Publications
Our publications are the most important means of contact between the Centre's ideas and its general readership. Since 1976, The Centre for Independent Studies has produced some of the most authoritative publications in Australasian academia. From the influential Lands of Shame to the authoritative Will China Fail? CIS has published hundreds of publications covering topics from the social policy to legal affairs to religion and education.
In addition to books, the CIS publishes a range of shorter publications: Issue Analyses deal with controversial and current issues and Policy Mongraphs investigate and offer policy solutions. Since 1984, Policy magazine has published feature articles and reviews authored by some of the foremost national and international thinkers on public policy and ideas. The quality of writing and the diversity of topics in Policy ensure its status as a 'must read' by leading politicans, businesspeople and academics.
Hard copies of our publications are available for purchase through the bookstore. Many of the smaller publications are also available for download.
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All Social Policy Publications
TARGET30: Reducing the burden for future generations
TARGET30 is a campaign promoting smaller government and cutting government spending to less than 30% of GDP in the next 10...
A Fair Go: Fact or Fiction?
The Australian ideal of a fair go is fact rather than fiction. By offering all individuals the opportunity to capitalise...
Saving Medicare But NOT As We Know It
High growth in health spending is the area of public expenditure that will unsustainably increase the size of government...
TARGET30 SNAPSHOT: Saving Medicare But NOT As We Know It
High growth in health spending is the area of public expenditure that will unsustainably increase the size of government...
In the Pay of the Piper: Governments, Not-for-Profits, and the Burden of Regulation
Reforms intended to boost confidence in Australian charities risk turning the charitable sector into just another arm of...
After the Welfare State: Politicians Stole Your Future … You Can Get It Back
History, economics, sociology, political science, and mathematics are the tools to understand and evaluate welfare states,...
Tax Welfare Churn and the Australian Welfare State
The welfare state currently consumes $316 billion a year; however, much of this spending is not targeted at those who need...
TARGET30 SNAPSHOT: Tax Welfare Churn and the Australian Welfare State
The welfare state currently consumes $316 billion a year; however, much of this spending is not targeted at those who need...
The Fraught Politics of Saying Sorry for Forced Adoption: Implications for Child Protection Policy in Australia
Many Australians will believe a national apology for forced adoption is overdue. But there is a danger that the apology will...
Re-moralising the Welfare State
The welfare state should be fair as well as caring. Fairness requires that claimants are not treated more favourably than...
TARGET30: Towards smaller government and future prosperity
TARGET30 is a campaign promoting smaller government, supported by a series of research reports providing policy solutions...
TARGET30 SNAPSHOT: Towards smaller government and future prosperity
TARGET30 is a campaign promoting smaller government, supported by a series of research reports providing policy solutions...
FEATURE: Reconciling Culture and Advancement
This is the address and reply by Alison Anderson, NT Minister for Indigenous Advancement, to the NT Legislative Assembly...
FEATURE: Enabling Indigenous Prosperity
Indigenous prosperity on Indigenous lands is possible only when we stop treating Aboriginal people as inherently different.
Australia and the Asian Ascendancy: Why Upskilling is Not Necessary to Reap the Rewards
Government programs to upskill the Australian workforce for the Asian Century are a solution to a non-problem. With more...
Capitalism and Virtue: Reaffirming Old Truths
In the 2012 Annual John Bonython Lecture, eminent political scientist Charles Murray describes the larger historical forces...
Panacea to Prison? Justice Reinvestment in Indigenous Communities
High Indigenous incarceration has elicited a long list of so-called solutions over the years. Yet the percentage of Aboriginal...
Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012
Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012
Sustainability of Indigenous Communities
Social indicators of Indigenous disadvantage prove that the orthodox methods of delivering services to Indigenous people...
Keeping PISA in Perspective: Why Australian Education Policy Should Not Be Driven by International Test Results
International student assessments such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International...
The New Leviathan: A National Disability Insurance Scheme
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been touted as the biggest social reform since Medicare. Currently, there...
After the Riot: the Meaning for Multicultural Australia
The riot on 15 September in the Sydney CBD by Muslim protestors has raised questions about the health of Australian multiculturalism....
Submission to the COAG Select Council on Disability Reform on NDIS ‘eligibility and reasonable and necessary support’ criteria
Submission to the COAG Select Council on Disability Reform on NDIS ‘eligibility and reasonable and necessary support’...
Submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee
Submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee
Australia's Asia Literacy Non-Problem
New large-scale Asia literacy programs are not necessary for Australia to prosper in the Asian Century. There are approximately...
What’s New with Anti-Semitism?
Criticism of Israeli government domestic policy has intensified in Australia with the emergence of the international Boycott,...
How the NSW Coalition Should Govern Health: Strategies for Microeconomic Reform
In an ever-tightening fiscal environment, the focus of NSW health policy must be the microeconomic reform of the rigid, public...
Indigenous Education 2012
Indigenous Education 2012 reviews the lack of progress by states and territories in improving Indigenous literacy and numeracy....
Overcoming a Culture of Low Expectations
The most important thing we can do to encourage disadvantaged Australians into work – including people with disabilities,...
NSW Community Discussion Paper: Improving Educational Outcomes for Aboriginal People
By ending the raft of current discriminatory, costly and ineffective Indigenous education policies, the New South Wales Coalition...
Charlatan Training: How Aboriginal Health Workers Are Being Short-changed
Aboriginal Health Workers (AHWs) have been short changed. They have not only been provided with charlatan training but also...
FEATURE: How to Make Real Progress in Closing the Gap
Randomised trials can help determine policies that can work in Indigenous affairs.
Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
Australia has a serious problem in low participation in higher education by students from low socio-economic backgrounds....
Do Not Damage and Disturb: On Child Protection Failures and the Pressure on Out-of-Home Care in Australia
This monograph shows that the rising size, cost, and complexity of the out-of-home care system in Australia is directly linked...
School Funding, Choice and Equity
CIS Research Fellow Jennifer Buckingham says the three main goals of school funding – equity, efficiency and excellence...
Submission to Remote Participation and Employment Servicing Arrangements
The Discussion Paper’s focus on participation and employment in remote Indigenous communities is welcome because it distinguishes...
Working Towards Self-Reliance: Three Lessons for Disability Pension Reform
To successful reduce the number of pensioners on disability support, policymakers must apply the lessons of other welfare...
Why a Growing Australia is Nothing to Fear
Australia’s population is growing because our economy is booming and our society is confident about the future. Rather...
Hands, Mouths and Minds: Three Perspectives on Population Growth and Living Standards
The long-run relationship between population growth and living standards has been a source of controversy among economists....
When Prophecy Fails
In their 2009 book, The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett argued for the ‘benefits’ of income redistribution....
Selection, Migration and Integration: Why Multiculturalism Works in Australia (And Fails in Europe)
Australia’s migrants are extremely well integrated by international standards, particularly Europe. The reason why multiculturalism...
FEATURE: Beyond the Culture Wars - Arts Policy for a New Generation
Arts policy can learn from sport's bottom up approach.
FEATURE: One Disease at a Time: Eradicating Scabies in East Arnhem Land
Inspirational leadership can make a difference to Aboriginal health.
FEATURE: The New Future of Old Age
Science promises a longer and healthier old age.
FEATURE: Anti-Discrimination Law and the Attack on Freedom of Conscience
Anti-discrimination law is targeting belief as well as behaviour.
Alcohol Policy and the Politics of Moral Panic
New Zealand’s proposed liquor legislation marks a return to old attitudes towards alcohol regulation that perversely believe,...
Alcohol Restrictions in Indigenous Communities and Frontier Towns
The double standards applied to the enforcement of liquor legislation have contributed to the alcohol problems present in...
Droughts and Flooding Rains: Water Provision for a Growing Australia
In the 2010 federal elections, the debate over Australia’s population surfaced once again. Groups concerned with the impacts...
FEATURE: The Use of Happiness in Society
Happiness is not just a feeling, it is a signal to others about what might make them happier.
FEATURE: Growing Pains
The Australian government has limited control over population size. The policy challenge is dealing with a larger population,...
How! Not How Much: Medicare Spending and Health Resource Allocation in Australia
This report traces the evolution of Australian health policy and its consequences across half a century. The public hospital...
Submission to the Indigenous Sub-committee of the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Services Provision. 2011
Submission to the Indigenous Sub-committee of the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Services Provision. 2011 Overcoming...
FaHCSIA Indigenous Economic Development Strategy 2010
Governments state that their objective is for Indigenous townships to develop and prosper like mainstream Australian towns....
