Centre for Independent Studies

Elections 2019: Do Third Parties Really Matter? | Events at CIS

One of the major battlegrounds in the upcoming NSW state election will be for the Upper House. After March 23, centre-right minor parties are likely to hold the balance of power.
It raises the issue of why third parties matter. As the broader Liberal-National coalition shows increasing signs of splintering, what third party best represents the path to a sound governing and legislative agenda at both state and federal levels?
Mark Latham, former federal Labor leader and One Nation candidate, Senator David Leyonhjelm, outgoing Liberal Democratic Party senator and LDP candidate along with Dr Greg Walsh, Australian Conservatives candidate are all vying for seats in the NSW Upper House this election and formed our panel.
Miranda Devine Columnist for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph moderated the panel and delved into that question of why third parties matter.
Who best represents the path to a sound governing and legislative agenda at both state and federal levels?
Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.
http://www.cis.org.au

Amanda Stoker: The future of Liberalism | Conversations at CIS

Queensland LNP Senator Amanda Stoker visited the CIS for our first Leadership Lunch of 2019.
With a strong desire to see Australia return to a country of opportunity based on centre-right beliefs, Senator Stoker hopes to actively engage with Australian’s on social issues and not just on its traditional economic strengths, suggesting that Australia’s current cultural trends reflect the centre-right’s abdication of this responsibility over the last two decades. Senator Stoker represents the young, fresh face of free speech and traditional values in a party she says has ‘vacated the field’ out of shame.
Amanda Stoker has been a LNP senator for Queensland since March 2018.
Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.
http://www.cis.org.au

NSW State election preview| Nick Greiner & Bob Carr | Events at CIS

As NSW prepares for the March 23 election, the “premier state” is in reasonably good condition. Retail spending and business investment are up, the budget is at $1.1 billion surplus and unemployment is at 4.3 per cent. Meanwhile, Sydney’s major public projects — from the new Sydney Metro to the WestConnex underground motorway scheme and Sydney Light Rail — are well underway.
And yet opinion polls show that the Coalition and Labor are neck and neck. Why? Are federal factors at play? What distinguishes Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian from the Labor Opposition leader Michael Daley? Is either party committed to productivity-enhancing economic reform?
Nick Greiner, former NSW Liberal premier from 1988 to 1992, Bob Carr, former NSW Labor premier from 1995 to 2005 and host Brigid Glanville, ABC’s NSW political reporter, were at the CIS to discuss the state of the state.
Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.
cis.org.au

Leeward: A Memoir: Geoffrey Lehmann | Conversations at CIS

Join former High Court justice Michael Kirby and Geoffrey Lehmann for the launch of Leeward: A Memoir (NewSouth) at the CIS.
Geoffrey Lehmann has been one of Australia’s leading poets and tax lawyers for several decades. A partner of PwC and chairman of the Australian Tax Research Foundation, he was involved in the design of Australia’s GST and other tax legislation. He was also short-listed for the T S Eliot Prize. His poetry has appeared in the New Yorker and in 2015 his Poems 1957-2013 won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award (Poetry). His Australian Poetry Since 1788, co-edited with Robert Gray, was one of The Economist’s best books of 2011.
In his frank memoir, Geoffrey describes how he was the late child of a bookish mother and a working-class father. Much to his mother’s surprise, his father, who was a launch driver, bought three houses on the waterfront at McMahons Point and became a slum landlord in the era of rent control. As a 10-year-old child, reading the begging letters from dozens of would-be tenants, Geoffrey became an economic rationalist and an atheist.
Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.
cis.org.au

Women In Politics | Events at CIS

On Thursday, 31 January our panel of speakers thrashed out the issues surrounding women in politics.
Are setting affirmative-action quotas the answer to boosting female representation? Or is a merit-based system of choosing candidates a better option? Are claims of a bullying culture inside the Liberal Party true? Is Labor playing the gender card and identity politics? Who’s had better policies on improving the lives of women? Labor or the Coalition?
Ticky Fullerton (moderator), formerly with the ABC and Sky News, anchors Ticky, weeknights on Your Money.
Karina Okotel is a senior civil lawyer at Victoria Legal Aid and a federal vice president of the Liberal Party.
Eugenie Joseph is a senior policy analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies.
Kristina Keneally, a former NSW premier, is a Labor senator for NSW.
Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.
cis.org.au

