Cis Podcast

For years, Australian policymakers have balanced China’s desire for an enhanced regional role with our desire for U.S. protection. However, contrary to the Canberra consensus, there is going to be an intense strategic rivalry between our major trading partner and our major strategic ally. According to John Mearsheimer, one of America’s leading foreign-policy thinkers, Washington will not let China become the dominant military power in the region without putting up a serious fight. In these circumstances, it’s naïve to think that Australia can sit on the sidelines and get the best of both worlds: unconstrained trade with China while keeping the U.S. security umbrella over its head. Canberra must support Uncle Sam. However, Australia’s future will be dominated by China, says one of Australia’s leading strategic thinkers Hugh White. Treasury forecasts show that the Chinese economy will be about 80 per cent bigger than America’s within a dozen years. In this environment, Canberra must prepare for the new strate

As China converts its growing economic power into military power, it will seek to dominate Asia the way the U.S. has dominated the western hemisphere since the 19th century. Washington will go to great lengths to prevent China from seeking regional hegemony. The tensions over tariffs, Taiwan and Hong Kong are just the beginning of a deteriorating Sino-American relationship. Australian foreign-policy elites seem to think that they can either wish away the intense security competition or that, if the conflict materialises, Canberra can sit on the sidelines: China and the US can duke it out while Australia is safe, secure and prosperous. Perhaps, but this is not how international politics works. John Mearsheimer is professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and author of The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (W.W. Norton, 2001). Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. http://www.cis.org.au

As our 2019 Helen Hughes lecturer, Michael Ondaatje surveys the increasingly tribal political landscape of modern America. Paying special attention to the toxic racial politics of the Trump era, explain why the dream of a “post-racial” society has died, and how it might be revived. The United States is more divided today than at any time since the Vietnam War era. Society is fracturing along crude identity lines. Anger and grievance are ascendant. Obsession with common enemies overrides concern for the common good. According to some experts, America is at the crossroads. Professor Michael Ondaatje is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Arts and Academic Culture), and Professor of American History, at Australian Catholic University and Dr Jeremy Sammut, is a senior research fellow and the director of the Culture, Prosperity and Civil Society Program at the Centre for Independent Studies. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. http://www.cis.org.au

Dr Jeremy Sammut and Maurice Newman – former chairman of the Australian Stock Exchange and columnist with The Australian newspaper – had a conversation about what can be done to stop corporate political meddling and to ensure that business keeps out of politics. Major Australian companies are increasingly involved in contentious political debates – such as Indigenous Recognition – that are not the business of business, and are all in the name of what is known as “Corporate Social Responsibility”. In his new book Corporate Virtue Signaling: How to Stop Big Business from Meddling in Politics, CIS Senior Research Fellow Dr Jeremy Sammut, argues that if the CSR activists operating inside Australia businesses get their way, companies will become political players campaigning for ‘systemic change’ behind ‘progressive’ social, environmental, and economic causes. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. http://www.cis.org.au

How do policymakers and regulators balance restoring trust in our financial system with maintaining the flow of credit? Australia’s banking industry had long had a reputation for being among the world’s safest for investors. Its reputation has been tarnished in recent times after the explosion of scrutiny from the Hayne Royal Commission. Hear from Anna Bligh, Chief Executive Officer at the Australian Banking Association, and Simon Cowan, Research Director at the Centre for Independent Studies.

For sound analysis of the state of conservative politics, please join Sir Bill English (former New Zealand prime minister), Sir Craig Oliver (former director of politics and communications to British prime minister David Cameron and currently a Principal with global CEO advisory firm Teneo) and Jennifer Hewett (national affairs columnist with the Australian Financial Review). Plus, as Britain makes a chaotic exit from the European Union, the Tories are in dire straits, having copped a drubbing in the recent local elections and preparing for the worst in the upcoming European Parliament elections. In New Zealand, meanwhile, the centre-right National Party is in Jacinda Ardern’s shadows. What’s the state of conservatism in Australia, Britain and New Zealand? Where to now? Can the Liberals, Conservatives and National party remain broad churches? And what will be the likely impact of Brexit on Australian/NZ/UK relations? Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studie

With Britain’s ruling Conservative Party in disarray, and against the backdrop of a chaotic British exit from the EU, there is a real danger that Britain is lurching to the left. Join us to get an in-depth analysis of the British Conservative crisis and the rise of millennial socialism. Forty years ago, Margaret Thatcher led her Conservative Party to victory and set the scene for a wave of privatisation and deregulation across the Anglosphere. From the Keynesian mindset that delivered economic stagflation and the “winter of discontent” in the 1970s, the UK, as well as the US, Australia and New Zealand, moved to an era of sounder policy and more durable prosperity. Today, as the cause for competitive markets and free enterprise appears quixotic, it is easy to forget how depressing things looked four decades ago and how the economic reforms unleashed by the Thatcher Revolution led to a golden age. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.

