Cis Podcast

How can students be expected to develop into intellectual adults if they are never exposed to the best reading that the English language has to offer? The New South Wales curriculum acknowledges that English is the national language of Australia, but what is it actually doing to educate the state's children in its use? Join us this week as we "talk English" with educationalist Dr Fiona Mueller, author of "From Education to Enstupidation -- Teaching English Language and Literature in Australia." Our regular host Salvatore Babones will be asking Dr Mueller about the proper role of English in school and university education, how reading improves writing, and the importance of great literature in the formation of young people's very identities. Dr Mueller writes that "in Australia, the globalists and quackademics now advocate unsubstantiated approaches to teaching and learning that have no grounding in national identity, intellectual rigor, and a strong moral and ethical sense of character based on discipline

The Magna Carta has become an enduring symbol of freedom, a triumph over power and tyranny. But would you be surprised to learn that, not only did the great charter have many lives it, "was completely misrepresented?" This is the story, beautifully and methodical told, in historian Dr Zachary Gorman's latest book: Summoning Magna Carta: Freedom's Symbol over a Millennium. Through impeccable research that takes the reader from Runnymede; through England's 17th century civil war and the Crusades; and everywhere in between, Gorman incisively depicts the many lives and impact of the Magna Carta.

India is on everyone's agenda here in Australia, but do we really understand the country -- and the opportunities it offers? We're joined this week by Natasha Jha Bhaskar, general manager of Newland Global Group (NGG) and a frequent commentator on Australia-India relations. With 12 years of experience working in the Indian Parliament, Natasha now helps Australian organizations understand the Indian business environment and build partnerships in India. What are the opportunities for Australian exports to India? And for investment in India? What can the Australian government do to better facilitate Indian investment here in Australia? And what is India looking for from Australia? Cross-cultural understanding can go a long way toward answering these questions. That gives Australia a massive (but largely untapped) strategic resource in its the 660,000 Indian-born citizens and residents. Australia's governments and businesses must be proactive and sincerely committed in order to leverage this resource to its ful

Many cultural forces continue to weed out books, tear down statues and shame celebrities, who buck fashionable opinion. As a result, the cultural putsch in many western institutions strikes at liberal values. We are told these purges are necessary to “prevent harm.” In any case, society has “moved on” from the past. But is cancel culture simply about fending off “harm”? Is it just about redressing past western sins? Or is what the critics say is a ferocious campaign of political conformity threatening the fabric of our liberal public discourse and civil society? Is it a proxy war on the Western liberal democratic tradition? Is anyone or anything safe from cancellation?

What do Australians really think about social media? We're joined this week by CIS policy analyst Monica Wilkie, who will share the results of her new CIS survey on the subject. Does social media connect or isolate? Is its impact on society mostly positive or negative? Which generation relies on social media the most, and for what purposes? And at a time when two-thirds of Australians want Facebook and Twitter to maintain political neutrality, are the networking giants delivering? Monica Wilkie is the CIS media analyst behind "The Woke Wars" and "If I Ran the Woke Zoo." Her new policy paper Australians’ Attitudes to Social Media: Connection or Curse? is available for free download from the CIS website. Conducted in February 2021, it reports the results of a survey of 1024 Australian adults just before the Commonwealth passed the News Media Bargaining Code. The findings may surprise you!

The dry continent is home to massive groundwater resources, but we don't even know how much freshwater rests right under our feet. Grahame Campbell FRSN is a tireless advocate for data-driven resource management, but when it comes to groundwater, we just don't have the data. Despite spending billions on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, Australia's governments still don't understand how the surface water ecosystems of the Murray and Darling rivers interact with the environment they flow on, though, and under. Grahame Campbell, a long-time CIS friend, author, engineer and musician, joins us this week to discuss his current passion for properly managing Australia's groundwater. We will also discuss his recent memoir Clarinets, Pipelines and Unforeseen Places: The Evolution of an Engineer. With backdrops including Australia, Iraq, USA, Trinidad, Indonesia and Bangladesh, Grahame journeyed through his career as a pipeline engineer meeting characters from Dizzy Gillespie and Mick Jagger to Rex ‘The Strangler’ Connor