Submission to Indigenous Home Ownership Issues Paper 2010
Part 1 of this submission shows that incorrect data and lack of analysis on Indigenous home ownership continues to mislead...
FEATURE: Living in Two Worlds—Reconciling Tradition and Modernity in Aboriginal Life
The Jewish people offer a guide to how a distinct Aboriginal cultural identity can be maintained in the modern world.
Submission to Native Title Leading Practice Agreements Discussion Paper 2010
The Native Title process is only one of the processes returning land to traditional owners. The lack of benefits to the Indigenous...
Private Housing on Indigenous Lands
Legislation and programs to introduce private housing and businesses on Indigenous land are flawed. Tenure of Indigenous...
No Quick Fix: Three Essays on the Future of the Australian Hospital System
The trilogy of essays in this collection describes the negative effects of the bureaucratisation of the public hospital system...
Populate and Perish? Modelling Australia's Demographic Future
Since the publication of the 2010 Intergenerational Report, Australia has been debating its demographic future and whether...
The Rise of Religious Schools in Australia
Growth in the non-government school sector in Australia has been driven by religious schools, with the largest increases...
The Power and the Responsibility: Child Protection in the Post-Welfare State Era
Government-run child protection services in Australia are plagued by systemic problems, including a misguided emphasis on...
FEATURE: Public Opinion Divided on Population, Immigration and Asylum
Australians oppose asylum seekers arriving by boat but support the migration program.
FEATURE: The Fog of Child Protection Politics
The federal government must see through the politics of child protection to ensure that states better protect vulnerable...
FEATURE: From Murphy's to Howard's Law
Shared parenting laws are under threat from feminists with no intention of giving fathers a fair go.
FEATURE: GP Super Clinics—Has the Market Failed?
There is no economic rationale for providing additional health care subsidises for GP Super Clinics.
BOOK REVIEW: The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University
The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University by Louis Menand (W. W. Norton, 2010.)
BOOK REVIEW: Soccernomics
Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why The U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey—and Even Iraq—Are...
REVIEW ESSAY: Debating the Limits of Care
Vital Signs: Stories from Intensive Care by Ken Hillman (UNSW Press, 2009.) Paul Cunningham asks who and when should pull...
Healthy Stores, Healthy Communities: The Impact of Outback Stores on Remote Indigenous Australians
The federal government’s initiative to improve remote community stores is crowding out the competition and not delivering...
Defeating Dependency: Moving Disability Support Pensioners Into Jobs
The focus of welfare reform efforts should be on encouraging some of the 750,000 existing disability support pensioners back...
Indigenous Education 2010
The 2009 NAPLAN literacy and numeracy tests confirm the continued failure of Indigenous education. The government's 'closing...
FEATURE: The Risks for High Migration
If the population of Australia reaches 36 million by 2050, it will be a direct consequence of migration policy. A growing...
FEATURE: The Great Firewall of Australia
Despite strong opposition and economic and political risks, the federal government continues to support mandatory filtering...
REVIEW ESSAY: The New Middle Class and Education
School Choice: How Parents Negotiate the New School Market in Australia by Craig Campbell, Helen Proctor & Geoffrey Sherington...
BOOK REVIEW: So Many Firsts: Liberal Women From Enid Lyons to the Turnbull Era
So Many Firsts: Liberal Women From Enid Lyons to the Turnbull Era by Margaret Fizherbert (The Federation Press, 2009.)
Indigenous Employment, Unemployment and Labour Force Participation: Facts for Evidence Based Policies
Professor Helen Hughes, Senior Research Fellow at the CIS and Mark Hughes highlight that Indigenous non-labour force participation...
BOOK REVIEW: Up from the Mission: Selected writings
Up from the Mission: Selected Writings by Noel Pearson (Black Inc, 2009).
REVIEW ESSAY: Informing the Happy State
Even if subjective well-being information can lead to better public policy, this doesn't mean that governments should collect...
INTERVIEW: The Economics of Social Policy
Douglas Clements talks with Kevin Murphy about addiction, inequality, education and fertility.
FEATURE: Shopping for Health
Improving health conditions in remote Indigenous communities depdends on better stores. Often the local store is the only...
FEATURE: Slaves of the Bonus Culture
Regulation and incentives are replacing professionalism. The inner motivation of professional integrity becomes gradually...
Closing the Accountability Gap: The First Step Towards Better Indigenous Health
Sara Hudson argues that the untargeted nature of government spending in indigenous health means that it is difficult to know...
Like the Curate’s Egg: A Market-based Response and Alternative to the Bennett Report
The National Health and Hospital Reform Commission (NHHRC) has acknowledged the need to ensure health services are responsive...
What’s Next for Welfare-to-Work?
When jobs are hard to find, the incentive for unemployed people to move to other welfare payments such as DSP grows. There...
The Past is the Future for Public Hospitals: An Insider’s Perspective on Hospital Administration
Drawing on his vast experience, Dr Graham explains why the only future for public hospitals is to reclaim the best features...
Educating The Disadvantaged
Every child can succeed at school if education providers take the right approach. Educating the Disadvantaged, a collection...
Family on the Edge: Stability and Fertility in Prosperity and Recession
Barry Maley argues that unless family law and policies rapidly change, family stability and a buoyant birth rate will be...
FEATURE: Public Health and the New Paternalism
Arguments for taxing alcohol overestimate social costs and ignore personal benefits.
INTERVIEW: Give Smith a Chance
Paul Comrie-Thomson talks to P J O'Rourke about Adam Smith, Finance, Mustang Cars and much else.
REVIEW ESSAY: Working Towards Liberation
The divided Indigenous intelligentsia is a poor guide to the problems and possibilities of Indigenous Life in Australia.
BOOK REVIEW: Once Were Radicals: My Years As a Teenage Islamo-Fascist
Once Were Radicals: My Years As A Teenage Islamo-Fascist by Irfan Yusuf (Allen & Unwin, 2009).
Supping with the Devil : Government Contracts and the Non-Profit Sector
Big-government corporatism is now in danger of smothering the third sector altogether. The temptation for non-profit organisations...
Why Public Hospitals Are Overcrowded: Ten Points for Policymakers
Despite the billions of taxpayer dollars poured into the public hospital system each year, public bed resources are only...
Diminishing Democracy: The Threat Posed by Political Expenditure Laws
Electoral law reforms nearing a Senate vote risk making political activists inadvertent lawbreakers, deterring financial...
New Inquiry — Remote Community Stores in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Communities 2009
Communities in the Northern Territory and in other native title areas need to have private property rights if they are to...
In Defence of Non-Government Schools
Non-government schools are providers of public education and deserve adequate public funding. The purposes and functions...
Schools of Thought: A Collection of Articles on Education
Over the last decade, schools policy in Australia has undergone significant changes. Jennifer Buckingham has been a significant...
Fatally Flawed: The Child Protection Crisis in Australia
It is not underfunding or an overwhelming workload that has caused child protection services to fail the vulnerable children...
FEATURE: The Economies of Virtual Worlds: Lessons for the real world
Online computer games offer more than just entertainment. This article looks at the synthetic environments that encourage...
FEATURE: Jobless Families in a Recession
The government should resist moves to dilute welfare to work. For the 90 percent of jobless parents who don’t participate...
OPINION: Can A Third of a Higher Education Reform Work?
The government's demand-driven higher education funding policy is only one of three market elements needed.
Indigenous Participation in University Education
The government’s use of race-based ‘average’ educational performance measures denigrates Indigenous achievement, ignoring...
Breaking the Cycle of Family Joblessness
Solving the problem of high family joblessness will require reform of the welfare, tax, and industrial relations systems.
Revisiting Indigenous Education
Aboriginal and Torres Islander children in remote communities must not be viewed as ‘different’ from other Australian...
From Rhetoric to Reality: Can 99-year Leases Lead to Homeownership for Indigenous Communities?
The lack of private property rights on communal title land has prevented Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders from becoming...
BOOK REVIEW: Why Not The Best Schools? What We Have Learned From Outstanding Schools Around The World
Why Not The Best Schools? What We Have Learned From Outstanding Schools Around The World By Brian Caldwell and Jessica Harris...
ROSS PARISH ESSAY: Liberty, Time Preference and Decadence
It is the welfare state—not liberty—that fosters decadence, says Ben O’Neill
FEATURE: Medical Training: First Farce then Tragedy
We need to find a way to allow market signals, rather than central planning, to determine how many doctors we need.
