Centre for Independent Studies

👉 Key points:  🔹Civic decline and identity-based education have fuelled the rise of antisemitism in Australia. 🔹Antisemitism grows when Australians stop seeing each other first as equal citizens with shared civic obligations. 🔹Rebuilding civic knowledge and a common national identity strengthens resistance to antisemitism and social division. 👉 Support CIS Research: 🔹 Become a member:  https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/  🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/  🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/  👉 Further reading: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/a-nation-of-strangers-how-a-civic-vacuum-enabled-antisemitism/

👉 Watch Part 1: https://youtu.be/zhxJXyavYzI Is Islam compatible with liberalism? In this episode of Liberalism in Question, Dr Mark Durie joins the Centre for Independent Studies to examine the fundamental tensions between Islamic theology, sharia, and core liberal principles such as individual freedom, equality, and freedom of religion. Mark Durie is a pastor and academic. He writes and speaks on a wide range of topics which include the connection between faith and culture, freedom of religion, the persecution of religious minorities, particularly non-Muslims living under the Islamic sharia, the origin and history of Islam, and discipling new Christians. 👉 Support CIS Research: 🔹 Become a member:  https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/  🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/  🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/ 

👉Watch part 2 here: https://youtu.be/rIWyypaLy5k Is Islam Compatible with Classical Liberalism? | Dr. Samir Mahmoud What is the relationship between Islam and Classical Liberalism? Is there an incompatibility, or just a misunderstanding between manifestations of Islam on the margins?  Dr. Samir Mahmoud is the Education Advisor to the Office of the Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia. He has a BA (Hons) in Anthropology & Politics with a focus on multicultural theory and comparative religion, and an MA in Architectural History, Theory & Urban Design with a focus on the traditional townscape from the University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia. He also holds an MPhil in Theology & Religious Studies with a focus on comparative philosophy and aesthetics. He completed a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Dr. Timothy Winter (Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad). 👉 Support CIS Research: 🔹 Become a member:  https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/  🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/  🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/  Watch here: https://youtu.be/zhxJXyavYzI

Banana Republic Redux: How Australia is surrendering gains of the reform era | Alex Sanchez Read here: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/banana-republic-redux-how-australia-is-surrendering-gains-of-the-reform-era/ Key points • Australia is losing the economic gains achieved during the Hawke-Keating reform era of the mid-1980s after the Banana Republic shock comment. • High taxes and regulations are reducing Australia’s global competitiveness. • Genuine reform requires reducing government size and fostering market-driven growth. Also … • The policies of the past decade are reversing the cost-cutting and economic openness achieved during the reform era. • Increased regulation and government intervention raise business costs, deterring investment and innovation. • Higher taxes and expanded public spending fail to address stagnant productivity and economic growth. • Restoring competitiveness requires deregulation, reducing costs for businesses, and limiting government intervention in the economy. Read here: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/banana-republic-redux-how-australia-is-surrendering-gains-of-the-reform-era/

At the Centre for Independent Studies' annual Liberty and Society student conference, 38 students from Australia and New Zealand explored classical liberal philosophy, free markets and social cohesion through talks and debates led by leading scholars and former officials. Speakers traced the historical shift from Keynesian to pro-market ideas, discussed free speech and the rule of law, and challenged students to lead a renewed classical liberal movement for their generation.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/pfX-nzrgFPM "[Dahrendorf] had protected an idea: that intellectual work and practical engagement could combine without abandoning intellectual standards, that boundaries could be crossed with integrity intact." Join Dr Oliver Hartwich for a conversation about Dahrendorf, Trump and the multitudes of intellectuals who have abandoned their principles. .  👉 Support CIS Research: 🔹 Become a member:  https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/  🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/  🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/  👉 Further reading: https://oliverhartwich.com/2026/02/27/the-temptations-of-unfreedom-revisited/

In this Stutch Sessions episode Parnell Palm McGuinness, author of the CIS report Generation Trapped, explains how young Australians (18–34) split into six distinct 'tribes' all still aspire to homeownership, family, meaningful work and financial security, but feel blocked by high housing costs and limited agency. The conversation covers the political fallout from recent tax changes (capital gains and negative gearing), young entrepreneurs' resentment at perceived penalties on risk-taking, rising distrust in government spending, and the broader implications for policy: boosting opportunity and agency rather than punitive measures.

What classical liberals get wrong about the rest of the World | Alexandre Lefebvre Professor of Politics and Philosophy at the University of Sydney and author of Liberalism as a Way of Life, Alexandre Lefebvre explores how classical liberalism shapes not just politics, but our everyday values, ethics, and way of life. 👉 Support CIS Research: 🔹 Become a member:  https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/  🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/  🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/ 

As Treasurer Jim Chalmers prepares to hand down his fifth federal budget on 12 May 2026, four of Australia's leading economists gather at the Centre for Independent Studies to ask: is this budget up to the challenge? Hosted by CIS Executive Director Michael Stutchbury, this roundtable brings together Robert Carling (CIS Senior Fellow, former Treasury and IMF official), Professor Richard Holden (UNSW Business School), and Chris Richardson (Principal, Rich Insight and Australia's most cited budget economist) for a frank, wide-ranging conversation on the fiscal pressures facing Australia. They discuss rising inflation, a productivity slowdown, a housing crisis, a federal debt approaching $1 trillion, and whether Chalmers' promises on savings, tax reform, and intergenerational equity stack up. 👉 Support CIS Research: 🔹 Become a member:  https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/ 🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/ 🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/ CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty 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 prosper.

People have a lot of opinions and a lot of anecdotes that may not necessarily be true. Politicians deal with feelings. Economists and analysts should deal with facts. We have looked at the data and things are becoming cheaper, more affordable, more abundant in Australia...  👉 Read more:  🔹 Humankind and the infinite resource base: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/humankind-and-the-infinite-resource-base/ 🔹 Hours, Not Dollars: Rethinking the cost-of-living debate: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/hours-not-dollars-rethinking-the-cost-of-living-debate/ 🔹 Growth that Builds: Beyond the immigration blame game: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/growth-that-builds-beyond-the-immigration-blame-game/ 🔹 In Conversation with Marian L. Tupy: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/in-conversation-with-marian-l-tupy/ 👉 Support CIS Research: 🔹 Become a member:  https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/  🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/  🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/ 

As much as anything, the Centre for Independent Studies’ first 50 years has been dedicated to restraining the growth in the size, reach and financing of government to provide room for private enterprise and individual choice.  Now, as in the mid-1970s, the size of government has been ratcheted up. And politicians are increasing taxes to pay for it.   This week, CIS senior fellow Robert Carling has delivered an important corrective to the mantra that taxes aren’t really much of a burden in Australia.  Read more here: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/high-taxing-australia-how-we-measure-up/ 

We welcomed Peter Gregory, author of the CIS paper The Territory Gap: Comparing Australia's remote Indigenous communities. The absolute and relative deprivation experienced by Indigenous people in remote and very remote Australia is well known. However, Indigenous people in remote areas are often lumped together as a single national category. There is little understanding of how the different states and territories perform in terms of the economic wellbeing of Indigenous people in remote and very remote areas. The major finding of this research is that the Northern Territory has the worst economic outcomes for Indigenous people in remote or very remote locations of any state or territory in Australia by some margin, while South Australia has the best. Why are remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory struggling? What is being done to help remote communities to ensure they thrive? Why are seeing the gaps in economic wellbeing across remote communities?