“The goal should be to shrink, focus and improve the state.” On the show this Wednesday, we welcome Adam Smith Institute’s Matthew Lesh. Recently, writing in the IPA Review and The Australian, Matt says assessing public policy responses to covid comes down to the competence, rather than size, of government. Despite countless alternative explanations — such as differences in population size, style of government, and even the gender of political leaders — he argues covid outcomes crucially depend on the quality of governance. Pointing to a stark contrast between NSW and Victoria, government competence has been the difference between life and death, freedom and tyranny. Matt challenges tired debates that pit big government against small government, and state intervention against market forces. Instead, he says, we must question how well government meets the needs of service-users and delivers bang-for-the-buck for taxpayers. Join us on YouTube at 12.30pm Wednesday 17 March, when guest host, Glenn Fahey ask

March, 4th 2021 marked the 25th anniversary of the Howard Coalition government’s election. In honour of the occasion, former prime minister John Howard and CIS executive director Tom Switzer sat down for a conversation about the policy successes (and failures) of his government as well as the current economic, cultural and foreign policy challenges facing Australia. In 1995, Mr. Howard had inherited a party that had chalked up its fifth election defeat, only to lead it to win four elections on the trot. From March 1996 to November 2007, his government fundamentally transformed the political landscape. It cut taxes, reformed welfare, balanced the national books, wiped out government debt, loosened the trade unions’ grip on business, and presided over the longest economic boom since the gold rushes of the 19th century. Under John Howard’s leadership, Australia led the 1999 peacekeeping effort in East Timor and was deeply involved in countering terrorism in Australia’s local neighbourhood and in farther flung

Donald Trump turned America on its head and shocked the world, taking an isolationist approach to foreign policy, shaking up global institutions and fomenting the rise of ‘fake news’. How did the reality TV star win over the hearts and minds of so many regular Americans from Ohio to Florida? And how, after four years, does he have more supporters than ever? This week, three-time foreign correspondent and former ABC News US Bureau Chief, Zoe Daniel joins us to discuss her recent book Greetings from Trumpland explores how an unprecedented presidency changed everything. Through interviews with regular Americans who backed the mercurial president in mid-west America, to those who felt the wrath of his no-holds-barred presidency, this book is an inside look at the historic one-term presidency that changed the world and an insightful examination into how America, and the world, can move forward. Join us as Salvatore Babones speaks to Zoe Daniel about this new book and her experience witnessing the unlikely rise o

Does prosperity depend on discipline, rational planning, and strict adherence to scientific principles? Or is it more about having an "ambidextrous frame of mind"? Professor Peter Murphy joins us this week to discuss his book The Political Economy of Prosperity: Successful Societies and Productive Cultures. Prof. Murphy talks to us about the paradoxes that shape our daily lives. Anyone who has ever been asked to "do more with less" or engage in "creative destruction" has had to embrace paradox to promote productivity. But is it really that easy? On Liberty host, Salvatore Babones will be asking Prof. Murphy about his uniquely metaphysical understanding of the modern economy. Why isn't the Western Enlightenment heritage good enough to drive growth? Is irony really an important economic asset? How rare is real creativity, and where does it come from? And most importantly of all: where are we going from here? Peter Murphy is Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe Univers

On the show this Wednesday, we welcome former CIS scholar John Lee. Recently writing in The Australian, John highlighted the new US administration has not removed Trump’s tariffs and other economic measures against China. Instead it has reaffirmed a previous assessment by then secretary of state Mike Pompeo that genocide is being committed in Xinjiang and the US Navy recently sailed a guided-missile destroyer through the Taiwan Straits. Despite former national security advisor, John Bolton's 2019 speculations that a Biden administration would behave in much the same way as the second-term Obama administration (Which was not a compliment), Biden is going out of his way to dispel fears about a lack of resolve. Join us on YouTube at 12:30 pm Wednesday 24 February, we explore Biden's commitment to reinvigorate US alliances and partnerships, about the importance of domestic renewal and protecting oneself from external threats and advancing sovereign capabilities, in the face of rising global competition. John L