In Defence of Civil Society: The Virtue of Prescribed Private Funds
The Commonwealth government is looking to change the rules governing charitable funds which may harm philanthropic giving...
Fixing Prices: Why Vouchers Won't Work While Governments Set Fees
The Bradley report is another chapter in the long story of pricing neglect in higher education. The report should have gone...
Radical Surgery: The Only Cure for New South Wales Hospitals
Wolfgang Kasper argues that the hospital malaise can only be remedied by removing the central, bureaucratic control of hospitals...
A Streak of Hypocrisy: Reactions to the Global Financial Crisis and Generational Debt
Dr Jeremy Sammut says that ‘household savings have collapsed due to an unnecessary dependence on welfare handouts. A new...
FEATURE: Paying for Self-Medication in Australia
Whether pharmacy medicine rules protect patients or pharmacies is open to debate.
FEATURE: Politics and the University
Claims of academics bias raise deeper questions about the nature of universities.
OPINION: Out With the Old: Are the CDEP Reforms Enough?
Making Indigenous Australians in remote communities work-ready requires much more than changes to CDEP.
OPINION: Won't Somebody Think of the Adults?
The Rudd government's proposed censorship regime will slow internet access and hand criminals a directory of illegal content.
Harmacy: The Political Economy of Community Pharmacy in Australia
The regulatory environment that governs community pharmacy has created one of Australia’s most protected industries. It...
Making the Grade: School Report Cards and League Tables
International research shows that students in schools that publish their results publicly perform better than students in...
Million Dollar Babies: Paid Parental Leave and Family Policy Reform
Support for the introduction of paid parental leave has been so vocal that rather than being a means to an end, paid parental...
Baby Steps Toward Self-Funded Parental Leave
The debate about increasing the aged pension highlights the fact that, once again, government handouts lead to increasing...
BOOK REVIEW: Gross National Happiness
Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America- And How We Can Get More of It by Arthur C. Brooks (Basic Books,...
FEATURE: A High-Tax Future for Gen X and Y? Medicare and the intergenerational crisis
Younger generations will have to pay a high price for baby boomers' health care, but private health savings systems could...
OPINION: An Alternative Vision of Parental Leave
Instead of requiring more taxpayer spending, parental leave could be self-funded.
Declaring Dependence, Declaring Independence: Three Essays on the Future of the Welfare State
In a time when governments are running up enormous welfare bills and intrusively regulating everyday life, this series of...
Child Care and the Labour Supply
This report investigates whether child care is unaffordable and if government funding is contributing to its affordability...
House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations Inquiry 2008
We currently employ a bigger proportion of the working-age population (70%) than ever before. Nevertheless, to increase participation...
CDEP: Help or Hindrance? The Community Development Employment Program and its Impact on Indigenous Australians
Established more than thirty years ago, the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) program has expanded to range...
The False Promise of GP Super Clinics Part 2: Coordinated Care
The report’s author Jeremy Sammut examines the evidence for the Rudd government’s plan to use GP Super Clinics to boost...
A Whiff of Compassion? The Attack on Mutual Obligation
The Rudd government is planning to water down the existing work requirements and mutual obligation policies that have helped...
INTERVIEW: The Swedish Paradox
Peter Saunders talks with Timbro CEO Maria Rankka about personal liberty and the welfare state in contemporary Sweden.
OPINION: A 'Fair Go' in Schools
More money alone cannot overcome educational disadvantage.
The False Promise of GP Super Clinics: Part 1: Preventive Care
Dr Jeremy Sammut examines the evidence for preventive care programs to help make the Medicare system sustainable, given the...
Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory
The causes of failing education—inequitable school facilities, inappropriate curriculums, and inadequate teaching—in...
Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities 2008
Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities 2008. The findings of this research...
BOOK REVIEW: Australian Social Attitudes 2: Citizenship, Work and Aspiration
Australian Social Attitudes 2: Citizenship, Work and Aspiration edited by David Denemark, Gabrielle Meagher, Shaun Wilson,...
BOOK REVIEW: School Choice: The Findings
School Choice: The Findings by Herbert J. Wahlberg (Cato Institute, 2007).
FEATURE: Six Social Policy Myths
Policy experts often think alike, even when the evidence contradicts them. This is how billions of dollars get spent on government...
FEATURE: The Real Body Shop, part 2: Spare Parts
There is something morally unattractive about selling body parts, but the alternatives are worse.
REVIEW ESSAY: The Predictive Power of Statistics
Data crunching may soon be more important than intuitive decision-making.
What are Low Ability Workers To Do When Unskilled Jobs Disappear? Part 2
Despite low unemployment, working-age welfare dependency remains high, partly because demand for unskilled labour is in decline....
In Praise of Elitism
Australian society is frequently characterised as egalitarian: belief in a 'fair go' for all and a love for cutting down...
BOOK REVIEW: Divided Nation? Indigenous Affairs and the Imagined Public
Divided Nation? Indigenous Affairs and The Imagined Public by Kirsten Storry (Melbourne University Press, 2007).
FEATURE: Fashionomics
Fashion should be taken seriously. Fashion may function as a mechanism that periodically and speculatively liquidates some...
FEATURE: The Real Body Shop, Part 1: Blood and Corpses
We should consider allowing the sale of blood and body parts.
ROSS PARISH ESSAY COMPETITION: An Inquiry Into The Nature and Causes of the Happiness of Nations
People's actions tell us what makes them happy.
What are Low Ability Workers To Do When Unskilled Jobs Disappear? Part 1
Nearly two million working-age people are on welfare benefits. The fall in the unemployment figures has disguised a displacement...
The Coming Crisis of Medicare: What the Intergenerational Reports should say, but doesn’t, about health and ageing
The demographic and medical realities of the twenty-first century mean that Medicare can no longer provide every citizen...
Child Care: Who Benefits?
Child care has gone from something that families would use sparingly and only if necessary to being an alleged human right....
Kava and after in the Nhulunbuy (Gulf of Carpenteria) Hinterland
Ending kava sales will have positive effects only if the factors that make the Nhulunbuy hinterland dysfunctional are tackled....
BOOK REVIEW: The 7 Deadly Sins of Obesity: How the Modern World is Making Us Fat
The 7 Deadly Sins of Obesity: How the Modern World is Making us Fat edited by Jane Dixon and Dorothy Broom (UNSW Press, 2007).
BOOK REVIEW: Which School? Beyond Private vs Public
Which School? Beyond Private vs Public by Joanna Mendelssohn (Pluto Press, 2007).
FEATURE: The Finn Red Line
Chester E Finn Jr talks to Jennifer Buckingham about tensions between school autonomy, parental choice and the need for better...
The Organisation of Residential Aged Care for an Ageing Population
At the heart of this new paper is the re-assertion of the need for a system of accommodation bonds. Hogan reiterates that...
Lands of Shame: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ‘Homelands’ in Transition
Some 90,000 of Australia’s 500,000 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders live appallingly deprived lives in ‘homelands’...
BOOK REVIEW: Bad Dreaming: Aboriginal Men's Violence Against Women and Children
Bad Dreaming: Aboriginal Men's Violence Against Women and Children by Louis Nowra (Pluto Press, 2007).
BOOK REVIEW: Dumbing Down: Outcomes-Based and Politically Correct- The impact of the Culture Wars on Our School
Dumbing Down: Outcomes-based and politically correct- the impact of the Culture Wars on our schools by Kevin Donnelly (Hardie...
COMMENT: National Curriculum: A Bipartisan Bad Idea
A national curriculum involves more risks than benefits.
FEATURE: Cultural Nationalism: The Last Resort of Scoundrels
Protectionism has spread to culture.
FEATURE: Liberal Egalitarianism and Religious Vilification Laws
Equality of persons is a stronger foundation for freedom of speech than fallibility of knowledge argues.
The Government Giveth and the Government Taketh Away: Tax Welfare Churning and the Case for Welfare State Opt-Outs
Australians are more prosperous than ever before, so the number of people needing government assistance should be falling....
What Is Working in Good Schools in Remote Indigenous Communities?
School‑side and community‑side interventions with which good schools are trying to break the cycle of low attendance,...
Mismatch: Australia’s Graduates and the Job Market
The Commonwealth-directed higher education system has produced a mismatch between available graduates and jobs. Australia’s...
FEATURE: Fact and Fiction: Market Definition and The Media
The ACCC and Pay TV.
BOOK REVIEW: Aboriginal Affairs 1967-2005: Seeking a Solution
Aboriginal Affairs 1967-2005: Seeking a Solution by Max Griffiths (Rosenberg Press, 2006).
