights on why one-size-fits-all policies fall short in a diverse nation like Australia. Liddle critiques excessive bureaucracy, advocating for greater personal and community responsibility to drive real progress and prosperity.  This episode challenges conventional thinking on Indigenous affairs and explores how classical li...

Get your tickets to see Alexander Downer in Sydney: https://events.humanitix.com/alexander-downer-leadership-between-allies-and-the-region  In this episode of Liberalism in Question, former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer joins us to dissect the ever-shifting landscape of political ideologies. From the rise of Trump's nationalist movement and its global ripple effects, to the enduring...

In the second half of the twentieth century, Australia’s cheap, reliable electricity attracted heavy industry to our shores. By 1990, power-hungry copper, aluminium, lead, manganese and zinc smelters had popped up in each of the eastern states that would one day form the National Electricity Market (NEM). As Matthew Warren, former chief executive of the Australian Energy Council, the Energy Supply...

In this episode of Liberalism in Question, we dive deep into the complex and often overlooked history of liberalism in the Middle East with renowned expert Joshua Landis. As a professor of Middle East history at the University of Oklahoma and director of the Center for Middle East Studies, Landis brings decades of insight from his work on Syria, sectarianism, and regional politics. Join us as we e...

From Donald Trump to the lockdowns, Dave Rubin sits down with Robert Forsyth to discuss classical liberalism in the American context.  👉 Support CIS Research: 🔹 Become a member:  https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/  🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/  🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/ 

Senator James Paterson joins Liberalism in Question to discuss the core principles of classical liberalism — individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and the rule of law — and how they apply to Australia’s current political debates. The conversation explores where liberalism is being challenged, misunderstood, or defended, and what its future looks like in a changing political landsca...

Watch here: https://youtu.be/NVFhjvDxGX4 From surrogacy to free speech, Rob Forsyth and Gray Connolly discuss the differences between classical liberalism and conservatism in the Australian context.  👉 Support Sound Research: 🔹 Become a member:  https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/  🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/  🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/  A...

Shortly before 7pm on Sunday, a Hanukah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was attacked by two alleged gunmen, believed to be a father and son. At the time of recording, 16 people aged between 10 and 87 are confirmed dead, including one of the alleged attackers, and at least 42 others are being treated in hospital for their injuries. In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions, Michael Stutchbury...

In this episode of  The Stutchbury Sessions: Michael Stutchbury examines Senator Andrew Bragg’s provocative event at CIS on the future of housing policy — a speech that openly challenged the Liberal Party’s long-standing comfort with rising house prices and called for an unapologetic YIMBY agenda to win back younger voters.  👉 Join CIS: 🔹 Become a member: https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step...

In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions: Are the Liberals sabotaging their path back to government by walking away from net zero? Or are they facing reality about Australia’s costly clean-energy transition? In this episode, we dissect whether the Coalition’s internal divisions on climate and energy policy are overshadowing Labor’s failure to retain Australia’s traditional cheap energy advantage...

👉 Watch here: https://youtu.be/bGv018CfXg8  In this episode of Liberalism in Question, we dive into Roger Partridge's provocative Quillette essay, "Classical Liberalism Without Strong Gods", where he challenges the rise of "strong gods" like religion and nationalism as antidotes to liberal society's spiritual void. You can read the article here: https://quillette.com/2025/06/10/classical-liberali...

Watch here: https://youtu.be/ybqWLEwL28Y   From economic reform and rising government spending to cultural shifts and the decline of liberalism, Costello reflects on the ideas that shaped the Howard years and what’s needed to renew them today. 👉 Support Sound Economic Research: 🔹 Become a member:  https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/  🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/don...

Is the 2020s an echo of the 1970s for classical liberalism? In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions , Michael Stutchbury recaps the CIS Consilium, exploring how free enterprise, free trade, and limited government are under assault from both the left and the populist right. Featuring insights from Andrew Neil on the plight of mainstream conservatism and Dave Rubin on the liberal side of MAGA, St...

