Centre for Independent Studies
Let’s share good ideas. 💡 The Centre for Independent Studies 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.
Episodes

Friday Jul 08, 2022
Friday Jul 08, 2022
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 manner? Is all this energy transition talk just spin by politicians to get elected?
In August 2016 Premier Daniel Andrews trumped a permanent ban on the exploration and development of all onshore unconventional gas. Now, with the energy crisis biting, Andrews has demanded gas from “our ground” be delivered cheaply to his state. As Chris recently wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald "The energy transition is inevitable, but it will be a lot harder than politicians, activists, service sector chief executives and billionaire energy hobbyists would have you believe. In trying to solve the current crisis, the political class should keep one thing in mind, no one ever won an election by promising to make voters colder, poorer and hungrier".

Tuesday Jul 05, 2022
Tuesday Jul 05, 2022
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 people to turn to these new options? Emma argues that better outcomes for animals, as well as farmers are not mutually exclusive.
Increasingly over the last few years we've seen animal welfare protests block off major streets, confront patrons in restaurants and trespasses onto farms to create disruptions. But do these types of protests help or hinder the cause for animal welfare and ethical farming? Can we realistically shift our dairy and meat-based farming to plant-based farming alternatives and remain viable?

Thursday Jun 09, 2022
Thursday Jun 09, 2022
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, inflation, interest rates and climate are important to younger voters, but have the major parties lost touch with them? Can our politicians deliver good policy outcomes over the long term? After all, the future generations will have to live with the consequences of the actions (or inaction) of current governments at all levels.
Deyi was elected president on the Young Liberals in March 2021 and is the first woman of Asian descent, and only the fifth ever woman to lead the organisation after Catherine Cusack, Marise Payne, Gladys Berejiklian and Natasha Maclaren-Jones. Deyi has written for The Financial Review and has a combined five years' experience working in federal and state politics.

Wednesday Jun 08, 2022
Wednesday Jun 08, 2022
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 been one of the most interesting results in Australia's political history.
In the days, weeks, and years ahead PM Albanese will need to navigate through a very different parliament. Labor’s new minority/majority government faces daunting challenges including climate policy, inflation, rising interest rates, as well as the China threat, and intensifying geopolitical challenges. Will Labor be pushed further by Greens and Independents? Have these results shown that Australia is fed up with our major parties? Why was there such a significant swing against both major parties?

Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
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 the agreement has an immediate effect on every country in the region and it is very much connected, at least on the Chinese side, to geostrategic ambitions.
In Australia, security analysts watched the story unfold with a mixture of dread because of the potential blow to Canberra’s strategic interests, and vindication that years of assessments about China’s military intent in the Pacific had seemingly been confirmed overnight. In the political arena, accusations came thick and fast that the federal government had “dropped the ball” in the Pacific and that diplomacy in the region had failed.
This week's guest Mihai Sora joins us to discuss China's expending presence in the pacific and what effect it has on Australia. From trade, to new security measures and aid given to the Solomon Islands.
Mihai Sora is a Research Fellow in the Pacific Islands Program and Project Director of the Aus-PNG Network. Mihai has more than a decade’s experience as an Australian diplomat with postings to Solomon Islands and Indonesia, and was a Pacific Analyst at the Office of National Assessments.

Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
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 that today's woke thinking is nothing new, but is the heir to 1960s radical activism. And he owns up to having unleashed it on Australia.
Join us as we revisit the major battlefields of the culture wars with a culture warrior who has fought on both sides.
Prof Bob Catley earned his PhD from the Australian National University and has held academic positions at the Universities of Adelaide, Delaware, Otago, the Northern Territory, and the Sunshine Coast. He was the federal Member for Adelaide from 1990-93. An expert on US foreign policy, he is also the author of The (Strange, Recent But Understandable) Triumph of Liberalism in Australia (2005, Macleay Press).

Friday May 06, 2022
Friday May 06, 2022
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 courts of public opinion rather than the rule of law. What are we to make of Australia’s many constitutional developments of recent years? Is Australia’s constitution and federation safeguarded? What are the risks and benefits of a national integrity commission?
Writing at The Spectator, Xavier argues that we mustn’t let the law be used as a political weapon. He warns this would only further debase public discourse and erode our democratic and constitutional foundations.
Xavier convenes the annual conference of the Samuel Griffith Society and coordinates its activities to promote discussion of constitutional matters. He is former national president of the Australian Liberal Students’ Federation and former advisor to the Victorian Shadow Attorney-General.
Check out Xavier's work and more about Samuel Griffith Society here: https://www.samuelgriffith.org/

Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
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 University about the state of play in China's Politburo.
We'll be asking Professor Larus about Xi's agenda and the legacy he is creating for China's future. And whether China's draconian coronavirus lockdowns are really only about public health, or perhaps have a political purpose as well? Professor Larus has close connections in Taiwan, and will offer insights into its defence against a potential Chinese invasion.

Monday Apr 11, 2022
Monday Apr 11, 2022
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 abandon".
We'll be asking James about hate, humour, the definition of 'gender', and the lack of viewpoint diversity on university campuses and its implications for teaching and research. We will be taking your questions about cancel culture, the weaponisation of hate, and the future of education, so we hope you can tune in.
Prof James Allan is the Garrick Professor in Law at the University of Queensland and a weekly columnist for Australian Spectator magazine. His academic research centres on legal philosophy and constitutional law, with a particular focus on bills of rights. He is author of the soon to be released book The Age of Foolishness: A Doubter’s Guide to Constitutionalism in a Modern Democracy (2022, Academica Press).

Sunday Apr 03, 2022

Centre for Independent Studies
Let’s share good ideas. 💡
The Centre for Independent Studies 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.