Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
Our fear of adoptions is hurting vulnerable children
Rather than further pursuing often futile parental rehabilitation programs, we need to get children out of harm's way through adoption. Read More
The fair go is fact, not political platitude
Australia's social escalator moves so quickly that the poorest Australians can find fortune in just a few years. With the controversy over the adequacy of unemployment benefits heating up again, the divide... Read More
The politics of apologies: Easy moralism for past sins, but ignorance about the present
Official apologies tend to descend into simplistic condemnations of people and times past rather than criticising current practices. Read More
Why adoption should, in some cases, continue
The "never again" approach to separating parents from children because of previous forced adoption practices has implicatons for current child protection policies. Read More
Apologise but allow adoption
The federal parliament cannot ignore the politics behind the national apology and implications for child protection policy, which include casting doubt on adoption. Read More
Don't mention the M-word
Australian academics have allowed their staunch advocacy for family diversity to get in the way of reasoned analysis on how to best raise children. Read More
Masses rapt in hippy values
Christmas in Australia is drifting from tradition. 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
Mandatory reporting has not failed children
Far from the failure it is made out to be, mandatory reporting by police, education and health professionals of children at risk of harm has worked incredibly well. Read More
Liberals Drop Ball in Super Free-For-All
Lifting superannuation to 12% is wrong. Read More
Focus on 'prevention' abusing kids
Despite increasing government spending on programs meant to prevent child abuse and entries into care, record numbers of children are currently in Out of Home Care (OOHC) in Australia, and this is the... Read More
Myths, lies and adoption
IN 2009-10, 36,000 children were in out-of-home care in Australia and more than two-thirds had been there for at least two years. Many of these children will remain in out-of-home care indefinitely after... Read More
Care system still abusing forgotten children.
In 2009 the federal parliament apologised to the Forgotten Australians who were physically, sexually, and emotionally abused in state and charitable-run orphanages between the 1920s and 1970s. The national... Read More
Paid leave for dads a useless, cynical waste of money
Getting dads more involved in parenting is a noble goal. Unfortunately, there is very little evidence that paid paternity leave will help realise it. Read More
Women's rights push dads aside
This is the disturbing significance of the controversial NSW birth certificate decision. That no gay spokesperson has expressed concern for the father and child stolen from each other speaks volumes about... Read More
Degrees of difference
Many people have taken umbrage at this arguing that having a separate form for some remote communities is an example of 'positive discrimination'. Few people seem to understand the broader implications... 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
OOHC not working for at-risk kids
The causes of the OHHC crisis care are multifaceted. But the consensus among experts is that at the heart of the crisis is the increasing numbers of children with 'high needs' entering care because of... Read More
Custody for Indigenous kids more than black and white
We should find better ways of combining Aboriginal child safety and the passing down of traditional lore by responsible elders. Read More
Migration needs serious debate
Australia became a successful nation of immigrants because the egalitarianism that is central to its national character -- the principle that Jack is as good as his mate -- was extended by "old Australians"... Read More
Paid parental leave adds to dilemma of family benefits
Can we afford to keep expanding an ever more generous system of benefits for middle- and high-income families, or do we need to get more bang for our buck? Read More
Paid parental leave adds to dilemma of family benefits
Can we afford to keep expanding an ever more generous system of benefits for middle- and high-income families, or do we need to get more bang for our buck? Read More
Why Europe is the wrong model for paid parental leave
If we can draw one lesson from the experience of Britain and the other European states now forced into austerity, it is that the cost of new entitlements and promises gradually add up— until suddenly... Read More
Interventionist child protection policies are right for the liberal right
The state has a responsibility to protect children from inadequate parents. Read More
Child protection underbelly sells out at risk kids
Recent events in Victoria and NSW expose the underbelly of Australian child protection – the extent to which the system is driven by the interests of taxpayer-funded charitable organisations rather than... Read More
Statistics, lies and DoCS
One–third of NSW children aged 12 to 17 have been reported to the Department of Community Services and this research shows that severely at risk children have been reported time and time again, without... Read More
Equal help for home and working mums
A new parental leave scheme should not be based around the kind of work their mothers do or don't do. Instead, it should be designed around the needs of newborns. Read More
Working versus stay-at-home is not the mother of all battles
Parental leave policy should reflect the variety of different decisions that families make about how to divide their time between staying at home with the children and working. Read More
Woo mums and big end of town
The enthusiasm with which the Opposition Leader has embraced the cause of working mothers shows just how keen Tony Abbott is to shed his image as a patriarchal conservative and win the support of the female... Read More
Antidote to welfare dependency
The federal government’s extension of income management across the country, announced late last year, reflects a new consensus in Australia and internationally about the pernicious effects on individuals... Read More
Neglect the champers, not the children in 2010
Suspected abuse and neglect of children living in danger should be properly investigated and at-risk children should be removed from their families to be safe – the earlier that statutory intervention... Read More
Crash the glass floor
Governments throughout the Western world, including in Australia, are gradually introducing legislation aimed at making the workplace more family friendly. Read More
Some kids really need to be rescued
As a researcher your gut always churns when you are about to release a new report, but when the Centre for Independent Studies published my report on child protection earlier this year, it was something... Read More
Motivate those on hand-outs
