Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
Youth disgust weakens democracy
Political parties have become self-serving cliques whose methods, motives and messages have not changed since their grandfathers lit up their back room cigars. Read More
Moral mission of small government
Regardless of which party wins the election in September, the new government will have much more important issues to deal with than whose turn it is to be leader. Read More
Big Brother deters charity
Reforms intended to boost confidence in Australian charities risk turning the charitable sector into just another arm of government. Read More
Outcry ignores role of travellers
What are the responsibilities of the Australian government to help citizens who get into trouble overseas? Read More
Hummus, Hamas and the hopeless naive
In the wake of the violent Islamist riots, concerns that western governments will seek a political accommodation and try to appease Islamofascist grievances by limiting freedom to criticise Islam are not... Read More
Our right to silence is too important to lose
The move to dilute the right to silence in NSW is unjust, constitutionally questionable and unnecessary. Read More
Tighten the rules on welfare payments
There is more to welfare reform than amalgamating the benefits. Read More
Child protection: generation lost by not being 'stolen'
It is incredibly simplistic and misleading to blame the serious problems many troubled children experience on the decision to take them into care. Read More
Honesty the best policy for those in government
"HONESTY is the first chapter in the book of wisdom," said Thomas Jefferson. Without honesty there is no trust. Without trust, there is no confidence others will follow the rules. Abuse the virtue of... Read More
Egged on to heed Easter
Chocolate has taken over the Easter message. Read More
Finkelstein would take us back before 1695
The beginnings of freedom of the press can be traced back to the lapsing of the Licensing Act in England in 1695. This meant publishers did not require that their publications be licensed by the government... Read More
Religious freedom must not be taken for granted
The importance of religious belief is both derided and attacked in our public debates. Tony Abbott's Christian faith is often used as a stick with which to poke, if not beat, the Opposition Leader Read More
Italy defaults on debt and sends lenders broke? So be it
The federal government will need to cut spending to ensure a surplus in 2012-13. Read More
Government, not capitalism, should take blame
Capitalism is not about giant corporations being able to dump their losses on taxpayers. It is not about allowing senior employees to feast with impunity on the profits of capital supplied by others simply... Read More
Should poker machine gambling be restricted?
Reforms to make people pre commit the amount of money they are going to play on the pokies. Read More
Does gay marriage prove marriage matters?
Gay couples dragging marriage back into vogue. Read More
Don’t gamble with people’s freedom
New Poker Machine laws are impeding people’s freedom Read More
When Prophecy Fails: The Spirit Level and the Illusion of Scientific Socialism
When Prophecy Fails: Arguments about redistribution are moral, not scientific ones, and this book does nothing to change that. Don’t let any academic tell you otherwise. Read More
Prophecies of an egalitarian utopia based on false assumptions
The Spirit Level aims to break away from these ethical conundrums and to replace them with the authority of science. It says governments should redistribute incomes, not because it is moral but because... Read More
Greens boycott is anti-Semitic
Recently the Greens have refused to back a motion in the Senate condemning efforts by protesters from the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to bar would-be customers from entering... Read More
It's Anglicanism, Jim, but not as we know it
If we think of individual churches as religious firms, then collectively they form a religious market Read More
If only phone hacking were the real scandal
For all the tankers of ink that have been spilt analysing Rupert Murdoch’s recent travails, nobody has seen fit to mention the dark irony at the heart of the phone-hacking scandal. Which is that the... Read More
Living together demands civility
We should not rush to stifle public discussions on the off chance that an unhinged individual (whether politically motivated or not) misconstrues them as a clarion call to violence. Nor should the far-right... Read More
Brits recoil from teaching respect for authority at home or school
Following last week's riots in Britain, politicians and commentators have similarly been asking the wrong question. What caused thousands of (mainly) young males to torch buildings where they live, loot... Read More
A confident secularist society would tolerate school religion
A confident secular society, one that trusted in its rationalist public institutions, should have no problem with occasional church-run classes. Read More
Beware pink totalitarianism
Gay marriage dissenters deserve the same respect as advocates Read More
Petty name-calling just adds to polarisation
Increasing polarisation emerges in the aftermath of Larissa Behrendt’s tweet on Bess Price’s support of the NTI. Read More
Getting the nanny state out of alcohol retail
To Australian regulators, beer, wine and spirits seem to be in the same danger category as guns and porn – and thus have to be hidden from the public's view in specialised stores. Read More
Should we have an absolute freedom of speech?
So it is easy to be for free speech in principle. It is far less obvious what this will mean in practice. Read More
Most voters just want a pretty face
Sometimes, even a politician's smile is more important than his or her policies. Read More
America's warpath to Depression
The early Mont Pelerin Society members knew that a free and stable global economic order was not just vital for creating prosperity. It is also a necessary condition for peace. In today’s environment... Read More
Why world must take interest in our boom
Discussion of Hayek's ideas and the Austrian school of economics have had a lot of attention recently and this week Sydney is hosting this year's general meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society, founded by... Read More
Questioning leaders after crisis
Precisely what government is meant to do should be up for discussion right now. Read More
Beer and a fag? Forget it: matron is watching you
There is a new type of paternalism behind the latest taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, says Luke Malpass in Spectator Australia, 7 May 2010 Read More
Let’s ignore snobs of Old Europe
Proudly plebeian, Australia has no need to apologise for its egalitarianism and should celebrate its achievements more self-consciously. Read More
Unhappy lefties tend to be too clever by half
Lefties are smarter than righties, but could righties be happier. Read More
Learning about Hayek the hard way
The Prime Minister should have listened to his least favourite economist, Friedrich Hayek. Read More
Look to punks, not drunks, for good laws
Melbourne’s reputation as gloomsville and the puritanical capital of Australia has been enhanced recently by the Victorian government’s miscalculated attempts to curb binge drinking-fuelled street... Read More
Nanny state can’t save us from ourselves
Is it ever appropriate for the government to legislate to protect us from ourselves? Read More
Protect us from protectionism: keep the doors open
In his recent address to the Australia China Business Council, China's Vice-Premier Li Keqiang expressed his deep desire for a Sino-Australian free trade agreement. This is an encouraging sign, as free... Read More
Threat to political minnows
Adam Smith, the great 18th century economist and philosopher, famously observed that people of the same trade rarely get together without the conversation ending in some conspiracy against the public.... Read More
Australian libertarians revealed
It seems left-wing economic journalist Ross Gittins has just discovered the word ‘libertarian,’ and the revelation seems to have him spooked. Read More
Free-marketers must make a convincing case
When the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, it marked more than the end of an era. It also symbolised the triumph of the free West against the tyranny of communism. The open society had won against Soviet-style... Read More
Must Religion be a Threat to Liberty?
The arguments for the unity of freedom and unbelief are common cultural currency. We are told that faith makes us subservient to authority. It makes us unwilling to think for ourselves, so that we become... Read More
Laissez faire not fair for all
In a spirited defence of sacked Wollongong University academic Ted Steele, Brian Martin (HES, April 18) posed the question: ‘Should academics be entitled to speak out publicly without penalty even if,... Read More
Democracy's Dark Shadow
The collapse of communist regimes in east central Europe in the revolution of 1989, followed within 20 months by the collapse of the Soviet Union itself, seemed to vindicate the most exuberant claims of... Read More
It is no sin to be rich
A discussion of the morality of wealth is timely. In the past year, there has been an increase in the attention given to the behaviour of wealthy people. The courtroom battle between members of Doug Moran’s... Read More