Brendan O’Neill on political correctness and its discontents | Events at CIS

Join Brendan O’Neill, one of Britain’s quirkiest, wittiest and liveliest commentators, in conversation with Jeremy Sammut, head of research at the CIS.
The PC brigade continues to entrench itself in the western body politic. Waging war on the past is all the rage. Along with its various campus manifestations such as “safe spaces,” political correctness has become a kind of pathology that damages the capacity to argue and reason. How should we challenge PC?
Brendan O’Neill is the editor of Spiked Online and a former CIS scholar in residence. He is author of A Duty to Offend: Selected Essays by Brendan O’Neill.
Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.
cis.org.au

The Crisis Of Democracy | Events at CIS

For generations, we just assumed democracy is fixed and given. However, all across the world, democracies are sick and suffering from a crisis of confidence. Polls show just a third of Australians are satisfied with the way our democracy is working. Public trust in our politicians is at record lows.
So, how do we restore faith in democracy? Is there too much corporate and foreign money involved in the electoral process? Is the noisy and relentless media cycle the cause of the problem or the symptom? Is political polarization likely to get worse? How do we attract better elected representatives? How do we do democracy better?
Join us for a lively conversation with Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, of newDemocracy, and Glenn Barnes, Company director, as well as Janet Albrechtsen, columnist with The Australian and Matthew Lesh, a research fellow with the IPA and author of Democracy in a Divided Australia (Connor Court).
Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.
cis.org.au

Bill McMahon, an eccentric economic reformer? | Events at CIS

William McMahon was a significant, if widely derided and disliked, figure in Australian politics. Was he our worst prime minister? How did he get to the Lodge? Was he the first free-market “dry” politician to take on the orthodoxies of protectionism and economic interventionism?
The first biography of our 20th prime minister tells the story of his life and his role in the great debates over Australia’s economic direction in the 1960s and 1970s. A man whose life was coloured by tragedy, comedy, persistence, courage, farce and failure. McMahon’s story has never been told at length – until now.
Join Patrick Mullins, author of Tiberius with a Telephone: the Life and Stories of William McMahon (Scribe) with The Australian’s Editor-at-Large Paul Kelly for a conversation about one of our most intriguing prime ministers and his place in Australian political and economic history.
Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.
cis.org.au

A Democratic wave or Trump triumph? US Mid Terms 2018 Elections Results | Conversations at CIS

US midterm elections are usually bad for the President’s party, but amid a booming economy this year’s congressional races are more difficult to predict.
The jobless rate recently fell to 3.7 per cent (the lowest since 1969) and the stock market (shrugging off the Trump tariffs) keeps surging to new highs. Meanwhile, both Republicans and Democrats will use Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court to fuel enthusiasm and turnout for the midterms.
Watch Tom Switzer alongside panelists: Greg Sheridan is foreign editor of The Australian; Bob Carr, a former foreign minister, is director of the Australia-China Relations Institute; and April Palmerlee is chief executive officer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia - discussing on elections' night the results of the midterms and what they mean for American politics and foreign policy.
Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.
cis.org.au

Luke Foley: Values & His Vision for the Labor Party | Conversations at CIS

The NSW Opposition leader visited the CIS to set out an overview of Labor’s vision ahead of the March 2019 state election and how his values of a fair go affect public policy.
In 2010 Luke was elected to the Legislative Council of NSW. Since 2015 he has been leader of the NSW Labor Party and Shadow Minister for Western Sydney.
Follow the CIS on Twitter @CISOZ or find us on Facebook 'The Centre for Independent Studies' for more updates.
cis.org.au