What You Need To Know About | CIS

In this episode, we sit down with Peter Kurti to explore the ideas behind his latest work, Fractured Loyalties: Australian Citizenship and the Crisis of Civic Virtue. We discuss the fundamental role of tolerance in a diverse democracy, the rising threat of antisemitism in Australia, and how weakening civic virtues are impacting social cohesion.

Kurti unpacks the historical roots of citizenship, the principles that hold a nation tog...

​In this episode, we delve into the proposal of allowing homebuyers to access their superannuation funds for purchasing a home. We explore how building housing equity and accumulating superannuation serve as alternative methods for ensuring financial security in retirement. The discussion highlights that while the government aims to ensure individuals prepare for retirement, it doesn't necessarily have a stake in the specific metho...

In this episode, we dive into New Zealand’s groundbreaking housing policy reforms and explore how they’ve successfully tackled the housing crisis. Join us as we unpack the findings of the Centre for Independent Studies’ report, Less Crowded Houses: The Success of NZ’s Housing Policy Reforms and Implications for Australia by Stuart Donovan. What lessons can Australia learn from these bold changes? How did New Zealand streamline hous...

The Rise of Activist Corporations with Peter Swan - Interviewed by Emilie Dye. Australian companies have been shifting from a purely shareholder focus to a much vaguer, less accountable, and damaging stakeholder focus for many years. One important byproduct of this decline in shareholder focus has been former shareholder resources moving into ‘social responsibility’, corporate activism, and promotion of political and popular cause...

Government spending and inflation with Robert Carling - Interviewed by Emilie Dye. That government expenditure in Australia has grown apace in recent years is well-known. The growth became gargantuan during the coronavirus pandemic. However, to a less dramatic extent, it was happening before the pandemic — and has continued since it ended.

Some observers welcome this growth to the extent it is a reflection of new spending programs...

International data have repeatedly shown many Australian school students struggle with mathematics. Around 10% of students achieve at a level that requires additional support (NAPLAN) or are below the international benchmark Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) — which is the equivalent of around 400,000 Australian students per year. More than a quarter of 15-year-olds are low performers in the subject. Learn wha...

The Australian Government wants to transition our electricity system to net zero carbon emissions by relying on wind and solar power – excluding alternatives such as small nuclear reactors. Its justification for this switch rests on the claim that a renewables-dominated system is environmentally beneficial and economically superior to using fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

But its premise is based on a flawed argument which has lef...

The science of learning represents an opportunity to design instruction in a way that is likely to lead to most students’ success with learning. The evidence suggests explicit instruction of a well-sequenced knowledge-focused curriculum will lead to that success.

But, what is the science of learning?

Let's dive in with Trisha Jha to find out.  All our links: https://linktr.ee/centreforindependentstudies #auspol #scienceoflearning...

Warren Hogan is an eminent economist, and the founder of EQ Economics, a Sydney-based micro advisory firm, with a focus on providing economic and strategic advice to businesses in Australia. Warren is a regular in Australian and international media, and a columnist for The Australian Financial Review. He has also published extensively in The Conversation.

In this episode, Warren debunks to notion of greedflation and explains what y...

In this special episode, Dr Scott Prasser and Prof John McMillan debate over the politicisation of the public sector.

Dr Scott Prasser is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies and a former senior advisor to federal cabinet ministers.

Prof John McMillan is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. He has held former statutory positions of Commonwealth Ombudsman, Australian Information Commissioner,...

Read the paper here.  A large amount of taxpayers’ money, state and federal, is expended on large scale infrastructure that is intended to play a crucial part in Australia’s growth and prosperity — although some of it is arguably wasteful or perhaps even pork-barrelling. And as the recent federal government Infrastructure Investment Review found in axing around 50 planned projects, some “do not demonstrate merit, lack any national...

Bracket creep chips away at living standards, especially those of younger generations, a new Issue Analysis by Centre for Independent Studies outlines.  

The paper’s authors, Matthew Taylor and Emilie Dye, point out that Australia’s younger workers have the most to lose from bracket creep because bracket creep is regressive and hits harder for those earlier in their careers and making less money.   Read the paper here: https://www...

Increasingly there are calls for degrowth, not just to abandon the pursuit of economic growth, but to shrink economies. The call for degrowth comes from environmentalists, including activists in groups such as Extinction Rebellion, and some economists, particularly in the field of ecological economics.  It is related to concerns about climate change, pollution, species extinction, and resource exhaustion. Economic growth is to blam...

Hosted by Karla Pincott, What You Need to Know About is the podcast that covers exactly that. Hear from CIS' experts on the key points of their research, providing you with concise and insightful overviews of complex topics. In each episode, we break down intricate policy issues, economic trends, social challenges, and more, delivering the essential information you need to stay informed in today's fast-paced world.

Join us as we ...

We need to relax zoning restrictions to allow more housing. At a society level, this requires more acceptance of higher density and less opposition to new development. We need to put more weight on the interests of renters and future home buyers and less weight on the interests of nearby residents. This rebalancing will shift the incentives for elected governments to act.

Societal pressure over the issue of housing affordability is...