Centre for Independent Studies

Are you a student who believes in free markets, smaller government, and individual liberty? Perhaps you’ve studied the works of Freidrich Hayek, Adam Smith, or Jonathan Haidt. If this sounds like you, the CIS has an exciting opportunity for you to meet and network with other like-minded people from Australia and New Zealand. Click here to learn more.  Essays on the relevance of Smith after 300 yea...

Read the paper here .  A large amount of taxpayers’ money, state and federal, is expended on large scale infrastructure that is intended to play a crucial part in Australia’s growth and prosperity — although some of it is arguably wasteful or perhaps even pork-barrelling. And as the recent federal government Infrastructure Investment Review found in axing around 50 planned projects, some “do not d...

Interest in this show? Click here to follow it!  Bracket creep chips away at living standards, especially those of younger generations, a new Issue Analysis by Centre for Independent Studies outlines.   The paper’s authors, Matthew Taylor and Emilie Dye, point out that Australia’s younger workers have the most to lose from bracket creep because bracket creep is regressive and hits harder for those...

Increasingly there are calls for degrowth, not just to abandon the pursuit of economic growth, but to shrink economies. The call for degrowth comes from environmentalists, including activists in groups such as Extinction Rebellion, and some economists, particularly in the field of ecological economics.  It is related to concerns about climate change, pollution, species extinction, and resource exh...

There is growing evidence across the Anglosphere that Millennials and Generation Z are not showing the same propensity as earlier generations to vote centre-right as they age. Centre for Independent Studies research, drawing on data from the Australian Election Studies, suggests this is increasingly true in Australia.  Learn what you need to know about this issues with Karla Pincott and Matt Taylo...

Introduction In Australia, and in education settings across the world, student behaviour and levels of student engagement are significant issues for teachers, school leaders, system administrators and the public. Student behaviour affects community perception, teacher efficacy and wellbeing, and the academic achievement of all students. When students are engaged, they learn more. This paper uses t...

Hosted by Karla Pincott, What You Need to Know About is the podcast that covers exactly that. Hear from CIS' experts on the key points of their research, providing you with concise and insightful overviews of complex topics. In each episode, we break down intricate policy issues, economic trends, social challenges, and more, delivering the essential information you need to stay informed in today's...

In a wide ranging and nuanced discussion Rob Forsyth questions Duncan Ivison, Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Sydney, on his claim that the granting of indigenous rights is compatible with liberalism rather than its repudiation. They agree that the constitutional Voice cannot be justified simply on terms of closing the gap and explore how and if this particular form of recog...

Published on 3rd of September 2023. Increasingly there are calls for de-growth, not just to abandon the pursuit of economic growth, but to shrink economies. The call for de-growth comes from environmentalists, including activists in groups such as Extinction Rebellion, and some economists, particularly in the field of ecological economics. It is related to concerns about climate change, pollution,...

Hosted by Karla Pincott, What You Need to Know About is the podcast that covers exactly that. Hear from CIS' experts on the key points of their research, providing you with concise and insightful overviews of complex topics. In each episode, we break down intricate policy issues, economic trends, social challenges, and more, delivering the essential information you need to stay informed in today's...

What you are about to hear is a CIS research paper. If you’re somebody who loves audiobooks, you can find all our research papers on audible, spotify, apple and every other podcasting app by clicking here: https://cisresearch.podbean.com/ Authority, Expertise And Democracy. Should those who know best rule the rest of us? By  Peter Kurti . Published on July 27, 2023. Read the paper here: https://ww...

We need to relax zoning restrictions to allow more housing. At a society level, this requires more acceptance of higher density and less opposition to new development. We need to put more weight on the interests of renters and future home buyers and less weight on the interests of nearby residents. This rebalancing will shift the incentives for elected governments to act. Societal pressure over th...