Pundits all too often call political fiascos “circuses.” But rarely does a political class oblige by providing several rings of entertainment at once. Such has been the British Conservative government’s attempts to leave the European Union by April 12. Meanwhile, the Tories under Prime Minister Theresa May plunge into one melodrama after another. The British Labour Party under socialist Jeremy Corbyn has vacillated and equivocated over Brexit. As for the British public, their trust in Westminster has dissipated dramatically since the 52%-48% referendum to leave nearly three years ago. To get an up-to-date analysis of Brexit, Alexander Downer, former foreign minister (1996-07) and high commissioner in Britain (2013-18) and Tim Montgomerie, founder of ConservativeHome, a centre-right political blog in the UK, and former editorial page editor of The Times joined us at the CIS for a conversation with our director Tom Switzer. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent S

Managing Partner of McKinsey, Robert McLean AM and Belinda Hutchinson AM, Chancellor of the University of Sydney were at the CIS for the launch of Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything (Wiley). Co-authored by CIS director Robert McLean AM and Charles Conn. "Navigating ambiguity and solving complex problems creatively is the truth test for humans to complement rather than substitute the artificial intelligence of computers. Without much better approaches to teach those skills, our schools risk preparing second class robots rather than first class humans. Rob McLean and Charles Conn show that this can be done and provide an intuitive roadmap for how to do this, with lots of real-world examples that make it fun" – Andreas Schleicher, Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills, OECD Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. http://www.cis.org.au

Join John Lee, former senior advisor to foreign minister Julie Bishop and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington alongside James Laurenceson, acting director of the Australia China Relations Institute for a wide-ranging discussion. Moderated by Sue Windybank, convenor of a new CIS project on China and free societies. For decades, it was widely held that China’s economic progress would create the internal conditions for a more democratic regime that would be more stable and less of a potential global threat. But Beijing has not followed the “end of history” script. So have we been naive about China? Is Australia’s longstanding pragmatism—putting differences aside to focus on shared interests—still tenable? To what extent does Beijing threaten our national sovereignty? And how can we best preserve political autonomy in a regional order that increasingly revolves around China? Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. http://ww

One of the major battlegrounds in the upcoming NSW state election will be for the Upper House. After March 23, centre-right minor parties are likely to hold the balance of power. It raises the issue of why third parties matter. As the broader Liberal-National coalition shows increasing signs of splintering, what third party best represents the path to a sound governing and legislative agenda at both state and federal levels? Mark Latham, former federal Labor leader and One Nation candidate, Senator David Leyonhjelm, outgoing Liberal Democratic Party senator and LDP candidate along with Dr Greg Walsh, Australian Conservatives candidate are all vying for seats in the NSW Upper House this election and formed our panel. Miranda Devine Columnist for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph moderated the panel and delved into that question of why third parties matter. Who best represents the path to a sound governing and legislative agenda at both state and federal levels? Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or f

Queensland LNP Senator Amanda Stoker visited the CIS for our first Leadership Lunch of 2019. With a strong desire to see Australia return to a country of opportunity based on centre-right beliefs, Senator Stoker hopes to actively engage with Australian’s on social issues and not just on its traditional economic strengths, suggesting that Australia’s current cultural trends reflect the centre-right’s abdication of this responsibility over the last two decades. Senator Stoker represents the young, fresh face of free speech and traditional values in a party she says has ‘vacated the field’ out of shame. Amanda Stoker has been a LNP senator for Queensland since March 2018. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. http://www.cis.org.au

As NSW prepares for the March 23 election, the “premier state” is in reasonably good condition. Retail spending and business investment are up, the budget is at $1.1 billion surplus and unemployment is at 4.3 per cent. Meanwhile, Sydney’s major public projects — from the new Sydney Metro to the WestConnex underground motorway scheme and Sydney Light Rail — are well underway. And yet opinion polls show that the Coalition and Labor are neck and neck. Why? Are federal factors at play? What distinguishes Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian from the Labor Opposition leader Michael Daley? Is either party committed to productivity-enhancing economic reform? Nick Greiner, former NSW Liberal premier from 1988 to 1992, Bob Carr, former NSW Labor premier from 1995 to 2005 and host Brigid Glanville, ABC’s NSW political reporter, were at the CIS to discuss the state of the state. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. cis.org.au

