Cis Podcast

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 overnight transformed from a bureaucracy into an autocracy. With such uncertainty, the public has, for the most part, have behaved obediently and with good grace in the face of indefinite lockdowns, restrictions and under health orders -- though, how long can this last? Join in the conversation live as host Salvatore Babones talks to Carlos about some of the unintended consequences that have arisen from this crisis. How have lockdowns impacted on rates of homelessness and the delivery of homelessness services? What is the long-term impact of abruptly mandating social isolation, particularly on the mental health ou

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 alienating and would divide even more deeply a crisis-ridden nation. How has it come to this? What is the likely path the US will take, both at home and abroad, once the pandemic passes? Are these two old men really the best America has to offer?  On Thursday, 1 October at 9 am we hosted a US Election election special with PJ O’Rourke & Conrad Black to hear two strikingly different views of how the September 30 Presidential debate went down and which candidate they thought would, or should, win the 2020 US Presidential Election.

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 guests. The 20th century’s failed experimentation with socialism serve as a strong lesson that, despite its idealistic promises of equality, it has led to nothing but oppression and poverty. John will discuss the importance of civic institutions in forming cohesive societies and what can be done to ensure young people learn about socialism’s shortcomings. Join in the conversation live as host Salvatore Babones asks John whether ‘Scandinavian Socialism’ is false dichotomy, can the impending US Presidential election usher a Democratic government in favour of socialist tendencies and why Australian youth are lurchin

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 ever. In Peter’s Green Paper, he highlights why investing in the knowledge and capabilities of individuals is foundational to sustaining economic prosperity. Reforms to all sectors of education have the potential to more efficiently and effectively deliver outcomes and prepare individuals for the demands of the modern workforce. Watch online and join the conversation with Glenn as he asks Peter how education reforms can drive productivity growth, how schools and training providers can better prepare individuals amidst current headwinds, and what would more effective and efficient education look like in NSW?

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 restrictions to respond to the pandemic—e.g. around supermarket delivery times and the availability of liquor for takeaway—suggests governments can move quickly to eliminate or improve regulations. Join in the conversation live as host Salvatore Babones asks Gene what regulation is necessary to protect public health? What regulations should be lifted to assist the many struggling business owners? And what regulation amendments would have the biggest impact to the Australian economy?

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 more a living intellectual issue," as Friedrich Hayek said we must. Join us live, to hear Greg's story and ask your own questions about how he turned a timeless idea into one of Australia's leading think tanks.

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 lining up for a transformation of China. Is Xi Jinping's repression working? Or is it only bringing closer the day when the Chinese people will stand up to demand a voice in their own government? Join us live tomorrow at 10 am AEST to hear what Dr Chin Jin has to say.

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 intended to erase elements of our history and to deny the record of those who helped found this country. The impulse to impose a revised interpretation of the past poses a danger that threatens to corrode civility, destroy civic trust, and fuel community discord. Join us as we discuss Australia's cancel culture.

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 have, impacted schools and online businesses. As the world pivots to this new reality, we'll discuss what these online interactions means for education, for people's social lives (and events). Claire and Salvatore will discuss how all of these trends have wider implications for culture, politics and liberty.

"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 sending mixed signals to students and the universities that are supposed to educate them. Although the government has set clear teaching priorities, universities may be incentivised to forgo government funding altogether for some fields and offer places based solely on students' contributions. While the coronavirus recession will certainly create more demand for university places, will universities have the right incentives to offer the supply? Host Salvatore Babones will ask Andrew to give an overview of his recent articles on the government's proposed university fee reforms.

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 horizon, while, beating the virus has become the hallmark of the Prime Minister’s reputation. Join us for episode.18 of On Liberty as we ask how did NZ got through Covid? What kind of leader Jacinda Ardern is? How their economy is faring? and where the challenges lay for NZ in the coming years?

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 government announced sweeping changes in relation to Closing the gap. In doing so, they have committed to setting unrealistic targets, while also omitting to address any targets for the reduction of violence against Indigenous women and children. In his recent paper: Warren addresses the clear gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. He writes, the gap exists for one reason, and one reason only - many indigenous people do not participate in the economy. The key areas of economic participation are having a job and setting up a business. Both depend on commerce and private enterprise. Watch online and

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 learning from home — placing new pressures on teachers and schools. Along with these new challenges are competing visions about priorities and practices of schooling in a rapidly changing world. Does a business-as-usual approach risk fail to learn from the experience? What’s important in schooling for the future? Do we have to rethink teaching, curriculum, and assessment for the 21st century?

