Cis Podcast

The hard lesson of Australia’s protectionist past is that propping up uncompetitive and high cost industries invariably poses a burden on other sectors, including on the mining, gas and farm exporters that actually support our prosperity.  

Over the past several decades, Australian society has undergone profound economic, social, and cultural change. Education pathways have lengthened, housing costs have far outpaced wages, family formation has been delayed or disrupted, and government intervention has expanded across nearly every stage of life. Public policy has attempted to keep pace with these changes. But there is a growing mismatch between the aspirations young Australians hold and the reality they experience. This CIS research (https://www.cis.org.au/publication/generation-trapped-housing-handouts-and-the-collapse-of-young-australians-life-satisfaction/) examines the lives, aspirations, values, and perceived barriers of Australians aged 18–34. Drawing on original qualitative interviews using conversational AI and quantitative research conducted by Spectre Strategy on behalf of the Centre for Independent Studies, it finds young Australians do not aspire to radically different lives than previous generations. Financial security, home ownersh

Donald Trump’s threats to destroy the ‘whole civilisation’ of Iran this week jarringly contrasted with the out-of-this world American achievement of sending a four-member crew as far from Earth as any humans had gone.   

Australia’s new economic decline is colliding with the breakdown of the liberal rules-based orders for global trade and security. The post-pandemic and oil shock push for more sovereign capability and supply-chain self-reliance will eat into national income just as living standards are under pressure. Resolving this tension will require more, not less, of the pro-market —or neo-liberal — policy agenda of the Hawke-Keating and Howard-Costello era to reboot productivity and economic growth.

I was in Canberra this week, in part to hear International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol warn that today’s oil price shock will rival the twin Middle East energy shocks of the 1970s.  The 1973 and 1979 shocks promoted using smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles. And it prompted a wave of nuclear energy development in Japan, Europe and North America. Today’s oil price shock will have comparable repercussions, Birol predicts.   Here’s the four take outs I picked up at a National Security College conference, where I was on a panel, and the annual Minerals Council of Australia Minerals Week Conference, where I moderated a session:  

The Bondi Beach attack of 14 December 2025 forced a reckoning that many Australians had been quietly avoiding. Antisemitism was not, it turned out, a relic of European history or a pathology confined to the political fringes. It was here, active and emboldened. The question that followed — “what must we do about it?” — has since animated parliamentary inquiries, legislative proposals, and now a Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion led by former High Court Justice Virginia Bell. The Centre for Independent Studies has been engaged through the antisemitism research program led by the Culture, Prosperity and Civil Society program. The CIS’s work on antisemitism has been driven by the conviction that the health of a liberal democracy depends less on the architecture of its laws than on the vitality of its civil society. This conviction runs through our most recent work on institutional resilience under conditions of moral and political stress, and it connects this project to the Centre’s civic plur

RBA governor Michele Bullock has jacked up her cash rate by 25 basis points for the second month in a row because of two words that can strike fear into the heart of central bankers: “inflation expectations”.  What does this mean for you? 

The criticisms and characterization of the 50% capital gains tax discount over many years have been full of misunderstandings, myths and distortions in the conventional narrative on how capital gains tax works, how it compares with the capital gains tax that it replaced in 1999, and the economic consequences of making the capital gains tax burden heavier. The myths and distortions are biasing the public discussion towards increased taxation.

Read the paper at www.cis.org.au  Executive Summary. This paper is an expanded version of a submission to the Senate Select Committee on the Operation of the Capital Gains Tax Discount. The author gave evidence to the Committee at a hearing on 25 February, 2026. Although there is much public discussion of the capital gains tax discount, there is no proposal from government on the table for us to respond to — only rumours and speculation — so our comments are broad-ranging and not confined to housing. As well as the submission, there have been three relevant research publications on CGT issued by the CIS in 2009, 2015 and 2019. Perusal of those publications will show that we do not think much of proposals to reduce the CGT discount. If three publications looks like an obsession, we have had a lot to say on the issue because calls for the discount to be cut or eliminated have been a persistent theme of tax policy debate ever since the defeat of the Howard government, which put the 50% discount in place in 1999.

