Centre for Independent Studies

We welcome Red Union Managing Director, Jack McGuire. Jack argues there are not enough options available to workers to seek representation – ultimately restricting freedom of association. Instead, workers have little choice but to engage with legacy monopoly unions – regardless of whether or not they share the union’s political motivations or policy advocacy. The only way to ensure constructive re...

We welcomed Peter Gregory, author of the CIS paper The Territory Gap: Comparing Australia's remote Indigenous communities. The absolute and relative deprivation experienced by Indigenous people in remote and very remote Australia is well known. However, Indigenous people in remote areas are often lumped together as a single national category. There is little understanding of how the different stat...

Speaking from Berlin, Sabine speaks with Rob about why she set up the Freiblickinstitut (Free Vision Institute) to promote open freedom of discussion and tolerance in public debate. They discuss some of the tragic moments of lost opportunity for liberalism in Germany history. Sabine explains why there is no German word for ‘Cancel Culture’ in German, even though the phenomenon exists in a country...

Claire Lehmann, founding editor of Quillette sits down with Rob. Claire explains the philosophy of the Quillette project in promoting Enlightenment values of reason, the use of evidence, and free thought which first arose to confront unconscious left-wing bias in psychology. She believes ideological diversity is helpful in any search for truth because everyone has blind spots. Rob and Claire discu...

Rob talks to Mike Bird, the Academic Dean at Ridley Theological College Melbourne, on the importance of secularism in contemporary Australian life and about his recent book Religious Freedom in a Secular Age (Harper Collins, May 2022). Mike contends that with a secular government religious bodies do not control the state and the state does not control religious bodies—to the benefit of both. They...

On this episode Rob chats with former university vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz. Steven understands liberalism as an attitude that gives everyone an opportunity to flourish — an attitude of ‘live and let live’ so long as you do not interfere with others living their lives. He believes liberalism has won the big battle of ideas, but that it keeps on being undermined in the narrow world of practica...

On this episode Rob chats to author Roslyn Fuller. Liberals believe in the value of democracy, but Roslyn tells Rob there is truly little of it in the world today. This is because there is little direct power given to people in our system of government. Drawing on the example of ancient Athens, Roslyn outlines her preferred model of direct democracy. Her critique of the current representative demo...

Rob sits down the Centre for Independent Studies executive director Tom Switzer. Tom discusses with Rob what so called ‘Classical Liberalism’ is and why he is convinced it is best for society. This leads to the question if it works better, why don’t more people believe in it?

A fierce reformer for liberalism, Ruth Richardson is asked whether the ship of reforming liberalism has sailed in the light of the many setbacks it has experienced in the last decades. They discuss how the restoration liberalism to its dynamic rightful place will depend on three things, the ideas of freedom, the institutions that buttress that freedom, and the individuals who champion that freedom...

In this discussion we hear a youthful take on Liberalism, Emilie is Australian Lead at Young Voices, an Advisor at GT Communications and former policy director at the Australian Taxpayers Alliance. Emily understands Liberalism as based on the understanding that only an individual can know what is best for their life. However, she is also aware that many of her generation are disillusioned with how...

We welcomed Mark Latham, Member of the NSW Legislative Council and Chair of the NSW Parliament’s Education Committee. There are important challenges facing teachers across Australia, resulting in significant attention from federal and state policymakers. Mark argues that teacher shortages are a serious problem impacting on the learning of children in very real ways – resulting in merged classes, o...

We welcomed Mark Latham, Member of the NSW Legislative Council and Chair of the NSW Parliament’s Education Committee. There are important challenges facing teachers across Australia, resulting in significant attention from federal and state policymakers. Mark argues that teacher shortages are a serious problem impacting on the learning of children in very real ways – resulting in merged classes, o...

On the show this week, Salvatore Babones returns to discuss the future of housing and rental prices with Eliza Owen of CoreLogic. Many Australian homeowners and renters will be nervously waiting to see what effects the RBA's interest rate increases will have on their home loans and rent payments. While increases to the cash rate may help ease house price pressures, and stem inflation, many first h...

We welcome Simon Breheny, Public Policy Manager at Philip Morris International and former Policy Director at the Institute of Public Affairs. Simon argues that it’s more humane, less costly, and more effective to focus on reducing harm caused from consumption of lifestyle products, like tobacco and drugs, rather than only seeking to prevent use entirely. Choking supply of potentially harmful drugs...

Glenn Fahey speaks with Professor Pamela Snow to discuss the correlation between poor literacy education and later disadvantage in life. Professor Snow has undertaken extensive research into how people end up in the youth justice, out-of-home care systems and factors leading to non-participation in mainstream education. Currently, 30-40% of students aren’t meeting minimum literacy benchmarks, the...

Guest host Tom Switzer speaks to journalist Chris Uhlmann on the likelihood of a clean energy transition and the increasing energy crisis affecting not only Australia but the world. Have politicians been too focused reaching "energy goals" that they have neglected to think about the short term? Can Australia realistically move away from coal and gas-powered energy sources in a cost-effective manne...

We speak to Emma Hurst MLC, member of the NSW Upper House, on what role the government should play in animal welfare. Australia has the fourth fastest growing vegan market in the world and plant-based vegan options have become common and widely available in many of our favourite restaurants. With the increased ethical implications of sustainable and responsible farming, does it make sense for peop...

President of the NSW Young Liberals, Deyi Wu joined Salvatore Babones to discuss whether our younger generations have lost interest in politics, and if there is a bright future for either party. The recent federal election has shown us that independent grassroots campaigns threaten both major parties and could permanently change establishment politics. Issues, such as housing affordability, inflat...

This week we speak to Janet Albrechtsen, columnist for The Australian to discuss the 2022 federal election results. Last weekend's election was not so much a big Labor victory, but a massive backlash against the Liberals, especially in Western Australia and metropolitan inner-urban electorates across the nation. The 2022 federal election has not only brought about a change of government but has be...

Pacific countries often say they do not want to be drawn into geopolitics. All have adopted a “friends to all and enemies to none” foreign policy. However, the proposed security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands shows that geopolitics is well and truly thriving. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has said the Solomon Islands, a nation of about 700,000 people, was not taking sides. But...

Cancel culture, virtue signaling, pronouns in bios—"wokeness" is often compared to a virus, and one that is spreading with no signs of an emerging herd immunity. This week's guest Bob Catley was there at the creation, teaching political science at universities in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s before entering Parliament for Labor in 1990. Catley argues tha...

On the show this week, we welcome Executive Director of the Samuel Griffith Society, Xavier Boffa, as he recaps developments in Australia’s constitutional arrangements. State border closures and mandates have tested the limits of the federation in responding to the pandemic. International sports stars have been at odds with federal-state divides. Political figures have been pronounced guilty by co...

Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping will soon be appointed to a third term as President of China. A third term only made possible by his change to China's constitution, back in 2018, to eliminate term limits. Is this determination to retain the formal reins of power a sign of strength, or a sign of weakness? We talk to Chinese politics expert Professor Elizabeth Larus of Mary Washington Univ...

This week On Liberty talks to Prof James Allan of the University of Queensland. In his latest column for Australian Spectator, James explains why the acolytes of irrationality so often turn to accusations of 'hate speech'. As opposing hate is "one of the few remaining first principles that virtually all of us sort of accept". That's why so many activists "throw around the charge of hate with gay a...

2022 Federal Budget Recap with Simon Cowan