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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.

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...
Under-16 Social Media Ban: Protecting Youth or Controlling Speech?
Peter KurtiOctober 17, 2025

Peter Kurti from the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) exposes the hidden threats behind Australia’s...

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...

Dark Forces at Work? Sir Frank Lowy on the Return of Antisemitism | The Stutchbury Sessions
Michael StutchburyOctober 10, 2025Liberalism in Question

You can listen to The Stutchbury Sessions on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM or listen...

Drawing the Line: Moral Conflict and the Fragility of Liberal Tolerance
Peter KurtiOctober 9, 2025AP90
Liberal democracies face an unprecedented challenge: how to govern societies where citizens no longer disagree...
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...

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...
Citizenship demands a common language
Peter KurtiAugust 6, 2024DAILY TELEGRAPH

Since Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7, Australian multiculturalism has been unprecedented strain as...

What future for Australian multiculturalism?
Peter KurtiMay 23, 2024SPECTATOR

The fate of Australian multiculturalism may have been sealed on the steps of the Sydney...

Jerry Seinfeld
No offence, but the wokerati are killing free expression
Tom SwitzerMay 3, 2024THE AUSTRALIAN

In a wide-ranging interview with the New Yorker, legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld explains how the...

Religious schools
Religious freedom is not an absolute right
Simon CowanMarch 23, 2024CANBERRA TIMES

It seems we are to go through yet another debate on the issue of religious...

The War for Australia’s Past
Tom SwitzerFebruary 5, 2024AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE

The War for Australia’s Past. Australia ought to be in the world’s gaze for being...

Let’s make Australia Day a day for dialogue, not division
Steven SchwartzJanuary 24, 2024THE AUSTRALIAN

Forty years ago, I pledged to share Australia’s democratic beliefs and respect the rights and...

How! Not How Much: Medicare Spending and Health Resource Allocation in Australia
March 14, 2011
Empires on the Edge of Chaos
Niall FergusonDecember 15, 2010

Professor Niall Ferguson. Author of best-selling The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the...

Ayaan Hirsi-Ali – Eternal Vigilance: Why we must not take Freedom of Speech for Granted
December 15, 2010
Constitutional Conservatism – Peter Berkowitz
December 14, 2010
Long Term Unemployment – Jessica Brown
August 18, 2010
PJ O’Rourke on the Ten Commandments
July 23, 2009
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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