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• Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society

This program defends and promotes the traditional values and principles of a free and liberal democratic society and open economy in Australia.

In a related area of research we investigate the place of religion in society.

The Christian and the State
Geoffrey BrennanApril 1, 1983OP7

What should be the nature of social and political action which flows from Christian commitment?...

The Politics of Multiculturalism
Raymond SestitoJune 4, 1982PM3

People of other than Anglo-Saxon origin are actively encouraged by the state to preserve their...

Liberty, Justice and the Market
Lauchlan ChipmanSeptember 26, 1981OP6

Professor Chipman challenges some views which have become orthodox in academic and intellectual circles and...

The Profit Motive
Antony FlewSeptember 26, 1980OP3

This paper is published as a contribution to the debate on economic and social issues...

Social Justice, Socialism and Democracy: Three Australian Lectures
F.A. HayekJanuary 5, 1979OP2

“The term “social justice” is today generally used as a synonym of what used to...

Liberty, Equality and Unhappiness
Lauchlan ChipmanSeptember 26, 1978OP1

The first in the series of Occasional Papers. Professor Chipman uses in experience in the...

Humankind and the infinite resource base
Marian L. TupyApril 2, 2026OP212

This paper examines the human ability to expand our resource base into infinity. Given human...

The Legislative Fantasy. Hate Speech, Culture, and Institutional Failure
Dimitri BurshteinMarch 26, 2026AP103

Foreword The Bondi Beach attack of 14 December 2025 forced a reckoning that many Australians...

Overcoming Enmity and Restoring Tolerance. Antisemitism’s challenge for the civic compact
Damien FreemanFebruary 5, 2026AP99

Foreword When the Book of Genesis speaks of enmity between the serpent and the descendants...

Progressive Intolerance. The contemporary antisemitism landscape in Australia
Philip MendesJanuary 22, 2026AP98
The evidence is comprehensive and damning. From universities to trade unions, from civil society organisations...
Reframing an Ancient Hatred: the intersection of left-wing antisemitism and anti-Zionism
Julie ClaridgeDecember 11, 2025AP97
Anti-Zionism has evolved to create a further mutation of antisemitism, cloaking bias and discrimination in...
Political legitimacy, harm protections and our freedoms
Paul TaylorNovember 10, 2025OP211
This article considers different concepts of ‘legitimacy’ and their contribution to understanding the difference between...
CIS Nanny State Awards for 2025
Peter KurtiDecember 11, 2025SPECTATOR FLAT WHITE
Each year, CIS gathers the most ridiculous examples of intrusioninto our lives, to find the...
Hanson’s burqa antics dodges hard questions on multiculturalism
Peter KurtiNovember 27, 2025AFR

Eight years after her first burqa stunt, Pauline Hanson pulled it out of the wardrobe...

Tolerance ends where darkest hatred begins
Peter KurtiNovember 12, 2025DAILY TELEGRAPH

Tolerance is often treated as an unqualified virtue. But even virtues have limits. When men...

Sir Frank Lowy reflects on anti-semitism
Michael StutchburyOctober 14, 2025

Last weekend I was honoured to catch up again with Frank Lowy, surely Australia’s most...

Prison
Don’t let death become an easy way out for criminals
Peter KurtiSeptember 3, 2025DAILY TELEGRAPH
Hume’s death raises serious questions. Not just about his rights, but about ours. About the...
Bob Carr’s genocide claims are dangerous for social cohesion
Peter KurtiJuly 29, 2025AFR

Labor’s Friends of Israel group has made this point forcefully. They call for principled criticism,...

Grounded Liberty: Liberalism’s Moral Roots | Michael Bird
Robert ForsythJune 18, 2025

Robert Forsyth interviews Dr. Michael Bird, who reflects on the relationship between liberalism and Christianity....

The science of learning will set students free | Glenn Fahey
Robert Forsyth, Glenn FaheyJune 13, 2025

Robert Forsyth interviews Glenn Fahey, director of the education program at the Centre for Independent...

In Defence of Jordan Peterson | Rohan McHugh
Robert ForsythJune 4, 2025

Robert Forsyth speaks with Rohan McHugh, who contends that the liberal tradition’s “contest of ideas”...

Robert ForsythMay 21, 2025

In this episode, we delve into the controversial world of the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)...

Faith and Freedom: Evangelical Christianity in Liberal Australia | Stuart Piggin
Robert ForsythMay 7, 2025

In this episode, we explore the history of evangelical Christianity in Australia with guest Stuart...

The Economic Philosophy of Liberalism | Eamonn Butler | Liberalism in Question
Robert Forsyth, Eamonn ButlerApril 16, 2025

We apologise for the picture quality on camera 2. In this episode of Liberalism in...

Submission to the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor (INSLM)
Peter KurtiSeptember 25, 2025

Submission to the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor (INSLM) Review of the definition of a...

Submission to the Senate Inquiry on Information Integrity
Michael StutchburySeptember 12, 2025

On behalf of the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), we are pleased to provide the...

Submission to the Senate Economics References Committee Inquiry into Personal Choice and Community Impacts 2015
August 11, 2015

The CIS submission into the Senate Economics References Committee Inquiry proposed two tightly targeted areas...

Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the value of a justice reinvestment approach to criminal justice in Australia
Sara HudsonNovember 17, 2013

To address the underlying causes of Indigenous offending, we need to focus on education and...

Submission to Native Title Leading Practice Agreements Discussion Paper 2010
Helen Hughes, Mark Hughes, Sara HudsonNovember 30, 2010

The Native Title process is only one of the processes returning land to traditional owners....

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