Subscribe to The Stutchbury Sessions on  Apple ,  Spotify ,  Amazon ,  iHeartRadio ,  PlayerFM  or listen in your  browser .   Where is the line between risk and regulation? In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions , Fred Roeder from the Consumer Choice Center dives into how consumers should stand against overregulation and embrace technological innovation for a more prosperous and free future....

Subscribe to The Stutchbury Sessions on  Apple ,  Spotify ,  Amazon ,  iHeartRadio ,  PlayerFM  or listen in your  browser .   In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions, host Michael Stutchbury reflects on his recent conversation with Sir Frank Lowy — the 95-year-old founder of the Westfield shopping centre empire and one of Australia’s most successful 20th-century immigrants. Speaking from his S...

Australia’s “renewables honeymoon” is ending and the energy bill is coming due. In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions, we unpack the myth that government planning can fix every problem, from the $52 billion NDIS blowout to Labor’s net zero ambitions. Drawing on Friedrich Hayek’s timeless warning against the “conceit of planners,” Michael Stutchbury explores how Australia’s big-spending polici...

Iron, Ideas, and Abundance: Supply Side Mistakes and Lessons. This week on The Stutchbury Sessions , Michael reflects on his recent visit to Western Australia, the engine room of the nation’s prosperity.  From the billion tonnes of iron ore dug out of the Pilbara to the decades-long export ban that once kept Australia poor, this episode revisits how lifting restrictions unlocked one of the greates...

Why are Australians voting for bigger government? In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions , we explore the paradox of a wealthy nation choosing more handouts, higher spending, and larger public debt. From cost-of-living subsidies to universal childcare, Australians are increasingly embracing policies that expand the welfare state, even as they fuel deficits and weaken productivity. Drawing on C...

Recent Australian laws risk undermining fundamental freedoms and weakening the principles that underpin a democratic society. In  The Rule of Law, Excessive Regulation and Free Speech , Dr Paul M Taylor argues that government responses to challenges such as misinformation, online harms, privacy and hate speech are increasingly disproportionate and, in some cases, ineffective. “While governments ar...

Feed your intelligence with policy research and commentary designed to enhance our liberal democracy. Join Michael Stutchbury and guests every Thursday for your 10 minute briefing.  In Australia, a growing sense of polarisation is erupting, evident in the recent 'March for Australia' rallies, where tens of thousands voiced concerns over mass migration's impact on housing, infrastructure, and wages...

Listen to our new show, The Stutchbury Sessions on Apple ,  Spotify ,  Amazon ,  iHeartRadio ,  PlayerFM  or listen on your  browser .   Watch this episode here: https://youtu.be/sv9pXQxa9bo In this episode of Liberalism in Question, host Robert Forsyth engages in a thought-provoking discussion with Mark Leach, co-founder and CEO of "Never Again Is Now", on the rise of anti-Semitism in Australia,...

In this inaugural edition, CIS Executive Director and former Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Financial Review, Michael Stutchbury, outlines how Australia once enjoyed extraordinary prosperity, built on bipartisan reforms of the 1980s and 1990s that liberalized markets, cut tariffs, and opened the economy to global competition. Yet, since prosperity peaked in 2011–12, signs of decline have mounte...

In this episode, Rob sits down with Trisha Jha, a policy analyst at the Centre for Independent Studies, to explore the relationship between liberalism and education. They discuss how liberal principles, like individual freedom, pluralism, and limited government, may require an educated population to survive.  Trisha Jha is a Research Fellow in the Education program, where she leads a stream of wor...

Australia’s extraordinary modern prosperity, built on the supply-side economic liberalisation of the 1980s and 1990s and boosted by the China-fuelled resources boom, is being squandered. In Our Prosperity is Slipping Away: Submission to Economic Reform Roundtable , Michael Stutchbury writes that urgent reform is needed to stop the slump. “History shows such periods of relative affluence are rare a...

Watch here: https://youtu.be/DgqdELXU4BI In this episode of Liberalism in Question from the Centre for Independent Studies, economist Robert Carling discusses the alarming rise in Australian government spending and its long-term consequences. 👉 More from Robert Carling:  🔹 Leviathan on the Rampage: Government spending growth a threat to Australia’s economic future: https://www.cis.org.au/publica...