Centre for Independent Studies

1. On Liberty The Morality Of Australia’s Response To Covid-19

Host Salvatore Babones spoke with Peter Kurti, who directs the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS). Peter discussed the morality of Australia’s response to coronavirus pandemic: hoarding, profiteering, and toilet paper. Beginning the series with a discussion and Q&A session, we’ll look at the community and societal responses to the crisis.
"In the rush to save ourselves [from COVID-19], we are in danger of losing sight of the needs of our neighbours, many of whom are more vulnerable and less able to fend for themselves."
Peter Kurti
In his CIS Ideas article, he went on to suggest that:
Whilst not being complacent about the virus, and being sure to observe public health guidelines, we also need to check the fear that arises from speculation and rumour. We need to cultivate the capacity to live calmly in the face of what we do not know. It’s one of our national traits that makes Australia the envy of so many other countries. Admired for our egalitarian spirit of optimism and a reluctance to take ourselves too seriously, now is the time – like no other – for us to hold fast to our sense of mateship.
Read Peter's CIS Ideas article at - https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/taking-toll-on-society/
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6. On Liberty Judith Sloan: How can we repair the economic damage that has been done?

On the show this week, Salvatore Babones speaks with Judith Sloan, contributing economics editor at The Australian. They'll focus on repairing the economic damage that has been done and what strategic economic policies should be pursued by the government.
Could we have had lower economic costs and still managed the virus well? Does the situation in other countries attest to the health and economic damage wrought if the virus is not well managed? How do we spur a revival of manufacturing to offset disrupted supply chains and ensure security and prosperity?
On Liberty is our weekly live-stream hosted by Salvatore Babones. The show focuses on wide-ranging discussion with the great and the good on how Covid-19 affects Australian society. Please join our CIS researchers and other guests live on YouTube and Facebook each week, or watch past episodes here.
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Doug Bandow: The End Of Pax Americana?

For the past seventy or so years, the United States of America has been the bastion of freedom and democracy, shining the light of its noble ideals around the world and championing those ideals whenever they came under threat. Since the end of the Cold War, American political leaders and policymakers have unashamedly championed U.S. global leadership – from Asia and Europe to the Persian Gulf. However, a few libertarians and classical liberals warned an ambitious foreign policy inspired by vision and sense of mission was fraught with the danger of unintended consequences. It would also represent the kind of foreign policy that has been instrumental in building up the power of states throughout history.
CIS’s scholar in residence for 2020, Doug Bandow, is one of those critics — opposing various U.S. ventures, most notably the US-led wars on terror after September 11, 2001. But the circumstances are changing. In the Trump and Bernie Sanders era, calls for abandoning America’s ambitions of global pre-eminence are growing. If these views prevail, what are the consequences for long-standing U.S. treaty allies, such as Australia?
Doug Bandow is CIS scholar in residence in 2020, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington and a former special assistant to president Ronald Reagan.

The Next Pandemic: China’s COVID-19 coronavirus

Australia isn’t the only country exposed to a novel coronavirus recession in China. The COVID-19 epidemic is first and foremost a human tragedy, but it also has raised fears about the performance of the Chinese economy and everyone who supplies it. According to some scholars, such as Minxin Pei, the outbreak of the new and deadly epidemic is exposing the vulnerabilities of China’s top-down regime. He calls it a disease of Chinese autocracy. Coronavirus, the argument goes, highlights the already low levels of trust in party-state media reporting.
Others disagree, arguing that Beijing has handled the crisis better than anyone had expected compared with two decades ago. After all, Beijing has been more transparent than it was with the SARS epidemic of 2002-03. And in response to the crisis, the regime has locked down cities, cut transport links and is rapidly building new hospitals and medical facilities.
But what happens if the virus can’t be suppressed? How significant will the economic loss and severe travel restrictions be for China? Has coronavirus changed the political calculus on Australia-China relations? Or are these concerns overblown?
Speakers; Doug Bandow is CIS scholar in residence in 2020, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington and a former special assistant to president Ronald Reagan. Natasha Kassam is research fellow in the diplomacy and public opinion program at the Lowy Institute. Sue Windybank is the director of the CIS project on China and free societies. Vicky Xu is a journalist, a comedian and a researcher for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Cyber Policy Centre. Salvatore Babones is an adjunct scholar at CIS and professor of sociology at the University of Sydney.
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Bjorn Lomborg: Climate Policy Without Wasting Trillions

The world's governments have picked 169 well-meaning targets, promising everything to everyone. But too many targets mean no priorities. The Copenhagen Consensus Centre has looked into the data and found the targets that would do the most good.
While participants at the World Economic Forum just voted the top global risk to be extreme weather, most of the rest of the world wants us to concentrate on the many other problems that cause much more damage than global warming. They point to the immense challenges within health, education, nutrition and corruption - issues, that are much less costly and easier to fix. Dr Lomborg worked with fifty teams of the world’s top economists and several Nobel Laureates to look at where the world can do the most good for every dollar spent.
Bjorn Lomborg presents some of the best investment options for humanity — and discuss how we can avoid some of the worst.