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 build-up of military outposts beyond its border in the South China Sea – has all this forced Australia into Washington’s anti-China coalition? How do we respond to Beijing’s threat to economically bully Australia? Or are doubts about American staying power in Asia real? Why would a powerful China accept US-led military forces operating in its backyard? If Beijing tries to dominate Asia, are we confident that the Americans have our back? What are the risks involved in further antagonising our largest trade partner?

If there is one thing that almost everyone agrees on, it is that not everything is super with Superannuation. Some call for greater flexibility in the super system, and others say that the system is being rorted by the rich and the rules need to be tightened. Yet the problems and solutions on each side of the debate seem radically different. One side says that we need more super, the other side says we need to abandon the proposed increase in the compulsory super rate. One side says that super governance is dominated by vested interests, particularly the unions, while the other points out that industry super has massively outperformed retail funds. Should the super guarantee continue to increase to 12%? Is super fit for purpose? Well, it all depends on who you ask. Former CIS researcher Dr Stephen Kirchner called superannuation “Libertarianism Paternalism without the libertarianism”, while CIS Research Director Simon Cowan argues super that super is a bad deal for millennials. This webinar, How to fix supe

The debate over cancel culture and the culture wars continues to rage. CIS welcomes back former guest Dave Rubin. Policy analyst, Monica Wilkie, turned the microphone on Dave to get his take on cancel culture, liberalism, free speech and, of course, the upcoming US presidential election. Dave is the host of the incredibly popular YouTube show The Rubin Report. A self-described classical liberal, Dave's first book entitled Don't Burn this Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason (McClelland & Stewart) was released in April 2020. He has been a consistent voice in the fight for freedom of speech and has interviewed some of the most influential and erudite thinkers on topics ranging from history to politics and culture. __________________ The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) promotes free choice and individual liberty and defends cultural freedom and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public. We aim to make sure good policy ide

On Liberty returns, for season 2, with Janet Albrechtsen. In her latest column for The Australian, she warns us to be on our guard against "a new generation of self-appointed cultural dietitians" who are determined to tell us what cultural fare we can and can't consume. Albrechtsen writes that "intolerance delivers a triple whammy. First, it hinders our ability to sift the good ideas from the bad ones. Second, by shutting down robust debates, cancel culture will create unhinged, self-professed martyrs who thrive in online echo chambers, nurturing their hatred and bigotry far away from logical argument. And finally, the practitioners of cancel culture will stoke deep resentments that can easily be exploited by leaders who may not be defenders of a truly liberal democracy." Join us, to discuss cancel culture at home and abroad. We'll ask Janet Albrechtsen about cancel culture from the days of Aesop's Fables to the aftermath of Harry Potter, with a stop-over in Manhattan to talk about Harper's, New York ma

Lionel Shriver and Brendan O'Neill sit down with CIS fellow Monica Wilkie for The Woke Inquisition, an online discussion on the recent race crisis, protests in the UK, the BLM movement and cancel culture. Everything from The Golden Girls to brown rice is now ‘problematic’ as activists seek to erase anything ‘offensive.’ Is this akin to past censorious movements when books were burnt, and statues toppled or is this something different? We now see shows like The Simpsons announcing they will not allow white voice actors to voice non-white characters. Is the end of fiction rapidly approaching? With statues, beloved children’s authors, and beer in the firing line will there be anything left after this latest round of cancellations? Brendan O’Neill is the editor of Spiked Online and a former CIS scholar in residence. He is author of A Duty to Offend (2015) and Anti-Woke (2018). Lionel Shriver is author of numerous international bestseller novels and a columnist with The Spectator in London. Lionel was recently

On Liberty, host Salvatore Babones speaks with Glenn Fahey. Glenn is Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, working across economics and education programs. In his recent article at The Spectator Australia, he warns that the government’s centrepiece JobSeeker and JobKeeper packages risk becoming RecoveryPreventers. Government can’t prop up the country indefinitely nor can it spend Australia into prosperity. As lockdown restrictions unwind, so too must the associated emergency measures. The defining challenge facing policymakers is how to taper off unsustainable income support without sinking the economy. Join us as we discuss Australia's welfare policy response to the pandemic. We will ask Glenn: what options are government now faced with? What are the immediate threats to Australia emerging from the pandemic? And, most importantly, what will aid Australia to move from pandemic to prosperity?

In the battle of ideas, the Centre for Independent Studies is like a munitions factory, churning out the material to push the trench line a few kilometres forward. The spiritual reward for researchers, analysts and scholars is a chance to see their policy ideas put into policy practice. Another payoff for producing successful ideas is often access and influence. At the beginning of the year, we invited the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to address a CIS lunch at our Macquarie Street office. However, the coronavirus crisis derailed plans.