This week, legal scholar Joshua Forrester joins us to discuss how words like harm and safety have been redefined by political activists to attack fundamental freedoms. Citing no less authorities than Plato and Confucius, he argues that 'concept creep' has undermined not only our language, but our politics. Emblematic of the dangers of redefinition is the warping of John Stewart Mill's classically liberal 'harm principle' to cover hurt feelings and justify the creation of 'safe spaces'. Join us as we explore the importance of language for practical politics. Should words be as elastic as the concepts they cover? Was Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass right? Do words mean just what we choose them to mean? How did the 'harm principle' lead us to the creation of 'safe spaces'? Is the activists' commitment to preventing harm any more than 'skin' deep? And what would Mill make of all this? Joshua Forrester is a PhD candidate in law who has published academic work on freedom of expression and the implied

Indigenous educational disadvantage has persisted despite countless initiatives, programmes, and spending from governments and communities. For solutions to help truly close the gap, CIS hosts a stellar panel in our latest webinar: Dr Lorraine Hammond AM, Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO, and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. The educational plight of indigenous students has endured despite countless initiatives and programs from governments and communities. Despite the best intentions of policymakers, we haven't produced a fundamental shift to policy or to the narrative needed to overcome indigenous educational disadvantage. Truly closing the gap will only be achievable with new policy directions, renewed community leadership, and capacity development of educators. We are delighted to host Lorraine, Warren, and Jacinta to discuss the challenges of educational disadvantage within majority indigenous schools and communities. What are the big issues faced by teachers, schools, and parents in majority-indigenous communiti

China has responded to the coronavirus by turbocharging its surveillance state -- and it has successfully sold its new brand of 'digital authoritarianism' as a best practice model to the rest of the world. Governance and security expert Lydia Khalil will join us for Season 3 of On Liberty, this Wednesday, 3 February 12:30 pm. Lydia will discuss how the coronavirus gave China the opportunity to put "tech-enabled authoritarianism" into practice on a large scale. She warns that those who praise China's coronavirus response risk promoting "a growing acceptance of mass surveillance, habituation to restrictions on liberties and fewer checks on the collection and use of personal data by the state, even after the public health crisis subsides." Join us as we ask what is digital authoritarianism? How has China used artificial intelligence to monitor its citizens? And what lessons can Australia take for its brewing battle with Google and Facebook? Lydia is Research Fellow in the West Asia Program at the Lowy Institu

Rob discusses liberalism with Peter Kurti, director of the Culture, Prosperity and Civil Society Program at the CIS, who surprisingly says he is not a liberal but a conservative and then explains why. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public. We aim to make sure good policy ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can prosper. Follow CIS on our Socials; Twitter - https://twitter.com/CISOZ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CentreIndependentStudies/ Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-centre-for-independent-studies/

Professor Simon Haines is a distinguished scholar, teacher and author, and a passionate advocate for the humanities. CEO of The Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, Simon joins Rob to discuss the genesis and origins of liberalism. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public. We aim to make sure good policy ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can prosper. Follow CIS on our Socials; Twitter - https://twitter.com/CISOZ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CentreIndependentStudies/ Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-centre-for-independent-studies/

Rob discusses issues of liberalism and the university with then Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Michael Spence. Michael is concerned about whether the growing lack of common beliefs will threaten liberal society. He is committed to the vision of the university as a crucial institution in the liberal community. They discuss challenges and opportunities of the modern university in achieving this vision. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public. We aim to make sure good policy ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can prosper. Follow CIS on our Socials; Twitter - https://twitter.com/CISOZ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CentreIndependentStudies/ Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-centre-for-independent-studies/

Parnell McGuinness is a columnist at the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, and is Managing Director at Agenda C. Parnell’s family, especially her late father P.P. (Padraic Pearse) ‘Paddy’ McGuinness, an anti-authoritarian, non-conformist individualist, have spent most of their lives fighting for classical liberalism. Parnell decries to the lack of nuance in liberalism and the need to see the value also of the things that unite us. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public. We aim to make sure good policy ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can prosper. Follow CIS on our Socials; Twitter - https://twitter.com/CISOZ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CentreIndependentStudies/ Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-centre-for-independent-studies/

Glenn Fahey is a Research Fellow in Education Policy at the CIS. Previously Glenn has held a series of both policy and research intensive positions in the field of education and economics, as well as being a pizza shop manager. In conversation, Glenn's pizza shop job turned out to be one important reason why he is committed to Liberalism. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public. We aim to make sure good policy ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can prosper. Follow CIS on our Socials; Twitter - https://twitter.com/CISOZ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CentreIndependentStudies/ Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-centre-for-independent-studies/