Michael Stutchbury, Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Studies, opens this panel discussion with a sobering observation: the Bondi massacre did not come from nowhere. The attack on 14 December 2025 was the violent endpoint of a cascade of hatred that had been building across Australian society for years, and it has forced a confrontation with a question our institutions can no longer avoid. Are our laws, our civic culture, and our leaders equipped to deal with antisemitism as it is now?

Former Federal Treasurer The Hon. Josh Frydenberg argues that the answer, so far, has been no. He traces the failure of political and civic leadership that allowed antisemitism to move from the fringes into the mainstream of Australian life, and sets out what he believes the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion must find and recommend to create genuine, lasting change. For Frydenberg, this is not a Jewish problem. It is an Australian one.

Human Rights Commissioner Dr Lorraine Finlay examines the tension between protecting Jewish Australians from harm and preserving the liberal freedoms that define an open society, and argues these goals are not in conflict. She warns against treating the Royal Commission as the solution in itself, calling on institutions and individuals alike to take responsibility for what has become normalised. Retired Federal Court judge The Hon. Ronald Sackville AO KC brings a historical and legal perspective, reflecting on the significance of Australia's response and what meaningful accountability must look like.

The discussion is moderated by Peter Kurti, Director of the Culture, Prosperity and Civil Society programme at the Centre for Independent Studies, with a vote of thanks delivered by award-winning journalist and author Jill Margo AM.

David Didau — education consultant, teacher trainer, and author of Making Kids Cleverer and Intelligent Accountability — and Dr Jenny Donovan — inaugural CEO of the Australian Education Research Organisation and former head of the NSW Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation — join the Centre for Independent Studies to make the case for systemic reform over individual teacher improvement.

Didau challenges the prevailing deficit view of teachers, arguing that educators already behave rationally within the systems they work in, and that redesigning those systems is a far more powerful lever than targeting individual practice. He frames every teaching decision around three core questions: is every student paying attention, do they understand what's being taught, and are they actually improving?

Donovan brings a research and policy lens to the discussion, drawing on her extensive work translating education evidence into real classroom impact at both the state and national level. Together, the panel explores teacher beliefs, school leadership, the smart use of classroom observation, and the opportunity cost of focusing on home environments rather than where teachers have the most direct impact — in the classroom.

The discussion is chaired by Trisha Jha, Research Fellow in the Education Program at the Centre for Independent Studies, and recorded live at CIS in Sydney, Australia.

Marian Tupy — editor of HumanProgress.org, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, and co-author of Superabundance — makes a data-driven case that human ingenuity consistently outpaces resource constraints. Presenting as the CIS Max Hartwell Scholar-in-Residence for 2026, Tupy argues that more people, given freedom, generate more ideas, more innovation, and rising living standards for everyone.

Using "time prices" — the cost of goods measured in hours of work rather than dollars — Tupy documents a dramatic expansion of material abundance across Australia and the world over the past century. He examines why most goods have become far more affordable relative to wages, while housing, health, and education have not, tracing those exceptions to government interference and restricted competition rather than genuine scarcity.

The lecture traces population pessimism from Malthus to Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, measuring those predictions against the historical record, and revisits the famous Simon-Ehrlich wager of 1980. Tupy then turns to the deeper drivers of abundance: free markets as information systems, the compounding power of knowledge, and his core thesis — superabundance equals population times freedom. The conversation also takes in declining global fertility, the limits of current AI as an engine of innovation, and what a depopulating world might mean for human progress.

The Q&A, chaired by CIS Executive Director Michael Stutchbury, explores why intellectuals gravitate toward zero-sum thinking and the ideological roots of policy failure.

This event was presented by the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, Australia, and recorded live at CIS.

Speaking at his first address outside Canberra since being elected Leader of the Opposition by the Liberal Party room, Angus Taylor joins CIS Executive Director Michael Stutchbury for a wide-ranging conversation on the Liberal Party's direction under new leadership, Australia's cost of living crisis, and the policy reforms needed to restore the country's prosperity and way of life.