FEATURE: The Baby Bonus: A Dubious Policy Initiative
The Baby Bonus is an expensive way to alleviate a fertility decline that need not concern us.
REVIEW ESSAY: Ten Views on Vouchers
School choice causes controversy, even among its supporters.
The HIV/AIDS Crisis in Papua New Guinea
The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea has created a health emergency, with at least 120,000 Papua New Guineans...
Teachers and the Waiting Game: Why Decentralisation is Vital for Public Schools
Centralised staffing systems, which fiercely protect regulations that shelter poor teachers and privilege longevity over...
A Welfare State for Those Who Want One, Opts-outs for Those Who Don't
A system of welfare state opt-outs will help increase people’s independence from government and reverse the unrelenting...
FEATURE: Australia's State of Health
Current health care funding policies are not serving patients' interests.
Indigenous Governance At the Crossroads: The Way Forward
Under the current local government framework, there are too many layers of government in remote Indigenous communities, resulting...
INTERVIEW:The Politics of Furedi
Peter Saunders interviews Frank Furedi.
Tackling Literacy in Remote Aboriginal Communities
Literacy rates among children and adults in remote Aboriginal communities are appallingly low, and cannot be reversed without...
BOOK REVIEW: Cultures Merging: A Historical and Economic Critique of Culture
Cultures merging: A historical and economic critique of culture by Eric Jones (Princeton University Press, 2006).
BOOK REVIEW: Motherhood: How Should We Care For Our Children?
Motherhood: How should we care for our children? by Anne Manne (Allen and Unwin, 2005).
BOOK REVIEW: Please Just F* Off: It's Our Turn Now- Holding Baby Boomers to Account
Please Just F* Off: It's Our Turn Now- Holding Baby Boomers to Account by Ryan Heath (Pluto Press, 2006).
FEATURE: Cultural Protection
Leave culture to the market.
FEATURE: Free Speech, Offence and Religion
Free speech is not a licence to disregard the sensibilities of others.
School Autonomy: A Key Reform for Improving Indigenous Education
The government school model is failing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and urgently needs reform. School...
Family Relationship Centres: Why We Don’t Need Them
As part of a major overhaul of the Family Law Act, the Australian government plans to spend $200 million establishing a network...
The Ethic of Respect: A Leftwing Cause
Frank Field argues that nineteenth century Christianity bequeathed us a "rich deposit of ethical values", which he summarises...
BOOK REVIEW: Australian Social Attitudes: The First Report
Australian Social Attitudes: The First Report Edited by S.Wilson, G.Meagher, R.Gibson, D.Denemark and M.Western (UNSW Press,...
BOOK REVIEW: Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2005
Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2005: a Productivity Commission, 2005.
FEATURE: Choice matters: What Needs to Change to Make Schools Competitive?
Despite increasing private school enrolments, school policy does not foster compeitition.
FEATURE: Disliking Making a Fuss
Underlying racial prejudice in Australia is held in check by tolerance.
FEATURE: Shares in People
Students could finance their studies through selling equity in their future income.
HELPless: How the FEE-HELP Loans System Lets Students Down and How to Fix it
Three new loans schemes were introduced in 2005 to fix omissions in the HECS system, but a more realistic FEE-HELP loan...
Twenty Million Future Funds
The government’s claim that we need a Future Fund to pay for public servants’ superannuation is bogus. In fact, the Future...
BOOK REVIEW: The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime
The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime by Jeffrey Sachs (Penguin Books, 2005.)
FEATURE: The Roads to Serfdom
The welfare state leaves many people with little important to decide for themselves.
FEATURE: Restoration and Revolution: Understanding Post-totalitarianism
The totalitarian destruction of civil society left the nomenklatura in power.
FEATURE: Doctors in the Waiting Room
Tanveer Ahmed and Nick Coatsworth diagnose the ills of medical training.
Education and Learning in an Aboriginal Community
The principal reason why so many Aboriginal people are unable to find jobs is that children in remote areas, such as the...
Reform 30/30: Rebuilding Australia’s Tax and Welfare Systems
John Humphreys has a vision of how the tax and welfare systems could be refashioned to break through the dispiriting problems...
Welfare Reform and Economic Development for Indigenous Communities
Noel Pearson's lecture is to set out a case for a comprehensive reform agenda in Cape York Peninsula.
Good Teachers Where They Are Needed
Allowing qualified professionals to become teachers through school-based education has the potential to reduce Australia’s...
The Economics of Indigenous Deprivation and Proposals for Reform
For remote Indigenous communities to have productive employment opportunities with mainstream earnings, decent health outcomes,...
Smothering By the Security Blanket: Risk, Responsibility and the Role of Government
To what extent can the government manage risk in our society without smothering self-responsibility and impinging on personal...
BOOK REVIEW: Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference
Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference by Alberto Alesina and Edward Glaeser (Oxford, 2004).
BOOK REVIEW: Our Culture, What's Left of it: The Mandarins and the Masses
Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses by Theodore Dalrymple (Ivan R. Dee, 2005).
BOOK REVIEW: Rights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origin of Human Rights
Rights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origin of Human Rights by Alan Dershowitz (Basic Books, 2004).
FEATURE: Forced To Be Free? Compelling Voluntary Student Unionism
The ossified politics of an earlier era are behind the VSU bill.
FEATURE: Science in the Service of the Nation State
Universities are the wrong place to look for sources of business innovation.
FEATURE: Welcome the Edupreneurs
For-profit education would benefit students and teachers.
REVIEW ESSAY: The Mystic Social Scientist
Affluenz: When Too Much is Never Enough By Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss (Allen & Unwin, 2005).
The Free Market Case Against Voluntary Student Unionism (But for Voluntary Student Representation)
The federal government plans to introduce ‘voluntary student unionism’ (VSU) into Australia’s universities by banning...
Six Arguments in Favour of Self-Funding
The welfare state served us well in the past but is decreasingly relevant to current conditions. It came into existence to...
Clearing Muddy Waters: Why Vinnies are Wrong on Inequality
A recent St Vincent de Paul Society report claimed income inequality in Australia is dramatically widening. CIS suggested...
A Headlong Dash into the Chasm of Hyperbole
The St Vincent de Paul Society’s recent paper, The Reality of Income Inequality in Australia, warns of Australia’s ‘current...
Papua New Guinea’s Choice: A Tale of Two Nations
The recent withdrawal of the Australian police is disastrous for the people of Papua New Guinea. The police deployed under...
Lessons from the Tiwi Islands: The Need for Radical Improvement in Remote Aboriginal Communities
The governance structures created during the last 30 years for remote Aboriginal communities are so dysfunctional that the...
The $85 Billion Tax/Welfare Churn
Given the government’s newly-won control of the Senate, most attention is focused primarily on the next 18 months, but...
Universities in a State: The Federal Case Against Commonwealth Control of Universities
The Commonwealth Education Minister, Brendan Nelson, has suggested that the federal government assume full legal responsibility...
BOOK REVIEW: On Bullshit
On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt (Princeton University Press, 2005).
BOOK REVIEW: Family Matters: Family Breakdown and Its Consequences
Family Matters: Family Breakdown and its consequences by Patricia Morgan (New Zealand Business Roundtable, 2004).
COMMENT: The Muslim 'Marginal Man'
Understanding the pyschological and sociological state of Western Muslims will help integrate society and avoid terrorism.
FEATURE: Is Life-long Learning Worth the Effort?
Beware of further study mature workers.
FEATURE: Parent Power
The free market, rather than the centralised bureaucracy, should decide what children learn at school and how they learn...
REVIEW ESSAY: In Pursuit of Truth and Beauty
Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 by Charles Murray (Harper Collins...
A New Deal for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in Remote Communities
A New Deal for Aborigines: Private property rights, educational reform, health care privatisation, and the application of...
FEATURE: Unfinished Business: Reforming Our Intelligence Agencies
Terrorism is not the only urgent issue our intelligence agents must face.
INTERVIEW: Life and Death in Baniyala
Jenness Warin speaks to Djambawa Marawili about the state of education, welfare and health for Australia's indigenous peoples,...
The Pacific is Viable!
Whilst all is relatively quiet in the Pacific, there is still no growth. With aid runing at more than $1.5 billion a year...
Australia's Welfare Habit and How to Kick It
Forty years ago only 3% of working age Australians depended on welfare payments as their main source of income. Today it...
Conspicuous Compassion: Why sometimes it really is cruel to be kind
This book by Patrick West challenges the trend towards dramatic public displays of 'concern' which have very little to do...
