Centre for Independent Studies

21. On Liberty | Peter Kurti | Cancel Culture Will Divide Us

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.
📖 Read Peter's paper here: https://www.cis.org.au/publications/analysis-papers/cancelled-how-ideological-cleansing-threatens-australia/
💬 Join in the conversation live every Thursday at 10 am AEST, on YouTube or Facebook.
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⏲️ Missed last week? Watch and listen to Episode 20, with Claire Lehmann:
https://youtu.be/fCTHo-vkmTM
Tune in live On Liberty, every Thursday at 10am.
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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 ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can continue to prosper into the future.

20. On Liberty | Claire Lehmann | How The Pandemic Has Accelerated Trends

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.

19. On Liberty | Andrew Norton | Should Australia Increase University Places?

"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.

18. On Liberty | Oliver Hartwich | Will The Recovery Be Worse Than The Disease For New Zealand

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?

17. On Liberty Extra | Warren Mundine | Closing The Gap | Jacinta Price

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 join the conversation with Jacinta as she raises the question how can we develop an indigenous policy toward economic participation? What is required from governments to lessen the gap? And why we have failed time and time again in the protection of our indigenous and most vulnerable?

Do schools need a transformation? | Pasi Sahlberg | Greg Ashman | Jordan Baker

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?

Tony Abbott vs Bob Carr | How to handle china

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?
📖 Read more from CIS here: https://www.cis.org.au/
💬 Join in the conversation in the comments.
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____________________
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 ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can continue to prosper into the future.
Check out the CIS at - https://www.cis.org.au/
Subscribe to CIS mailing list- https://www.cis.org.au/subscribe/
Support us with a tax-deductible donation at - https://www.cis.org.au/support/
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How To Fix Super

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 super, involved speakers James Pawluk, Executive Director, Superannuation & Universal Ownership at the McKell Institute and Andrew Bragg, Liberal Senator for New South Wales gave their firm views of the problems with Super and its future direction. CIS Director of Research Simon Cowan, moderated the conversation and raised the question, how will super affect the rise and fall of Australian taxes?
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Andrew Bragg is a Liberal Senator for New South Wales. Prior to his election to Federal Parliament in 2019, Andrew was an author and accountant. Andrew started his career as an accountant at Ernst & Young and went on to work in senior roles at the Financial Services Council and the Business Council of Australia. Pick up Andrew's new book Bad Egg: How to fix super (Connor Court) here.
James Pawluk is Executive Director, Superannuation & Universal Ownership at the McKell Institute, having previously been its founding Victorian Executive Director. Prior to joining the Institute, James was Manager of Business Development for Australia Post. James has also served as Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to various Federal Cabinet Ministers with experience across areas such as government service delivery, digital transformation, budget processes, policing and customs.
Simon Cowan is Research Director at the CIS. Simon is also Director of the CIS TARGET30 program that aims to reduce government spending to less than 30% of GDP over the next 10 years. He is a leading media commentator on policy and politics, frequently appearing on the Sky network, ABC television and commercial radio. Simon is a regular columnist for The Canberra Times.
📖 Read more from Simon here: https://www.cis.org.au/experts/research-scholars/simon-cowan/
💬 Join in the conversation in the comments.
👍 Like this video if you enjoyed it and want to see more, it really helps us out
🔔 Subscribe to our channel and click the bell to watch our videos first
⏲️ Missed this event live? Subscribe to CIS to be up to date with all our events:
https://www.cis.org.au/subscribe/
____________________
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 ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can continue to prosper into the future.
Check out the CIS at - https://www.cis.org.au/
Subscribe to CIS mailing list- https://www.cis.org.au/subscribe/
Support us with a tax-deductible donation at - https://www.cis.org.au/support/
Join the CIS as a member at - https://www.cis.org.au/join-cis/
Follow CIS on Socials
Twitter - https://twitter.com/CISOZ
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Dave Rubin | Free thought is burning

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 ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can continue to prosper into the future.
Check out the CIS at - https://www.cis.org.au/
Subscribe to CIS mailing list- https://www.cis.org.au/subscribe/
Support us with a tax-deductible donation at - https://www.cis.org.au/support/
Join the CIS as a member at - https://www.cis.org.au/join-cis/
Follow CIS on Socials
Twitter - https://twitter.com/CISOZ
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CentreIndependentstudies/
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-centre-for-independent-studies/

16. On Liberty | Janet Albrechtsen | Saving The Marketplace Of Ideas

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 magazine and the New York Times. Can the modern liberal democratic project succeed?
Read Janet's column here- https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/how-to-cancel-cancel-culture/news-story/817b19fb7fe28f0dd6c88f20d5941399
____________________
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 ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can continue to prosper into the future.
Check out the CIS at - https://www.cis.org.au/
Subscribe to CIS mailing list- https://www.cis.org.au/subscribe/
Support us with a tax-deductible donation at - https://www.cis.org.au/support/
Join the CIS as a member at - https://www.cis.org.au/join-cis/
Follow CIS on Socials
Twitter - https://twitter.com/CISOZ
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CentreIndepe...
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-centre-for-independent-studies/