Taylor outlines his agenda for economic renewal, centred on spending restraint, lower taxes, affordable energy, and reduced regulation — and issues a direct challenge to the Albanese government to join a bipartisan task force on budget repair. The discussion examines the Liberal Party's path to renewal, including Taylor's candid acknowledgment of past electoral mistakes and his commitment to returning the party to its core values of free markets, economic liberalism, and individual choice.

Taylor sets out his case against what he describes as Labor's big-government model — marked by record regulation, rising taxes, and unchecked spending — and its consequences for inflation, interest rates, housing affordability, and business investment. Turning to specific policy areas, Taylor addresses the urgent need to bring energy costs down by opening up all fuel sources, including gas and nuclear, and critiques the safeguard mechanism as an effective carbon tax on Australian manufacturing.

On immigration, he argues for lower numbers and higher standards, grounded in values rather than race or religion, and calls for moral clarity in response to the Bondi terrorist attack and recent protests. The conversation also covers childcare flexibility, housing supply, defence force funding and recruitment, industrial relations reform, and the threat posed by militant unionism to major national projects including AUKUS.

Joining Taylor on stage, Michael Stutchbury draws on CIS research across energy, housing, productivity, and fiscal policy, while questions from the floor — including from CIS scholars, journalists, and business leaders — probe the hardest edges of the Liberal Party's reform agenda.

The event forms part of CIS’s “Next 50” series marking its 50th anniversary and was recorded live in Sydney.

This event was presented by the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, Australia, and recorded live at CIS.

Alexander Downer and former Prime Minister John Howard join author Tony Parkinson and CIS Executive Director Michael Stutchbury for a wide-ranging discussion on Australian foreign policy, alliance politics, and the shifting global order, marking the launch of A Step to the Right, Tony Parkinson’s new biography of Australia’s longest-serving foreign minister. Drawing on their shared experience during the Howard years, Downer and Howard reflect on a period of rare political stability and sustained policy achievement, and the principles that shaped Australia’s approach to diplomacy, security, and the national interest.

The conversation explores Australia’s alliance with the United States, the decision to invoke ANZUS after September 11, and the controversies surrounding Iraq, Afghanistan, and the war on terror. Downer sets out his defence of alliance reciprocity, arguing that alliances endure only when partners are prepared to support one another in difficult moments. Howard reflects on the strategic logic behind Australia’s overseas commitments and challenges the notion that foreign policy must choose between history and geography, or between America and Asia.

Turning to the present, the discussion examines the erosion of the rules-based order, rising protectionism, China’s strategic ambitions, European free-riding, and renewed geopolitical instability across Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific. Downer and Howard address tensions over Taiwan, Iran’s role in regional conflict, and the return of great-power rivalry, while also critiquing the influence of media narratives and the foreign policy establishment on public debate. The event offers a candid reassessment of recent history and a clear-eyed examination of the challenges confronting Australian foreign policy in an increasingly volatile world.

This event was presented by the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, Australia, and recorded live at CIS.

As part of the Centre for Independent Studies annual Christmas Soirée, this episode explores the ever expanding reach of the modern nanny state through the lens of the 2025 Nanny State Award shortlist.

Presented by Peter Kurti, Director of CIS’s Culture, Prosperity and Civil Society program, the discussion surveys some of the most striking examples of government and institutional overreach from the past year. A recurring theme emerges around food, drink and lifestyle choices, with growing efforts to regulate not just behaviour but taste, advertising and personal preference.

From bans and planning controls to warning labels, taxes and compliance schemes, the episode examines how well intentioned policies can slide into excessive paternalism, often at significant cost to taxpayers and civil liberties. It also touches on expanding regulation beyond government, including activism that seeks to reshape sport, family life and everyday habits.

Witty, sharp and unapologetically sceptical, this conversation asks a larger question. When does public interest become intrusion, and how much control over ordinary life are Australians prepared to accept.

Recorded live at the Centre for Independent Studies annual Christmas Soirée.