FEATURE: Does Australia's Health Insurance System Really Provide Insurance?
There is no way of funding health care so that people with private insurance do not pay twice.
FEATURE: A Future For Indigenous Youth
There are ways of saving young Indigenous Australians from disaster.
FEATURE: Our Changing Future
The Iraq war has broad implications for Australian defence policy.
COMMENT: Environmental Fundamentalism
Predetermined beliefs rather than science are driving public policy on environmental issues.
BOOK REVIEW: Imagining Australia: Ideas For Our Future
Imagining Australia: Ideas For Our Future by Macgregor Duncan, Andrew Leigh, David Madden and Peter Tynan (Allen & Unwin,...
Only 18%? Why ACOSS is Wrong to be Complacent about Welfare Dependency
A new report from the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) accepts that welfare dependency among working age Australians...
BOOK REVIEW: Motivation, Agency and Public Policy: Of Knights and Knaves, Pawns and Queens
Motivation, Agency and Public Policy: Of Knights and Knaves, Pawns and Queens by Julian Le Grand (Oxford University Press,...
REVIEW ESSAY: Third Sector Blues
Crafting a contemporary framework for Australian voluntary organisations. The Political Economy of the Voluntary Sector:...
FEATURE: Punching Above Our Weight
If Australia wants to maintain its influence in the world, it needs to keep reforming its economy and increase its population.
FEATURE: Australia's Older and Wealthier Future
An ageing population need not lead to lower living standards, but it does raise issues of intergenerational equity.
State of the Nation: An Agenda for Change 2004
This book is now in its fourth edition. It offers independent views on Australia’s progress across a range of indicators...
The Taxation of Shared Family Incomes
Terry Dwyer’s paper makes a compelling case for recognising family income sharing for tax purposes, and his arguments and...
Why We Must Reform the Disability Support Pension
There has been a big increase in people claiming the Disability Support Pension (DSP) although at least half of the claimants...
Lies, Damned Lies and the Senate Poverty Inquiry Report
A recent Senate Report claims that ‘poverty’ in Australia is widespread and has been getting worse is ‘seriously flawed’...
Schools in the Spotlight. School Performance Reporting and Public Accountability
Buckingham calls for a consistent, fair and meaningful system of reporting and publishing comparative school performance,...
DEBATE: Crime and Punishment
Are greater use of prisons and more police work needed to reduce crime rates?
FEATURE: A Cure for Health Care
A consumer empowerment model of health care provides the most feasible strategy out of the current health policy reform impasse.
FEATURE: What Is Fair About A 'fair go'?
Social affairs intellectuals who equate popular support for a 'fair go' with egalitarianism are out of step with what ordinary...
REVIEW ESSAY: The Idea of the University
Off Course: From Public Place to Marketplace at Melbourne University by John Cain and John Hewitt (Scribe Publications, 2004).
Divorce Law and the Future of Marriage
No-fault divorce law has precipitated marital instability in Australia, discouraging people from marrying, staying together,...
Poverty in Australia: Beyond the Rhetoric
This report challenges prevailing definitions and measurements of poverty, and calls for an alternative strategy for poverty...
How Union Campaigns on Hours and Casuals are Threatening Low-skilled Jobs
For several years now Australian unions have been waging campaigns to limit working hours and the growth in casual employment...
Valuing Education: A Response to the Australia Institute Report 'Buying an Education'
The Australia Institute, in publishing this report, has done nothing to advance serious and constructive debate on education...
BOOK REVIEW: Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language
Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language by Don Watson (Random House Australia, 2003).
The Open Front Door Tourism, Border Control and National Security
Terrorists could easily exploit a serious weakness in Australia’s border protection regime, warns immigration expert Professor...
Boys' Education - Research & Rhetoric
There is significant evidence that boys have been experiencing educational disadvantage. In this paper, Jennifer Buckingham...
RESPONSES BY INVITATION: Rhetoric Matters
(In response to American Grand Strategy: The Imperial Logic of Bush's Liberal Agenda by Edward Rhodes in POLICY Summer 2003.) Rhetoric...
How To Reduce Long Term Unemployment
More than half the people claiming unemployment allowances in Australia have been on benefits for more than a year. Introducing...
Reforming Divorce Law
Marriage has evolved from a relatively stable bond to a highly uncertain one. High divorce rates, the substitution of cohabitation...
The Beat Goes On: Policing for Crime Prevention
A visible police presence in the community and increased police resources must form a key part of a crime prevention strategy...
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Dr Nelson Mixes Price Flexibility and Rigid Quotas
Education Minister Dr Brendan Nelson’s proposed reforms of higher education will improve the quality of Australian higher...
The Tender Trap: Reducing Long-Term Welfare Dependency by Reforming the Parenting Payment System
Moving single parents whose children are at school off welfare and into work is a key component of a broader strategy to...
Is the ‘Earnings Credit’ the Best Way to Cut the Dole Queues?
The 'earnings credit' proposed by the 'Five Economists' in 1998 will not sufficiently decrease joblessness in Australia,...
Michael in a Muddle: Michael Pusey’s Bungled Attack on Economic Reform
Andrew Norton reveals many serious errors of fact and logic in his detailed critique of Michael Pusey's new book, The Experience...
Aid Has Failed the Pacific
The Pacific islands are an arc of instability threatening Australia’s security. While current problems are of considerable...
Student Debt: A HECS on Fertility?
Opponents of university fees are tapping into concern about declining fertility levels by arguing that there may be a link...
Reflections on Class Size and Teacher Quality
The statistical evidence showing that boys have lower literacy levels and lower average performance than girls in almost...
The Thinning Blue Line
The likelihood that a criminal will be caught after committing an offence is an important deterrent for potential offenders....
A Self-Reliant Australia. Welfare Policy for the 21st century
In this paper Peter Saunders suggests that the time has come to turn back the growth of this expensive, damaging, demeaning...
INTERVIEW: The Man With the Campus Keys
Now in his third country of residence, university Vice Chancellor Steven Schwartz explains how Australian reforms in higher...
BOOK REVIEW: Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet Worldwide
Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet Worldwide by Pippa Norris (Cambridge University Press,...
BOOK REVIEW: The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker (Viking Penguin, 2002).
COMMENT: The Feminist Silence About Islam
Western feminists should be protesting about the oppression of Middle Eastern women, but this would reveal how little they...
BOOK REVIEW: Australia's Welfare Wars: The Players, The Politics and The Ideologies
Australia's Welfare Wars: The Players, the Politics and the Ideologies by Philip Mendes (University of New South Wales Press,...
The Missing Links: Class Size, Discipline, Inclusion and Teacher Quality
The Vinson Report is let down by a lack of rigour and an apparent partiality in its analysis of reforms that have important...
FEATURE: Reforming School Education: Class Size and Teacher Quality
Research shows that effective teaching is far more important than the number of children in the classroom, suggesting that...
FEATURE: Turning Back The Tide: Welfare Lessons From America
Welfare reform in America has worked, and nobody there is any longer even debating whether to reinstate the old system. So...
Poor Laws (2): The Minimum Wage and Unemployment
More than half the poor in Australia are unemployed. It is joblessness, not low-paid jobs, that is the biggest source of...
The Unchained University
Australia's universities are not preparing students adequately for their futures. Report author and higher education expert...
Getting it Right Some of the Time: An Appraisal of the Report on the Inquiry into the Education of Boys
The 2002 parliamentary inquiry and report into the education of boys has failed to recognise that boys from single parent...
INTERVIEW: Back To Human Nature?
Francis Fukuyama, internationally renowned philosopher and author of the recently released book, Our Posthuman Future: Consequence...
Six Questions About Civility
Civility is a moral virtue and a social responsibility, contributing to the public good and the quality of life. Yet the...
Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers : A Global View
A worldwide excess of demand for immigration means that Western countries cannot accommodate more than a small proportion...
Family and Marriage in Australia
The growing instability of the nuclear family is a fundamental cause behind a great deal of juvenile crime, youth suicide...
Families Freedom and Education: Why School Choice Makes Sense
Parents have been demonstrating their increasing lack of faith in the public education system for decades, as reflected in...
The Art of Corporate Governance: a return to first principles
Calls for big business to be more ‘ethical’ and ‘socially responsible’ have never been louder, nor more misguided. ...
Families, Fertility and Maternity Leave
Sound family policy is being side-tracked by the concentration on the role of maternity leave in raising the fertility rate....