Immigration and housing affordability have become politically inseparable in contemporary Australia. With rents high, home ownership increasingly out of reach, and housing supply persistently undershooting official targets, it is tempting to conclude that fewer migrants would mean lower prices. That argument has intuitive appeal. More people require more homes. In tightly-constrained markets, additional demand pushes up rents and prices. But intuition is not policy. The evidence suggests a more nuanced reality: migration increases housing demand, yet whether that demand translates into sustained price pressure depends fundamentally on the responsiveness of supply. Where planning systems restrict land use, delay approvals, and cap density, even modest demand shocks quickly become price shocks. Where supply is flexible and institutions allow building to respond, the long-term affordability effects are far smaller — and can even be offset by stronger economic and housing growth. This paper argues that Australia’

Join us on Liberalism in Question for an enlightening discussion with Dr. Jennifer Buckingham, former Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies and a leading voice in Australian education policy.  From critiquing barriers in public schooling to advocating for phonics-based reading instruction and greater parental choice, this episode examines the role of liberalism in fostering equitable opportunities and innovation in Australian education. 

In this thought-provoking episode of Liberalism in Question, we delve into the rich tapestry of Australia's liberal history with esteemed guest Dr Greg Melleuish, Associate Professor of History and Politics at the University of Wollongong. Explore how liberalism shaped Australia's political landscape, influenced key figures like Alfred Deakin and Robert Menzies, and continues to inform contemporary debates on freedom, modernity, and national identity.

In this thought-provoking episode of Liberalism in Question, we welcome Emma Dawson, Executive Director of the progressive think tank Per Capita (and formerly of the Chifley Research Centre), to offer a contrasting social democratic perspective. Challenging classical liberal skepticism toward government overreach, Dawson argues that the state can—and should—play a constructive, helpful role in addressing inequality and building shared prosperity.

Join us on Liberalism in Question as Senator Kerrynne Liddle shares her insights on why one-size-fits-all policies fall short in a diverse nation like Australia. Liddle critiques excessive bureaucracy, advocating for greater personal and community responsibility to drive real progress and prosperity.  This episode challenges conventional thinking on Indigenous affairs and explores how classical liberal principles can foster genuine equality and self-reliance. 

Get your tickets to see Alexander Downer in Sydney: https://events.humanitix.com/alexander-downer-leadership-between-allies-and-the-region  In this episode of Liberalism in Question, former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer joins us to dissect the ever-shifting landscape of political ideologies. From the rise of Trump's nationalist movement and its global ripple effects, to the enduring appeal of economic liberalism as a pathway to prosperity, Downer offers sharp insights into why ideologies evolve like fashion trends—and what it means for our future.

In the second half of the twentieth century, Australia’s cheap, reliable electricity attracted heavy industry to our shores. By 1990, power-hungry copper, aluminium, lead, manganese and zinc smelters had popped up in each of the eastern states that would one day form the National Electricity Market (NEM). As Matthew Warren, former chief executive of the Australian Energy Council, the Energy Supply Association of Australia and the Clean Energy Council, describes the Australian grid: In 2000, the coal and gas used were abundant and cheap, and the hydro was provided by rainfall. It was by international standards, about as cheap and reliable an electricity system as you could build. Its brutal simplicity, reliability and low cost had attracted global industries including aluminium and other processors. These were ‘the good old days’ of cheap and reliable electricity in Australia. But trouble has been brewing in Australia’s smelting paradise over the last two decades, as rising energy prices, carbon charges and fo

In this episode of Liberalism in Question, we dive deep into the complex and often overlooked history of liberalism in the Middle East with renowned expert Joshua Landis. As a professor of Middle East history at the University of Oklahoma and director of the Center for Middle East Studies, Landis brings decades of insight from his work on Syria, sectarianism, and regional politics. Join us as we explore the challenges posed by secular and religious  authoritarianism and modern conflicts in countries like Egypt, Syria, and Israel.

From Donald Trump to the lockdowns, Dave Rubin sits down with Robert Forsyth to discuss classical liberalism in the American context. 

Senator James Paterson joins Liberalism in Question to discuss the core principles of classical liberalism — individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and the rule of law — and how they apply to Australia’s current political debates. The conversation explores where liberalism is being challenged, misunderstood, or defended, and what its future looks like in a changing political landscape.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/NVFhjvDxGX4 From surrogacy to free speech, Rob Forsyth and Gray Connolly discuss the differences between classical liberalism and conservatism in the Australian context.