During the Covid-19 pandemic, state and territory leaders afforded great responsibility for decisions about managing both the impact of the virus and the expectations of a fearful public to unelected public health experts. Severe restrictions imposed on movement and association at the behest of these experts — Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) — lasted for many months. The exceptional circumstances of...

At the time of recording, the details of the proposal are still not known in full. However, enough was revealed at the time of the government’s original March 1 announcement and in subsequent elaboration, that we are able to sketch an outline of the new tax. The proposal is that beginning with fiscal year 2025-26, every individual’s total superannuation balance aggregated across as many super fund...

In this TARGET 30 Research Report CIS modelling shows that reforming the pension could deliver income gains of more than $5,900 a year to almost 98% of pensioners. These reforms would also reduce the cost of the pension by $14.5 billion a year. “With four out of every five retirees on the pension, and pensioners with over a million dollars in assets getting the same payment as those with almost no...

Why we must learn lessons about how we learn? CIS welcomed world-leading education researcher, cognitive psychologist and Ask a Cognitive Scientist columnist Dan Willingham to discuss how we learn and why this matters. While researchers have learned vastly more about how we learn, this isn’t always reflected in teaching within schools or in how students study. Many practices for teaching and self-...

On April 4, CIS hosted and broadcasted an Oxford-style debate on the motion “The Voice to Parliament is needed to address Indigenous matters.” This year Australia will hold a referendum on whether to change the constitution and ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ views are better represented in Parliament. Is the Voice about giving Indigenous Australians a right to express their vi...

Andrew Neil joins Tom Switzer for a conversation about political and public-policy subjects — from British politics and the travails of the Royal family to the energy transition and the changing media industry to the Ukraine crisis and the rise of China. Andrew Neil is one of the world’s most prominent print and broadcast journalists, having been a long-time editor of the Sunday Times and chief po...

Salvatore Babones returns to discuss the new CIS Intergenerational research program with Program Director Matt Taylor. Despite the 30-year economic boom that preceded the Covid pandemic, there is growing evidence that younger Australians have not shared in the benefits to the same extent as generations before them. These younger generations will bear the brunt of paying back the $617 billion of go...

Rob chats to Lorraine Finlay, Human Rights Commissioner with the Australian Human Rights Commission, about the importance and nature of human rights. A convinced believer is liberalism, Lorraine understands human rights as absolutely important which give is our humanity. She is also aware that they are not inevitable. Nor do they come from government but are only expressed through government.

Guest host Glenn Fahey returns to discuss challenges facing new immigrants to Australia with Melissa Monteiro, CEO of the Community Migrant Resource Centre. As a community practitioner, Melissa has worked to ensure peoples from worn-torn nations are able to find community and start life new, particularly those immigrants from less-developed countries who settle in Western Sydney. In a report from...

Guest host Simon Cowan reenters the budget bunker to discuss the second federal budget in 2022 with Australian Financial Review Economics editor in Parliament House, Canberra John Kehoe. Simon and John break down the budget and cover what the mainstream media has missed. It's Labor's turn. After a victory in the Federal Election in part due to the former Liberal Government's mishandling of the eco...

Salvatore Babones returns to discuss the rise of nationalism amongst China's youth with Yun Jiang, inaugural China Matters Fellow at the Australian Institute of International Affairs. China’s youths have become more nationalistic, especially compared to the previous generation. Many outside China attribute the increasing nationalism to the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s patriotic education campa...

Katharine is a leading figure in education practice and policy and founder as well as principal of London's Michaela Community School. It’s no secret that Australian schools’ performance has been in decline for many years. That’s not for a lack of funding, nor a lack of commitment from countless dedicated educators. But more can be done to advance the learning of all students, no matter their back...

To celebrate 100 Episodes of On Liberty we flip the script and CIS executive director Tom Switzer interviews regular On Liberty host Salvatore Babones. Over 100 episodes, Salvatore has interviewed a wide range of guests on an incredible range of topics. We hear from Salvatore on what he has learnt about Classical Liberalism and political orthodoxy in Australia and around the world from his many in...