Poor Statistics: Getting the Facts Right About Poverty in Australia
Some welfare organisations suggest that poverty statistics are unimportant and that the CIS critique of the Smith Family’s...
The Importance of Teacher Quality
When all other sources of variation in performance are taken into account – including socioeconomic background and differences...
The Social Foundations of a Free Society
A look at five main areas where current trends may be eroding the free society - family life, schooling, community relations,...
Poor Arguments: A Response to the Smith Family Report on Poverty in Australia
The welfare lobby, including The Smith Family and NATSEM, continues to inflate poverty statistics to advance a political...
Public Education in New South Wales: Submission to the ‘Vinson’ Inquiry
The most effective way of improving school performance without increasing recurrent funding is to enable schools to respond...
Taxing the family : Australia's forgotten people in the income spectrum
Over the last two decades, the tax burden has shifted from taxpayers without to taxpayers with dependent children. While...
BOOK REVIEW: Arts and Economics
Arts and Economics: Analysis and Cultural Policy by Bruno S. Frey (Springer Verlag, 2000.)
COMMENT: 'Stakeholder' Theory
The world 'stakeholder' is an unsubtle play on 'stockholder', implying an entitlement not unlike ownership. But if good corporate...
State of the Nation 2001: A Century of Change
This major report finds that Australia is in the midst of profound social and economic change sometimes for the better, sometimes...
State of the Nation 2001: A Century of Change (CD ROM)
A CD version of a major report that finds Australia is in the midst of profound social and economic change sometimes for...
FEATURE: Public Broadcasting and the Profit Motive: The Effects of Advertising on SBS
Changes at SBS have had less to do with advretising and more to do with shifts in government multicultural policy and compliance...
FEATURE: Reforming Wages and Welfare Policy: Six Advantages of a Negative Income Tax
The replacement of all current welfare and wage provisions with a universal but minimal negative income tax would create...
COMMENT: The Crisis of Human Rights
The concept of human rights evolved to buttress liberty by protecting people from excessive state power. Now it is being...
FEATURE: The 'Fair Go' in Australia: Popular Support for Taxing and Spending
Are Australians prepared to tolerate higher taxes in return for increased social services as welfare lobbyists often assume?
BOOK REVIEW: The Politics of Australian Society
The Politics of Australian Society: Political Issues for the New Century edited by Paul Boreham, Geoffrey Stokes and Richard...
BOOK REVIEW:The Enterprise University: Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia
The Enterprise University: Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia by Simon Marginson and Mark Considine (Cambridge...
School Funding for All: Making Sense of the Debate over Dollars
Public debate over school funding is characterised by misinformation and misunderstanding, making any agreement or compromise...
Code of Silence: Public Reporting of School Performance
The refusal of state governments to release any comparative school data means the public and parents are powerless to combat...
Beyond the Classroom : how parents influence their children's education
Parents are crucial to the academic success of their children. The report, Beyond the Classroom: How Parents Influence Their...
Playing with Fire: Churches, Welfare Services and Government Contracts
Striking a balance between state funding and religious autonomy is the latest challenge for church-based welfare agencies....
The Truth about Private Schools in Australia
The evidence strongly suggests that private schools offer their students something that goes beyond financial resources and...
Degrees of Difficulty: The Labour Market Problems of Arts and Social Science Graduates
That the Australian higher education system is comprehensively rigged against students is evident from the current oversupply...
Trailing the Class: Sole Parent Families and Educational Disadvantage
The association between family structure and educational performance has been the focus of much research in recent years....
Boy Troubles: Understanding Rising Suicide, Rising Crime and Educational Failure
Australian boys are at greater risk of doing badly at school, participating in juvenile crime, and committing suicide. The...
Behavioural Poverty
The welfare debate is bedeviled by the failure to distinguish behavioural from financial poverty. The minimum income available...
COMMENT: The Idea of a University Beyond 2000
To survive in the increasingly competitive higher education sector, Australian universities must either 'change or die'....
FEATURE: Academic Freedom and the Well-Managed University
Higher education is poised to become one of the biggest and most lucrative industries in the new knowledge economy. Can Australia's...
SPECIAL FEATURE: Liberalising Learning: An Overview
Three Bert Kelly Lectures on higher education reform.
FEATURE: The Trouble With Boys
Boys are falling behind at school at alarming rates while girls continue to improve. What is causing this gender gap? Has...
Shooting the Messenger: A Critique of Australia’s Internet Content Regulation Regime
With the expansion of the Internet into society, media reports of pornography, paedophiles and racist web sites have induced...
COMMENT: A Recovery Plan for East Timor
There can be little doubt that Australia, bar its military initiative, has assumed a measure of at least temporary co-responsibility...
The Puzzle of Boys’ Educational Decline: A Review of the Evidence
Although research has attempted to explain the decline in boy's performance at school, lack of empirical evidence has precluded...
BOOK REVIEW: Economics and Australian Health Policy
Economics and Australian Health Policy edited by Gavin Mooney and Richard Scotton (Allen & Unwin, 1998.)
Book Review: States of Health: Health and Illness in Australia
States of Health: Health and Illness in Australia (3rd Ed.) by Janet George and Alan Davis (Longman, 1998.)
REVIEW ARTICLE: The Quality of Mercy
Social Welfare and Individual Responsibility: For and Against by David Schmidtz and Robert E. Goodin (Cambridge University...
COMMENT: Family Policy for the New Millenium
Few people would dispute that the life of our children is more uncertain today than at any stage since the Second World War.
COMMENT: The Awful Consequences of the CAP
A look at the grosser absurdities and paradoxes of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP.)
FEATURE: Gambling: Not The Worst Bet
Ever dogged by controversy, gambling has a long and colourful history and is once again under the microscope.
FEATURE: A Critique of Cultural Protectionism
"Australian television will not look Australian until we have effective regulation requiring more local content, particularly...
State of the Nation: Indicators of a Changing Australia 1999
The expanded and revised edition of State of the Nation: Indicators of a Changing Australia 1999 is a comprehensive guide...
BOOK REVIEW: Measuring Immorality: Social Inquiry & The Problem of Illegitimacy
Measuring Immorality: Social Inquiry & The Problem of Illegitimacy by Gail Reekie (Cambridge University Press, 1998.)
Children's Rights : Where the Law is Heading and What it Means for Families
Barry Maley cautions that while children are citizens entitled to the protection of the state, he believes that some recent...
Social Capital Stories: How 12 Australian Households Live their Lives
Social capital - the network of informal social connections that helps to hold communities together - is often reported to...
COMMENT: Polycentric Law in a New Century
The feasibility of privately produced law.
FEATURE: Regulating The Media: It is Dangerous to Give It Special Status
Compeitition Law and the Media Sector. Separating regulation of the media from other goods and services often leads to the...
FEATURE: Saving Australia's Health Care System: Nostrums or Cures?
How to bring the market back into health care.
Reconnecting Compassion and Charity
Supporters of big government and the welfare state regularly accuse their opponents of lacking ‘compassion’. But how...
SCHOOLS' BRIEF: Taxation of Family Income
The Lost Concept of Horizontal Equity
BOOK REVIEW: in Praise of Commercial Culture
In Praise of Commercial Culture by Tyler Cowen (Harvard University Press, 1998.)
BOOK REVIEW: Measuring Progress: Is Life Getting Better?
Measuirng Progress: Is Life Getting Better? edited by Richard Eckersley (CSIRO Publishing, 1998.)
BOOK REVIEW: Asians in Australia: Patterns of Migration and Settlement
Asians in Australia: Patterns of Migration and Settlement edited by James E. Coughlan and Deborah J. McNamara (Macmillan...
COMMENT: World Competitiveness- Are We On Track?
An update on Australia's world competitiveness ranking.
COMMENT: Is Our Culture In Decline?
The 'culture wars' and recent debates over the National Endowment for the Arts reflect deep disagreements about the health...
BOOK NOTES: Corporate Welfare Policy and the Welfare State
Corporate Welfare Policy and the Welfare State by Davita Glasberg and Dan Skidmore (Walter de Gruyter & co, 1997.)
FEATURE: A Macroeconomic Role for the IRC
Institutional redesign as a way to reduce employment.
FEATURE: Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value?
Moving toward, or away from, wage justice for women?
FEATURE: 'League Tables' of School Performance
A legitimate tool of public policy.
Tax Injustice: Keeping the Family Cap-in-Hand
There is a growing awareness of financial pressure on the family, together with anomalies in the interaction of family earnings,...
Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value: Moving Toward, Or Away From, Wage Justice for Women?