The Rudd government’s approach to sole-parent families, as with that of its predecessor, is that the best form of welfare is a job. This tactic is paying dividends. Read More
Ferguson shown the door by media and the mob
Managing the media takes precedence over dealing with controversial issues in an honest, open and effective manner. Read More
Time to end silence on child abuse
Heightened awareness is clearly essential to educate the community about the shared responsibility for preventing harm to children. However, organisations committed to protecting children’s rights, such... Read More
Rarely a case of happy ever after
Marital relationships in Australia have never been more unstable. The consequences of divorce for individuals and children constitute major social and economic problems for which family law must take a... Read More
Birth rate bubble
Australia is in the middle of an unusual, unrecognised and unintended experiment that may give us insight into the connections between rises and falls in our birth rate and changing economic conditions.... Read More
Better protection is needed for vulnerable children
The conviction of the Hawk Nest couple accused of starving their daughter to death again highlights the need for governments to better protect the most vulnerable children in our community. The question... Read More
Remove endangered children from their abusive parents
Ever since the ‘starved girl’ case hit the headlines in 2007, we have struggled to comprehend the incomprehensible. How is it that children live and sometimes die in the custody of obviously dysfunctional... Read More
There’s no real reform for health and hospitals on the horizon
Despite not many surprises being anticipated, all observers are keenly waiting for the final report of the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission to be submitted to the federal government at the... Read More
Dole must not be first option
Welfare reform still needed despite rising unemployment. Read More
There is more to quality child care than UNICEF’s arbitrary standards
Australia achieves similar levels of poverty reduction as the Scandinavian countries with a much lower tax burden. Read More
Senate does away with the right to remain single
We all know how it goes. Boy meets girl. Dinner, movies, candlelit walks. A little while later they move in together. A few years down the track comes the wedding– for better or worse, richer... Read More
The ABC of policy failure
The federal government is suggesting that ABC’s fall illustrates how desperately the children industry needs re-regulation and is yet another example of excessively greedy capitalism and the free-market... Read More
The battle for paid maternity leave is raging
The battle over paid maternity leave is raging. Stay-at-home versus working mums, feminism versus patriarchy, big business, big government, fertility and even super-sized mortgage repayments - this debate... Read More
Money for nothin’ and paid parental leave for free
Paid parental leave for a year sounds like a great idea – hey, why not make it two? Lots of time to bond with the new bundle of joy, with money from the government coming in to keep up the mortgage repayments.... Read More
We need a fair compromise for paid maternity leave
In the emotion charged world of social policy debate, nothing stirs up passions more than the ongoing argument over paid maternity leave. Stay-at-home versus working mums, feminism versus patriarchy,... Read More
We must separate family services from child protection
Child Protection authorities around Australia have been engulfed in controversy this year. This has followed a number of high profile cases where children have failed to be removed from abusive homes with... Read More
Babies: blight or blessing?
Australia’s birth rates and faltering fertility are in the news again. Cardinal Pell has made a powerful statement about the implications of birth rates below the population replacement level of 2.1... Read More
Fix policies to make housing affordable
The house price bubble has finally burst. While it lasted, the boom added substantially to the wealth of existing home owners, but it has made home ownership more expensive for aspiring new buyers. Read More
Sure, we’ll breed (if we can afford it)
More women would put careers on hold to stay at home with their child if it wasn't so costly, writes Jennifer Buckingham. Read More
Dysfunction runs in the family
The preoccupation with paid maternity leave and our falling fertility rate is shifting attention away from deeper problems. Particular issues such as low birth rates and maternity leave need to be put... Read More
The Parent Trap: Will paid maternity leave really lift the birthrate?
Heather Ridout, deputy chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, says government-funded basic maternity leave is desirable but needs to be augmented by more child care support and flexible working... Read More
Now is the time for fecund thoughts
It's easy to find reasons to put off having a baby. You want to travel first. You want to have a career first. You want to buy a house first. You want to maintain your independence for a while longer.... Read More
Leave off, tax breaks can redress child costs
Three fundamental issues underlie the maternity leave debate. First is the form and level of assistance governments should provide to help meet the costs of having children. Read More
A generation drowns in boos: Repairing society's attitude to rearing children would be revolutionary
The Centre’s eight-year research project, Taking Children Seriously, has established empirically that at least this generation’s children get the best start to life in the environment Peter Saunders... Read More
Children pay the price of gender feminism war
For some radical feminists, males are patriarchal oppressors and the family is their torture chamber. Hence their taboo on men talking about the effects of feminism upon family life and the rearing of... Read More
The damage done by the decline of marriage
In the past generation, Australian family life and marriage have undergone a revolution that has left wounds in the lives of thousands of adults and children, and, directly or indirectly, in the quality... Read More
Tax system that's stifling the family
Everyone knows the family is in trouble these days, but what is not widely recognised is that one of the main reasons for this is changes made to the taxation system since the 1970s. Read More
Why Learning is a Hard Haul Without a Dad
Research over the last few years has shown that, on average, children from sole parent families have significantly lower levels of school achievement than children from couple families. This lower achievement... Read More
Beyond the Classroom: How Parents Influence Their Children's Education
In a society that demands a high level of education and skill for a successful and stable future, a decent education is becoming increasingly important. A child’s education is the shared responsibility... Read More