Senator Andrew Bragg and economist Peter Tulip join Michael Stutchbury for a wide-ranging conversation on Australia’s housing crisis, the politics of supply, and the future of home ownership. Senator Bragg outlines a centre-right vision for reviving the Australian dream, arguing that housing policy should prioritise freeing up land, cutting red tape, and empowering the private sector to build. Tulip, whose research has reshaped the national debate, examines why zoning restrictions, construction bottlenecks, and infrastructure delays have made housing increasingly unattainable for younger Australians.

This discussion explores the causes and consequences of Australia’s housing shortage: soaring construction costs, record migration, stalled supply, and the interaction between demand-side subsidies and house prices. Bragg critiques Labor’s Housing Australia Future Fund, expanded 5% deposit scheme, and regulatory approach, questioning whether these measures inadvertently inflate prices rather than improve affordability. Tulip contrasts these views with economic evidence showing that planning reform, density, and infrastructure provision are crucial to increasing supply — and highlights surprising areas of bipartisan agreement that have emerged in recent years.

Despite their shared commitment to increasing housing supply, Bragg and Tulip offer contrasting perspectives on key questions: Should governments play a larger role in public and community housing, or should policy overwhelmingly rely on markets? Do deposit guarantees and super-for-housing empower first-home buyers or simply push prices higher? And can the political system overcome entrenched NIMBY resistance to allow the density required to bring prices down? The conversation reveals a genuine debate within centre-right thinking — Bragg’s call for an “unabashed YIMBY” movement meets Tulip’s economic analysis of migration, productivity, and supply-side reform. Together, they examine red tape in the National Construction Code, the tradie shortage, the politics of leafy-suburb resistance, and the risk that declining home ownership poses to Australia’s social contract. This is a candid exchange that doesn’t shy away from hard policy disagreements or the urgency of the crisis.

Senator Andrew Bragg is the Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness and Shadow Minister for Productivity and Deregulation, known for his advocacy of housing supply, deregulation, and intergenerational fairness. Peter Tulip is Chief Economist at the Centre for Independent Studies and one of Australia’s leading housing policy researchers, whose work on zoning and supply constraints has shaped national debate.

This event was presented by the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, Australia. Recorded live at CIS’s Macquarie Street lunch forum.

Three leading education ministers — Sir Nick Gibb (UK), Erica Stanford (New Zealand), and Jason Clare (Australia) — come together for a rare and deeply insightful conversation about how to rebuild school systems, lift student achievement, and close the disadvantage gap. Hosted by the Centre for Independent Studies at NSW Parliament House, this discussion explores the real evidence behind what works in classrooms and what doesn’t.

Sir Nick Gibb shares the inside story of England’s education turnaround: the nationwide shift to phonics, a knowledge-rich curriculum, explicit teaching, strong behaviour standards, and school autonomy. He explains how these reforms reversed years of decline, elevated England to 4th in the world for reading, and empowered teachers to teach with confidence. Gibb also recounts the political, ideological, and institutional battles required to replace ineffective progressive approaches with methods proven to work — especially for disadvantaged students.

Erica Stanford, New Zealand’s Education Minister, offers a compelling and urgent account of reform in a system where half of 15-year-olds fail basic reading, writing, and maths standards. She outlines New Zealand’s shift to structured literacy, explicit teaching, phonics checks, and a knowledge-rich curriculum designed to stop “lost generations” of students. Stanford emphasises how every year of delay condemns tens of thousands of children to long-term educational failure, and why rigorous evidence, data, and teacher training are central to reversing the decline.

Jason Clare, Australia’s Education Minister, focuses on the country’s widening achievement gap and the need to ensure every child gains strong foundational skills by Year 3. He explains how early education access, phonics screening, tutoring programs, and teacher-training reforms are critical to helping struggling students catch up. Clare describes education as the great equaliser — the “superpower” that shapes life chances — and argues that overcoming entrenched disadvantage requires bipartisan commitment, sustained evidence-driven policy, and system-wide consistency.

Recorded live at NSW Parliament House, presented by the Centre for Independent Studies.