Centre for Independent Studies

We welcome Murdoch University mathematician Prof Gerd Schröder-Turk, a specialist in nano-geometry and member of the university's board of directors, the Murdoch University Senate. In 2019, Gerd appeared as a key interviewee on the ABC Four Corners investigation "Cash Cows", speaking out about his university's over-reliance on international students. The university's ensuing attempt to remove him...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused huge amounts of human suffering and has disturbed any complacency about the stability of the ‘international rules-based order’. This has implications not only for Russia’s immediate neighbours and Western European countries. It also has implications for countries such as Israel with whom Russia has had a significant relationship. What impact is the war in Uk...

To the eternal shame of Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin cronies, Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has opened a new era in global politics. As a consequence, it has seriously undermined the post-Cold War international system. What can the West do about it beyond fulminating on the sidelines? Russia has developed an outsized ability to exercise considerable influence abroad. And despite having an...

On the show this week, we welcome CIS contributor and University of NSW academic, Emeritus Professor John Sweller. Author of the recent CIS papers: Why Inquiry-based Approaches Harm Students’ Learning and Some Critical Thoughts about Critical and Creative Thinking. In his recent paper, he writes that the science on learning is settled and that schools must reflect this. Professor Sweller argues, t...

Join us for the return of On Liberty for 2022 as we talk to senior fellow at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre Stephen Loosley to find out what film can teach us about the possible cold wars to come. As Russia masses troops on the Ukrainian border and China ramps up its military presence in the South China Sea and South East Asia, the development of new Pacific and global all...

Rob and Nick discuss the liberalism of Robert Menzies for whom the independence of the individual was paramount and whether liberalism is somehow in tune with the human soul and, if so, why is it not widespread in today’s connected world? Nick explains to us that liberalism has a strong moral vision that works in practice. Good policy leads to great outcomes. CIS promotes free choice and individua...

Gordon's book is available on Amazon now; https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0817QK9KR Rob and Gordon discuss issues arising from Gordon’s 2020 book Western Fundamentalism in which he critiques the unquestioning, and therefore ‘fundamentalist,’ adoption of democracy, free marked economic liberalism and sexual freedom as basic. Rob and Gordon discuss why liberalism has been so effective in producing eco...

Rob and Simon discuss how important liberalism is as philosophy of freedom and equality, despite concerns it is not applied uniformly across the board. Simon is particularly concerned about what he sees as a widening divide between haves and have-nots. Although there are limits to liberalism, larger government is not the solution. Business leaders and the community need to have a stronger voice in...

Rob and Warren discuss at length why Warren believes liberalism is good for indigenous Australians, why the voice to parliament proposal is not a good idea, and why the unjust deprivation of the lands of the First Australians, as regrettable as it is, does not delegitimise our nation. Good policy leads to great outcomes. CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of idea...

Rob and Andrew discuss some of the provocative ideas in his recent book Buraadja; The liberal case for national reconciliation (Connor Court 2021). Andrew is concerned that it is an anomaly that there are a number of special laws for a particular people in Australia but no proper way that they can have a say in them. He believes that a voice to parliament can be consistent with liberal principles...

Rob and Chandran discuss Chandran's journey from a young socialist to a thoughtful liberal. Chandran understands the essence of liberalism as a commitment to individual freedom but also a commitment to equal freedom. Chandran and Rob discuss how differently liberalism expresses itself in different cultures and how liberal institutions and ideas are all over the world, even in countries like Singap...

Rob and Hannes discuss everything from the pirate radio station he once ran to important thinkers like medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas and Friedrich von Hayek. Hannes believes that the best kind of liberalism is what he calls conservative liberalism, which is a long tradition, which combines the price mechanism with the decentralisation of knowledge on one hand and traditional morality on the o...

Rob and David discuss the remarkable story of ‘the liberal project’ in Australia. David has written a five-volume history of the liberal project from the days of the arrival of Governor Philip in 1788 to the end of the Menzies prime ministership in 1966. Good policy leads to great outcomes. CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among...

South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in has called for a final settlement of the 1950-52 Korean War, but North Korea's Kim Jong-un is having none of it. Or is it his little sister, the increasingly outspoken Kim Yo-jong, who is the real power in Pyongyang? She seemingly left the possibility open -- if the United States is willing to meet her price.

Rob and Simon discuss why, despite the unparalleled success of international liberalism in lifting people out of extreme poverty, we are now in danger of abandoning the very policies that made this possible. Simon describes the move away from liberalism as a worldwide phenomenon affecting both the left and right of politics. As Simon puts it, is “Liberalism is losing its ground support and also it...

In a wide-ranging discussion, Rob and Henry explore the heart of the liberal project. Liberalism emerged as a philosophy and ideology that afforded people freedoms and an alternative to civil war. Yet, it is the balance between order and freedom, which requires both tolerance and responsibility. Liberalism does not bring a single overarching purpose to society but rather ways of proceeding togethe...

Australian student achievement has declined more steeply and more consistently than almost any other country, most notably in mathematics. At the same time, it’s clear that maths is now more critical than ever, to the success of students – both at school and beyond. Recent CIS research identifies that Australian teachers often have an unbalanced approach to how maths is taught in classrooms. This...

we welcome Dr Michael Johnston from the Victoria University of Wellington. He will discuss how education systems can better promotive active and informed democratic citizens. Michael argues that doing so requires more than drumming a curated narrative about nationhood and nationalistic ideals into school curricula. Rather than recourse to “history wars” and the like, he recommends that education s...

The Chinese Communist Party is at the peak of its power as it enters its second century and Xi Jinping’s ‘New Era’ policy is a high-stakes revolution that is triggering alarms. These are gloriously red days for Chinese communism. But are they marking dawn or dusk, as this dangerous narrative unfurls?

In the Great Panic of early 2020, nearly every government in the world restricted the movement of its population, disrupted the education of its children, suspended normal individual liberties, and hijacked its healthcare system, to assert control of people’s lives in the name of fighting Covid.

We talk to Paul Fletcher MP, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts. We'll discuss Paul's recent book Governing in the Internet Age (Monash University Publishing). Over the past thirty years, the internet has transformed virtually every area of human activity, presenting enormous boosts to economic activity. For ordinary Australians, the internet provides an unprece...

This week as we talk to classicist Dr James Kierstead about the pasts and futures of ancient Athenian democracy. The Western world likes to trade its democratic institutions to ancient Greece, but the Greek model of citizenship was very different from our own, and Athens was far from the only democracy in the Greek world. We'll be asking Dr Kierstead about the Athenian constitution, how it operate...

We talk to Natasha Kassam, director (Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program) at the Lowy Institute, about China's military pressure, economic coercion, diplomatic isolation on Taiwan in recent years. In most international fora, China’s participation is a given, and Beijing has the upper hand. Australia and other countries advocate Taiwan’s inclusion on the margins. Yet this time Taiwan may actu...

We talk to Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), about submarines, China, and the future of the Australia-UK-US security partnership. Hot on the heels of the AUKUS announcement and the nuclear-powered submarines deal, Scott Morrison hitched a ride with Marise Payne and Peter Dutton to attend the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AU...

This month marks 50 years since the first Indigenous Australian delivered a maiden address to federal parliament. This was a great achievement for Neville Bonner, who served as a Liberal senator from 1971 to 1983. Bonner, according to a new biography, understood the tension, even chasm, between protest and compromise. “If you want to beat the system, you do it in a sensible, quiet way,” he argued....