2020 Iowa Caucus Elections, confusion and delays. Trump claims victory.

Many seasoned experts of American politics believe Donald Trump is the most vulnerable first-term president since Jimmy Carter four decades ago. After all, his refusal to abide by familiar presidential decorum, especially in his public statements and attacks on individuals, turns off a majority of voters.
However, the Democrats are moving to the ideological Left so rapidly that they may let Trump turn this year’s presidential election into a choice between Trump’s policy record (tax cuts, deregulation) that has led to a more prosperous America and the most extreme US left-wing agenda in living memory.
In the immediate aftermath of the Iowa Caucuses, CIS executive director, Tom Switzer convened our panel on the state of US politics in 2020. The result, which was marred by delays, technical mishaps and confusion came in a week as Donald Trump delivered the State of the Union and survived impeachment.
Who’s the most likely Democrat contender? Why is the party of Kennedy and Clinton becoming more interventionist on economic issues? What might a Democratic victory of the White House and both houses of Congress in November mean for America and the world?
Doug Bandow is senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington and the CIS scholar-in-residence for 2020. He was special assistant to president Ronald Reagan.
April Palmerlee is chief executive of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia and a former assistant secretary in the US State Department in the George W. Bush administration.
Stephen Loosley is senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and a former Labor senator and ALP national president.
Gorana Grgic is lecturer in US politics and foreign policy at the University of Sydney and visiting scholar at the Harvard Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies.
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Restoring Hope: Practical Policies to Revitalise the Australian Economy

To launch Restoring Hope: Practical Policies to Revitalise the Australian Economy by Andrew Stone, CIS welcomed former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, editor-at-large for the Australian, Paul Kelly and CIS executive director, Tom Switzer. Andrew, Tony, Paul and Tom sat down to have a conversation on Australia’s economic outlook for 2020, climate policy and immigration, the panel also took questions from the audience.
It was also at this forum which former Prime Minister Tony Abbott called for middle-class women to have more children, saying current rates of childbirth among this group were a "real problem". https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/abbott-calls-for-middle-class-women-to-have-more-children-20200128-p53vkx.html
Since the Howard government, Australia’s per capita growth rate has slumped and wage growth has been anaemic, while housing prices have skyrocketed relative to household incomes. Commonwealth net debt has surged and Australia has become much more vulnerable to an economic shock than prior to the Global Financial Crisis. This volume prescribes practical policy remedies covering immigration, the housing market, higher education reform, federal-State relations, energy policy, workforce participation, welfare reform, budget repair, monetary policy and financial system regulation.
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For all of the CIS Economic Policy research click here: https://www.cis.org.au/research/economic-policy/

Changing The Debate: Australia Day

Changing the Debate; Our expert panel comprised of CIS’s Indigenous Program director, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO, Dr Anthony Dillon and Chris Kenny of Sky News joined us at the Centre for Independent Studies for a conversation on how best to change the debate surrounding indigenous issues.
When the nation debates whether we should change the date of Australia Day, we should ask; How is any of this going to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians in practical terms? How is this going to generate economic development and employment opportunities, reduce rates of domestic violence, reduce rates of incarceration, produce better health outcomes or help Indigenous Australians empower themselves away from the victim mentality? Will the “Voice” help or hinder indigenous prosperity?
In recent years, symbolic acts and gestures have distracted and deferred attention from the real issues that Indigenous Australians face. However, since the 1970s, governments and NGOs have been motivated by good intentions to overcome Indigenous disadvantage. Yet the billions of tax dollars spent have not appeared to close any measurable gap.
Check out Jacinta's recent article from January 22, 2020 in The Australian: https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/culture-to-blame-for-much-of-indigenous-family-violence/
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For all of the CIS research on Indigenous Affairs click here: https://www.cis.org.au/research/indigenous-affairs/

The 2019 CIS Nanny Awards

The 2019 CIS Nanny Awards take a look back at the year's best and most absurd attempts of the state to try to meddle and infringe on our daily lives. Presented by CIS Executive Director, Tom Switzer and Emeritus Professor Steven Schwartz.
1st; The Australian Federal Government's bash ban.
2nd; New South Wales Police ban dancing at Sydney’s Fringe Festival.
Equal 3rd; Nanny state risking our right to cheese and the City of Bunbury bans mermaids from public swimming pools.
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Howard & Alston: Is there more to life than politics?

On Thursday, 5 December we launched Richard Alston’s new book, More to Life than Politics (Connor Court). Alston, a renowned former cabinet minister of the Howard Government and high commissioner in London was joined by former Prime Minister John Howard, they sat down to conversation led by Tom Switzer.
In his book, the former diplomat, barrister, cabinet minister and veteran Liberal senator details among other things his role in the major national debates about privatisation, innovation, information technology, the Arts and the ABC.
“A brilliant politician in exactly the right place when the Internet arrived.” Ziggy Switkowski, CEO, Telstra (1999-05)
“His obvious intellect and his love of the Arts laid the foundations for today’s successes.” David Gonski, Chancellor, UNSW (2005 – Present)
“An outstanding communications minister, who really understood the industry.” John Howard, Prime Minister (1996-07)
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