Concerns about equity for working women are being misused to move back to industry-wide wage fixing and its attendant dangers...
BOOK NOTES: John Locke and the Origins of Private Property
John Locke and the Origins of Private Property by Matthew H. Kramer (Cambridge University Press, 1997.)
BOOK REVIEW: Social Justice: Fraud or Fair Go?
Social Justice: Fraud or Fair Go? edited by Marlene Goldsmith Menzies Research Centre, 1998.
BOOK REVIEW: Rethinking Law and Order
Rethinking Law and Order by Russell Hogg and David Brown (Pluto Press, 1997.)
BOOK REVIEW: The Future of Schools
The Future of Schools: Lessons from the Reform of Public Education by Brian Caldwell and Don Hayward (Falmer Press, 1998.)
COMMENT: Beyond Wik- Making Native Title Work
Australia is challenged with the difficult tasks of putting in place a legal framework which firmly recognises and defines...
COMMENT: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Wealth
On the Economics of Liberal Rights.
FEATURE: Beyond Master and Servant
The new world of non-employment.
REVIEW: Community Rules
The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society by Amitai Etzioni (Basic Books, 1996.)
COMMENT: The Welfare State- Depreciating Australia's Social Capital?
Large-scale bureaucracies have difficulty providing highly personalised services; not just for reasons of their size but...
Rising Crime in Australia
Rising Crime in Australia provides a long-term perspective on crime. For much of the twentieth century crime rates were...
BOOK REVIEW: Past Wrongs, Future Rights
Past Wrongs, Future Rights by Michael Warby (Tasman Institute, 1997.)
FEATURE: The New Populism in Australia
Since the 1970s, Australians have been living through an age of uncertainty or, perhaps more positively, an age of redefinition.
Social Capital: The Individual, Civil Society and the State
The concept of 'social capital' meaning roughly the network of conventions supporting trust and social co-oreration, has...
Taking Education Seriously - A Reform Program for Australia's Schools
Australia's schools are much criticised by students, parents and employers. Despite significant increases in educational...
BOOK REVIEW: Class in Australia
Class in Australia by Craig McGregor (Penguin Books, 1997.)
BOOK REVIEW: The Retreat from Tolerance: A Snapshot of Australian Society
The Rereat from Tolerance: A Snapshot of Australian Society edited by Phillip Adams (ABC Books, 1997.)
BOOK REVIEW: On Toleration
On Toleration by Michael Walzer (Yale University Press, 1997.)
REVIEW ARTICLE: Back From the Brink
Shaping Their Future: Recommendations for Reform of the Higher School Certificate by Barry McGaw (Australian Council for...
FEATURE: The Moral Habit
An interview with James Q. Wilson.
EDITORIAL: Spring 1997
Editorial for POLICY Magazine Spring 1997.
Democracy and the Welfare State
The welfare state has now been experienced by several generations. In this Occasional Paper, Professor Kenneth Minogue looks...
BOOK NOTES: When Strangers Cooperate: Using Social Conventions to Govern Ourselves
When Strangers Cooperate: Using Social Conventions to Govern Ourselves by David W. Brown (The Free Press, 1996.)
REVIEW ARTICLE: Whither Development Assistance?
One Clear Objective: Poverty Reduction Through Sustainable Development (Simons Committee Report) AusAID (Australian Government...
FEATURE: Financial Globalisation: Ceding Sovereignty or Safeguarding Growth
Fears of globalisation are overstated.
FEATURE: Undermining Rural Sustainability
The unintended consequences of the Drought Landcare Program.
FEATURE: Charter Schools: A New Paradigm For Public Education
Charter schools can bring diversity and choice to public education.
State of the Nation: Statistical Indicators of Australia's Well-being
The first of a series of studies of the social condition of Australia in 1997.
SCHOOL'S BRIEF: Unemployment
It is widely accepted that the inability of many Australians to find paid work is a serious economic adn social problem and...
BOOK NOTE: Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and the Global Information and Infrastructure
Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and the Global Information and Infrastructure edited by Brian Kahin and Charles...
BOOK NOTES: The Family: There Is No Other Way
The Family: There Is No Other Way edited by Bill Muehlenberg, Joseph Santamaria, Peter Westmore and Mary Helen Woods (Australian...
BOOK NOTES: Economic Socialization
Economic Socialization: The Economic Beliefs and Behaviours of Young People edited by Peter Lunt and Adrian Furnham (Edward...
BOOK REVIEW: The Human Wrongs of Indigenous Rights
The Human Wrongs of Indigenous Rights by Ron Brunton (IPA Backgrounder, Insitute of Public Affairs, 1997.)
BOOK REVIEW: Unhealthy Societies: The Affliction of Inequality
Unhealthy Societies: The Affliction of Inequality by Richard G. Wilkinson (Routledge, 1996.)
REVIEW ARTICLE: Transforming Men
Changing Patterns of Dependency and Dominance in Gender Relation by Geoff Dench (Transaction Publishers, 1996.)
FEATURE: Politically Impossible?
How ideas, not interests and circumstances, determine public policy.
FEATURE: Character and Community: The Problem of Broken Windows
Informal controls and the reduction of crime.
BOOK REVIEW: Unlocking the Infrastructure- The Reform of Public Utilities in Australia
Unlocking the Infrastructure- The Reform of Public Utilities in Australia by Stephen King and Rodney Maddock (Allen &...
REVIEW ARTICLE: Family, Education and Society
Family, Education and Society: The Australian Perspective edited by A. R. Barcan and P. O'Flaherty (Academy Press, 1995.)
COMMENT: Free to Cruise: Creating Curb Space for Jitneys
Public buses can't compete with private automobiles because bus rides usually involve long waits, slower commutes, limited...
FEATURE: Civics and Citizenship Education
The dangers of centralised civics education.
BOOK REVIEW: On the Cards: Privacy, Identity and Trust in the Age of Smart Technologies
On the Cards: Privacy, Identity and Trust in the Age of Smart Technologies by Perri 6 and Ivan Briscoe (Demos, 1996.)
REVIEW ARTICLE: From Welfare State to Civil Society
Towards Welfare that Works in New Zealand by David G. Green (New Zealand Business Roundtable, 1996.)
FEATURE: Making Welfare Work
Place management as a key to welfare reform.
BOOK REVIEW: Radicalism, Feminism and Fanatacism: Social Work in the Nineties
Radicalism, Feminism and Fanaticism: Social Work in the Nineties by Brian T. Trainor (Avebury Publishing, 1996.)
REVIEW ARTICLE: After Mabo
Mabo: The Native Title Legislation edited by M. A. Stephenson (University of Queensland Press, 1995.)
REVIEW ARTICLE: Desperately Seeking Community
Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity by Francis Fukuyama (Hamish Hamilton, 1995.)
FEATURE: The CIS At Twenty
Greg Lindsay talks to Andrew Norton on the 20th anniversary of the Centre for Independent Studies.
FEATURE: A Diverse Media Or An Australian Media?
The case for liberalising media ownership laws.
Working Youth:Tackling Australian Youth Unemployment
Working Youth proposes reforms to the labour market and educationthat would begin the task of creating jobs for Australia's...
BOOK REVIEW: Tall Green Tales
Tall Green Tales edited by Jeff Bennett (Institute of Public Affairs, 1995.)
BOOK REVIEW: Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy Power, and the Information Superhighway
Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy Power, and the Information Superhighway by Steven E. Miller (Addison-Wesley/ACM Publishing,...
BOOK REVIEW: Values and the Social Order, Volume 2: Society and Order
Values and the Social Order, Volume 2: Society and Order edited by Gerard Radnitzky and Hard Bouillon (Avebury Publications,...
REVIEW ARTICLE: The Political Obsession Revisited: Eva Cox's Boyer Lectures
A Truly Civil Society: 1995 Boyer Lectures Eva Cox (ABC Books, 1995.)
FEATURE: Nationality, Utility, Liberty
Andrew Norton talks to Greg Melleuish and Chandran Kukathas about the nature of Australian Liberalism and the challenges...
FEATURE: The Strange Disappearance of Civic America
Why might social capital be declining?
Home Repairs: Building Stronger Families to Resist Social Decay
A Private Education for All
Mark Harrison argues in A Private Education for All that public education suffers from a lack of competition and a political...
BOOK REVIEW: Governing Prosperity: Social Change and Social Analysis in Australia in the 1950s
Governing Propserity: Social Change and Social Analysis in Australia in the 1950s by Nicholas Brown (Cambridge University...
