Centre for Independent Studies

We Must Defend Freedom Of Speech:Lionel Shriver & Brendan O’Neill

Lionel Shriver and Brendan O'Neill sit down with CIS fellow Monica Wilkie for The Woke Inquisition, an online discussion on the recent race crisis, protests in the UK, the BLM movement and cancel culture.
Everything from The Golden Girls to brown rice is now ‘problematic’ as activists seek to erase anything ‘offensive.’ Is this akin to past censorious movements when books were burnt, and statues toppled or is this something different?
We now see shows like The Simpsons announcing they will not allow white voice actors to voice non-white characters. Is the end of fiction rapidly approaching? With statues, beloved children’s authors, and beer in the firing line will there be anything left after this latest round of cancellations?
Brendan O’Neill is the editor of Spiked Online and a former CIS scholar in residence. He is author of A Duty to Offend (2015) and Anti-Woke (2018).
Lionel Shriver is author of numerous international bestseller novels and a columnist with The Spectator in London. Lionel was recently in Australia for CIS as our 2019 Annual Lecture & Dinner.
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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.
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15. On Liberty Glenn Fahey: JobKeeper Or RecoveryPreventer

On Liberty, host Salvatore Babones speaks with Glenn Fahey. Glenn is Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, working across economics and education programs. In his recent article at The Spectator Australia, he warns that the government’s centrepiece JobSeeker and JobKeeper packages risk becoming RecoveryPreventers.
Government can’t prop up the country indefinitely nor can it spend Australia into prosperity. As lockdown restrictions unwind, so too must the associated emergency measures. The defining challenge facing policymakers is how to taper off unsustainable income support without sinking the economy.
Join us as we discuss Australia's welfare policy response to the pandemic. We will ask Glenn: what options are government now faced with? What are the immediate threats to Australia emerging from the pandemic? And, most importantly, what will aid Australia to move from pandemic to prosperity?

Gladys Berejiklian: NSW After the Pandemic

In the battle of ideas, the Centre for Independent Studies is like a munitions factory, churning out the material to push the trench line a few kilometres forward. The spiritual reward for researchers, analysts and scholars is a chance to see their policy ideas put into policy practice. Another payoff for producing successful ideas is often access and influence.
At the beginning of the year, we invited the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to address a CIS lunch at our Macquarie Street office. However, the coronavirus crisis derailed plans.

14. On Liberty Scott Prasser- Trying Times, Federal Politics In An Age Of Political Outrage

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was under fire for his handling of the bushfires, floods and sports funding scandals. Yet, on the eve of the federal Eden-Monaro by-election, he enjoys high approval ratings while the Coalition edges narrowly ahead in national approval. So the question is, how has the Morrison Government managed this pandemic-endued crisis and will it lead us back to prosperity? What lessons from history can we learn? Indeed, is Morrison the clever leader like Menzies who by his principles, political skills, and unrelenting effort, resisted some of the unwise popular orthodoxies of his time, promoted considerable change and founded modern Australia? Or is Morrison a sheep in sheep’s clothing, leading a government of least resistance to the incessant demands now being made on modern government every day?
Join us for Episode 14 of On Liberty this morning at 10 am AEST. Host Salvatore Babones will welcome Scott Prasser, author of forthcoming title Robert Menzies: Man or Myth (Connor Court). We'll take a look back in history to Australia’s longest-serving prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies, who led the party that he founded, the Liberal Party into Government, from 1949 to 1966 winning seven successful elections in a row.
Scott has worked in senior policy and advisory roles in state and federal government public service. From 2013 to 2019 he was Senior Adviser to three federal cabinet ministers covering portfolios of education and training, and regional health, sport and decentralisation and has published on the Howard Government, Liberal-National party politics and royal commissions.

13. On Liberty James Allan: Cancel Culture Knows No Limits

"It is becoming clear that cancel culture knows no limits. Old, incredibly valuable pieties at the heart of liberalism are being eroded."James Allan
On the show this week Salvatore Babones hosts James Allan, Garrick professor of law at the University of Queensland. In his recent article in The Australian, Allan notes how online twitter mobs don't argue against an opinion or view, rather argue against your view being able to exist at all.
The offence-givers and offence-takers imagine themselves as enemies. Cancellation culture is a false hope that we can erase those we don’t like. We'll discuss the dangerous ramifications of being caught up in this culture, the capture of universities and whether it's all about populism vs democracy.

