Centre for Independent Studies

S2E5 | Chandran Kukathas ‘Liberalism is scepticism of power’

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 Singapore, which explicitly disavows liberalism.
Good policy leads to great outcomes. CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public.
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S2E4 | Hannes H. Gissurarson ‘Liberalism needs conservatism too’

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 other. Much of the discussion arises from Hannes’ recent book Twenty-Four Conservative-Liberal Thinkers (New Directions 2020).
Good policy leads to great outcomes. CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public.
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S2E3 | David Kemp ‘Liberalism’s remarkable Australian Story’

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 leading academics, politicians, media and the public.
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On Liberty Ep78 | Harry Kazianis | Will 2022 Bring Peace On The Korean Peninsula

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.

S2E2 | Simon Cowan ‘Economic liberalism under threat’

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 political and financial might.”
Good policy lead to great outcomes. CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public.
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S2E1 | Henry Ergas ‘The heart of liberalism’

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 together.
Good policy leads to great outcomes. CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public.
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On Liberty Ep77 | Glenn Fahey | Maths Wars Expose The Great Divide In Education

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 appears to be because teachers are victims of poor preparation from university-based Initial Teacher Education. In a concerning echo to the “reading wars” that CIS has been engaged in for many years, it’s clear there is also a great divide in maths education too.

On Liberty Ep76 | Michael Johnston | Will Future Generations Share Our Enthusiasm For A Democracy

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 systems help young people to revere the cultural values that underpin liberal democracy – political equality, free speech and free expression. This requires promoting the contestability of ideas and ensuring that civic ideas are “culturally esteemed”, not just legally protected, so that future generations share enthusiasm for a flourishing liberal democracy.

On Liberty Ep75 | Rowan Callick | China’s Risky Path To Riches

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?

On Liberty Ep74 | Gigi Foster | The Great COVID Panic

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.