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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.

In Conversation with Marian L. Tupy
Marian L. TupyApril 16, 2026OP103

Introduction This publication covers edited extracts from three Marian L Tupy presentations as 2026 Max...

Antisemitism Is Not a Jewish Problem, It’s an Australian Problem | Frydenberg, Finlay & Sackville
Peter Kurti, Michael Stutchbury, Josh Frydenberg, Lorraine Finlay, Ronald Sackville AO KCApril 10, 2026

Michael Stutchbury, Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Studies, opens this panel discussion with...

After Bondi: What must the Royal Commission achieve
Josh Frydenberg, Lorraine Finlay, Ronald Sackville AO KC, Peter KurtiApril 9, 2026OP213

Foreword On Tuesday 31 March 2026, the Centre for Independent Studies hosted a forum at...

Australia’s Hate Speech Failure | Dimitri Burshtein
Dimitri BurshteinMarch 31, 2026

The tragic events at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025 expose a deepening crisis in...

Covenantal Democracy: Maintaining Civil Society in an Age of Identity
Rachael Kohn, Peter KurtiMarch 27, 2026
Join us for the 23rd Acton Lecture at the Centre for Independent Studies on Tuesday...
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...

How Much Justice does a Society Need?
Kenneth MinogueNovember 15, 1992OP40

Hard-headed people often say that perfect justice is impossible, merely a dream. the philosopher Kant...

Why I Am Not a Conservative
F.A. HayekNovember 2, 1992OP41

Liberals who uphold the idea of a free society in which both economic and civil...

From Welfare State to Welfare Society
Michael JamesJuly 1, 1992OP38

The legitimacy of the welfare state has survived the shift in recent years towards smaller...

Freedom, Tradition, Conservatism
Frank MyerJune 1, 1992OP39

The demise of socialist dogma has brought to the fore some underlying tensions between its...

Equalising People: Why Social Justice Threatens Liberty
David GreenDecember 1, 1991OP37

Socialists of all parties have learned to live with markets because they want the prosperity...

Dismantling Socialism: A Preliminary Report
Vaclav KlausAugust 5, 1991OP35

In the eighth John Bonython Lecture, Václav Klaus, Finance Minister of Czechoslovakia, gives an account...

Back the plan and save Australia from hatred
Peter KurtiJuly 14, 2025DAILY TELEGRAPH
Our Jewish neighbours, colleagues and friends are facing harassment, threats and exclusion in ways this...
Lattouf judgment evidence of an ABC that has badly lost its way
Tom SwitzerJune 26, 2025DAILY TELEGRAPH

The Federal Court’s judgment in favour of journalist Antoinette Lattouf represents not just humiliation for...

When hatred finds a home in our institutions
Peter KurtiJune 12, 2025SPECTATOR

I recently watched the documentary October 8, a searing and distressing film about the aftermath...

When it feels like Australia is falling apart, hard truths can bring us back
Peter KurtiJune 12, 2025DAILY TELEGRAPH

Faced with violent protests, rising antisemitism and growing cultural division, Australians are entitled to ask...

Why hope still matters in a divided world
Peter KurtiApril 17, 2025AFR

Hope is easily dismissed as illusory when the grounds for holding fast to it appear...

Identity politics, enclaves, undermine common values
Peter KurtiMarch 12, 2025DAILY TELEGRAPH

Hastily-convened citizenship ceremonies around the nation raised suspicions that the federal government was trying to...

Australia’s Battle of the Think Tanks
November 29, 2011
Q&A – Leadership, Liberty and the Crisis of Authority – The 2011 John Bonython Lecture
November 17, 2011
Q&A – Leadership, Liberty and the Crisis of Authority – The 2011 John Bonython Lecture
November 17, 2011
Leadership, Liberty and the Crisis of Authority
Frank FurediNovember 16, 2011

Professor Frank Furedi, a respected UK-based sociologist, author and media commentator discusses leadership from a...

Czech President Addresses Consilium
November 1, 2011
Ideason the Enlightenment – Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Arthur Herman, Frank Furedi,
October 13, 2011
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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