12. On Liberty Jennifer Buckingham: Five From Five Update

We are pleased to have Dr Jennifer Buckingham to On Liberty. Jennifer is director of strategy and senior research fellow at MultiLit, and the founder and director of the Five from Five project. As a former senior research fellow, now CIS board member, Jennifer has been a integral part of the CIS Education program.
Launched five years ago, the Five from Five project was developed with the objective of promoting effective, evidence-based reading instruction, by providing free resources to teachers, principals and parents and advocating for evidence-based policy with politicians and policy makers.
Host Salvatore Babones will ask, what has been achieved in the five years of Five from Five reading project. What still needs improvement? And, most importantly, we'll ask what the impact of pandemic induced school closures means for students learning, especially for kids from disadvantaged backgrounds?

Dominic Perrottet: NSW After The Pandemic

New South Wales Treasurer Dominic Perrottet joins CIS research director Simon Cowan to discuss the aftermath of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
The treasurer discusses the New South Wales response to the pandemic, particularly from an economic perspective. Most importantly he details the plan for recovery, emphasising the need for businesses to lead the growth and the importance of generating jobs.
We question the post-pandemic debt and deficit, and the effect this will have on future generations. Perrottet looks towards the future and the New South Wales budget, discussing his plan for fiscal and economic reforms to the state and the Federation.
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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/
Join the CIS as a member at - https://www.cis.org.au/support/
Follow CIS on Socials
Twitter - https://twitter.com/CISOZ
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11. On Liberty Lindsay Shepherd: Let individuals assess their own covid risk

This week, On Liberty, host Salvatore Babones speaks with Lindsay Shepherd. Lindsay has been covering the anti-lockdown protests and is an Investigative Journalism Fellow with True North News in Canada.
As the pandemic started to grip the western world in March, governments of all persuasions around the world didn’t take long to embrace their newfound powers. Suppressing our liberties and freedoms with vast and sweeping lockdowns.
While there is certainly a role for government to manage the unfolding health and economic crises, we ask Lindsay Shepherd, to what end? Join us for a discussion about the lockdowns, the protests and what parallels can be drawn between Canada in Australia.
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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/
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/?viewAsMember=true

Trump And America In Crisis

A leading intellectual figure in the conservative movement for the best part of half a century, George F. Will is an optimist about America’s capacity to change and renew itself. But he remains a fierce critic of Donald Trump. Presidents seeking re-election bask in chants of “Four more years!” However, as George points out, in November most Americans might flinch: “Four more years of this? The taste of ashes, metaphorical and now literal, dampens enthusiasm.”
George F. Will is the Pulitzer Prize award-winning columnist for the Washington Post and a regular contributor to MSNBC. He is also author of several influential books, most recently The Conservative Sensibility. It was a great pleasure and high honour to spend quality time with one of the great political thinkers of the modern era.
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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/
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/?viewAsMember=true

10. On Liberty Lessons To Prevent The Next Pandemic

This week, Salvatore Babones is joined by Professor Matt Trau, Professor of Chemistry at The University of Queensland and Deputy Director and co-founder of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. Trau and his team at the Australian Institute for Bio-engineering and Nanotechnology are at the forefront of The University of Queensland's research into Covid.
Having flattened the curve of infections, we need to get on with the task of restoring faith in our society. We can argue back and forth why we weren't better prepared, why we didn't act sooner and why testing was initially slow. However, the question remains: what will it take to get us back to work and back to normal?
Just as the September 11 terror attacks led to dramatic upheavals, so will covid change our way of life. It may take a long time to find vaccines and therapeutic solutions. That means diagnostics tools are our best resource. Why then are we swabbing and testing in the same way we were three decades ago?
Trau will tell how portable nanotechnologies offer solutions that will allow Australians to function again. These next-generation technologies allow medical professionals to screen and test at the point of care, they give more accurate and quicker results and importantly, will propel us into prosperity in this new world.