On Thursday, 31 January our panel of speakers thrashed out the issues surrounding women in politics. Are setting affirmative-action quotas the answer to boosting female representation? Or is a merit-based system of choosing candidates a better option? Are claims of a bullying culture inside the Liberal Party true? Is Labor playing the gender card and identity politics? Who’s had better policies on improving the lives of women? Labor or the Coalition? Ticky Fullerton (moderator), formerly with the ABC and Sky News, anchors Ticky, weeknights on Your Money. Karina Okotel is a senior civil lawyer at Victoria Legal Aid and a federal vice president of the Liberal Party. Eugenie Joseph is a senior policy analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies. Kristina Keneally, a former NSW premier, is a Labor senator for NSW. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. cis.org.au

Join former High Court justice Michael Kirby and Geoffrey Lehmann for the launch of Leeward: A Memoir (NewSouth) at the CIS. Geoffrey Lehmann has been one of Australia’s leading poets and tax lawyers for several decades. A partner of PwC and chairman of the Australian Tax Research Foundation, he was involved in the design of Australia’s GST and other tax legislation. He was also short-listed for the T S Eliot Prize. His poetry has appeared in the New Yorker and in 2015 his Poems 1957-2013 won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award (Poetry). His Australian Poetry Since 1788, co-edited with Robert Gray, was one of The Economist’s best books of 2011. In his frank memoir, Geoffrey describes how he was the late child of a bookish mother and a working-class father. Much to his mother’s surprise, his father, who was a launch driver, bought three houses on the waterfront at McMahons Point and became a slum landlord in the era of rent control. As a 10-year-old child, reading the begging letters from dozens of would-be

Join Brendan O’Neill, one of Britain’s quirkiest, wittiest and liveliest commentators, in conversation with Jeremy Sammut, head of research at the CIS. The PC brigade continues to entrench itself in the western body politic. Waging war on the past is all the rage. Along with its various campus manifestations such as “safe spaces,” political correctness has become a kind of pathology that damages the capacity to argue and reason. How should we challenge PC? Brendan O’Neill is the editor of Spiked Online and a former CIS scholar in residence. He is author of A Duty to Offend: Selected Essays by Brendan O’Neill. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. cis.org.au

For generations, we just assumed democracy is fixed and given. However, all across the world, democracies are sick and suffering from a crisis of confidence. Polls show just a third of Australians are satisfied with the way our democracy is working. Public trust in our politicians is at record lows. So, how do we restore faith in democracy? Is there too much corporate and foreign money involved in the electoral process? Is the noisy and relentless media cycle the cause of the problem or the symptom? Is political polarization likely to get worse? How do we attract better elected representatives? How do we do democracy better? Join us for a lively conversation with Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, of newDemocracy, and Glenn Barnes, Company director, as well as Janet Albrechtsen, columnist with The Australian and Matthew Lesh, a research fellow with the IPA and author of Democracy in a Divided Australia (Connor Court). Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more

William McMahon was a significant, if widely derided and disliked, figure in Australian politics. Was he our worst prime minister? How did he get to the Lodge? Was he the first free-market “dry” politician to take on the orthodoxies of protectionism and economic interventionism? The first biography of our 20th prime minister tells the story of his life and his role in the great debates over Australia’s economic direction in the 1960s and 1970s. A man whose life was coloured by tragedy, comedy, persistence, courage, farce and failure. McMahon’s story has never been told at length – until now. Join Patrick Mullins, author of Tiberius with a Telephone: the Life and Stories of William McMahon (Scribe) with The Australian’s Editor-at-Large Paul Kelly for a conversation about one of our most intriguing prime ministers and his place in Australian political and economic history. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. cis.org.au

US midterm elections are usually bad for the President’s party, but amid a booming economy this year’s congressional races are more difficult to predict. The jobless rate recently fell to 3.7 per cent (the lowest since 1969) and the stock market (shrugging off the Trump tariffs) keeps surging to new highs. Meanwhile, both Republicans and Democrats will use Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court to fuel enthusiasm and turnout for the midterms. Watch Tom Switzer alongside panelists: Greg Sheridan is foreign editor of The Australian; Bob Carr, a former foreign minister, is director of the Australia-China Relations Institute; and April Palmerlee is chief executive officer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia - discussing on elections' night the results of the midterms and what they mean for American politics and foreign policy. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. cis.org.au

The NSW Opposition leader visited the CIS to set out an overview of Labor’s vision ahead of the March 2019 state election and how his values of a fair go affect public policy. In 2010 Luke was elected to the Legislative Council of NSW. Since 2015 he has been leader of the NSW Labor Party and Shadow Minister for Western Sydney. Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates. cis.org.au