FEATURE: Public Figures and The Press
Privacy and media accountability.
FEATURE: Why Employment Performance Differs
The effect of product market regulations on employment.
FEATURE: Sole Parents and Sole Parent Pensioners in Australia
The social anbd demographic context of government assistance to sole parents and trends in statistics on sole parent pensioners.
BOOK REVIEW: Social Networks and Job Acquisition in Ethnic Communities in South Australia
Social Networks and Job Acquisition in Ethnic Communities in South Australia by Edgar Carson (Australian Government Publishing...
SCHOOLS' BRIEF: Environmental Problems
Outlining systems of social coordination; the costs of social coordination; factors determining the costs of coordination...
FEATURE: Protecting Nature... Privately
Why the Private Sector can encourage nature conservation.
FEATURE: The Case for Competition Among Local Competitions
Governmental diversity as a means to more dynamic and democratic government.
CONTROVERSY: Doing Justice To Telecommunications Equity
There are significant differences of principle between those who advocate government intervention to bring about social justice...
REVIEW ARTICLE: Casting Stones at New Feminists
The New Victorians: A Young Woman's Challenge to the Old Feminist Order by Rene Denfeld (Allen & Unwin, 1995.) The First...
BOOK REVIEW: Values and Social Order, Volume I: Values and Society
BOOK REVIEW: Values and Social Order, Volume I: Values and Society edited by Gerard Radnitzky and Hardy Bouillon (Avebury...
BOOK REVIEW: Competing Gospels: Public Ecology and Economic Theory
Competing Gospels: Public Theology and Economic Theory by Robert J. Simons (E.J. Dwyer, 1995.)
BOOK REVIEW: The War of the Words: The Political Correctness Debate
The War of the Words: The Political Correctness Debate edited by Sarah Dunant (Virago Press, 1994.)
FEATURE: The Culture of Modern Entrepreneurship
Family, religion and the economy.
FEATURE: The Self-Destruction of Private Health Insurance
Medicare and community rating undermine the private health funds.
CONTROVERSY: The Individual: A Suitable Case for Denationalisation
A discussion of euthanasia, following its legalisation in the Northern Territory and similar proposals for the ACT and NSW.
CONTROVERSY: Innocent Life and the Slippery Slope
The dangers of setting a precedent for the taking of life.
REVIEW ARTICLE: Family Folly
Creating the Links: Families and Social Responsibility, Final Report by The National Council of the International Year of...
COMMENT: When Trade and Labour Standards Collide
The increased exposure of economies to international competition has raised the profile of domestic issues such as environmental...
The Social Roots of Prosperity
A society’s prosperity depends on its families. That is the central message of Brigitte Berger’s analysis of economic...
Civic Capitalism- An Australian Agenda for Institutional Renewal
A new political middle ground is forming around the idea that successful societies depend on ‘social capital’- the goodwill,...
FEATURE: The Ethics and Politics of Environmentalist Deception
The extinction 'crisis' as a case study in environmentalist exaggeration.
FEATURE: Conservative Without A Cause?
Andrew Norton talks with Peter Coleman, a longtime observer of and participant in Australian intellectual, cultural and...
COMMENT: Sexual Harassment and HMAS Swan: A Case History
Sexual harrassment laws and regulations in the Australian Defence Force.
BOOK REVIEW: The Business of Ecology: Australian Organisations Tackling Environmental Issues
The Business of Ecology: Australian Organisations Tackling Environmental Issues edited by Leigh Cato (Allen & Unwin,...
BOOK REVIEW: Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and Its Rivals
Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and Its Rivals by Ernest Gellner (Hamish Hamilton, 1994.)
FEATURE: Drought, Lies and Videotape
How media coverage of the drought wrecked good public policy.
FEATURE: On The Road to Flexible Working Times
The impact of changing workplaces on our transport needs.
FEATURE: Taxi! Still Taking The Long Way Home
Reform of Australia's taxi industry is slow to start.
REVIEW: Where to for Welfare?
Sustaining the welfare state remains a major problem. Welfare and Inequality: National and International Perspectives on...
BOOK REVIEW: The Seven Cultures of Capitalism
The Seven Cultures of Capitalism: Value Systems for Creating Wealth in the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany, France,...
BOOK REVIEW: Australian Civilisation
Australian Civilisation edited by Richard Nile (Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1994.)
FEATURE: More People, Greater Wealth, More Resources, Healthier Environment
The environmentalist doomsayers have it wrong.
FEATURE: Silk Purse or Sow's Ear: Canberra's Recent Approaches to Regional Development Policy
Now is not a golden age for regional policy.
FEATURE: Green Economics: Its Errors and Insights
Can the Greens and economic rationalism find some common ground?
BOOK REVIEW: Only Words
Only Words by Catharine MacKinnon (HarperCollins, 1994.)
The Moral Sense: An Essay
The distinctive feature of The Moral Sense: An Essay is that it uses the findings of modern science and social science to...
FEATURE: Australia's Long and Rocky Path to Pay TV
The government's other agendas reduced viewers' TV choices.
COMMENT: The Value of Property Rights: A Rejoinder to Bradshaw & Ewing
The value of property rights lies in their ability to coordinate plans, and to allow resources to be used or conserved in...
BOOK REVIEW: Adam Smith in His Time and Ours
Adam Smith in His Time and Ours by Jerry Z. Muller (The Free Press, New York, 1993.)
BOOK REVIEW: Sociological Theory and Educational Reality
Sociological Theory and Educational Reality: Education & Society in Australia since 1949 by Alan Barcan (UNSW Press,...
BOOK REVIEW: The Loss of Virtue: Moral Confusion and Social Disorder
The Loss of Virtue: Moral Confusion and Social Disorder in Britain and America edited by Digby Anderson (IEAD, The Social...
FEATURE: Buy Australian?
Buying Australian could cost jobs and lower living standards.
COMMENT: Reconciliation and Resources: Mineral Rights and Aboriginal Land Rights As Property Rights
Comment on Jacob T. Levy's Reconciliation and Resources.
COMMENT: Further Comment on Reconciliation and Resources: Mineral Rights and Aboriginal Land Rights as Property Rights
Further comments on Jacob T. Levy's Reconciliation and Resources.
FEATURE: The Sanctuary Movement: Preserving Australia's Mammals
Private sanctuaries are the best protection against feral animals.
FEATURE: Autonomy and School Achievement
Independent schools are the key to better academic performance.
REVIEW ARTICLE: Living Decently: Material Well-being in Australia
Living Decently: Material Well-being in Australia by Peter Travers and Sue Richardson (Oxford University Press, Melbourne,...
NOTES AND COMMENTS: The Style Manual's Politics
The fifth edition of the Style Manual is interesting because it seeks to politicise and change many more areas of the language...
NOTES AND COMMENTS: The Volunteers' Movement
There are more than 100,000 not-for-profits organisations set up to help others or their own members, dealing with health...
BOOK REVIEW: God and the Marketplace
God and the Marketplace edited by Jon Davies (IEA Health and Welfare Unit, London, 1993.)
FEATURE: Employment Policies Don't Work
Wage subsidies and public sector job creation are seen by some as a desirable response to the problem of unemployment.
FEATURE: The Riddle of The Social Market Economy
Despite the collapse of communism, Western intellectuals remain sceptical of market capitalism. An exploration of the origin...
FEATURE: Supporting Mothers, Twenty Years On
Government support for sole parents has increased spectacularly over the last twenty years. The level of benefits is now...
FEATURE: Capitalism and Culture
The challenge to free enterprise today isn't economic or political: it's cultural.
REVIEW ARTICLE: Mabo: A Judicial Revolution
Mabo: A Judicial Revolution- The Aboriginal Land Rights Decision and Its Impact on Australian Law edited by M.A. Stephenson...
REVIEW ARTICLE: Reviewing the Australian Legend
The Nervous Nineties: Australian Cultural Life in the 1890s by John Docker (Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1991.) Intruders...
NOTES AND COMMENTS: Drugs in Sport
The ban on drugs has failed to stop drug usage or to protect the lives and health of athletes.
BOOK REVIEW: The Idea of Civil Society
The Idea of Civil Society by Adam Seligman (The Free Press, New York, 1992.)
BOOK REVIEW: Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws
Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws by Richard A. Epstein (Harvard University Press, 1992.)
BOOK REVIEW: Black Suffering, White Guilt
Black Suffering, White Guilt? by Ron Brunton (Institute of Public Affairs, 1993.)
FEATURE: Fees, Subsidies and the Market for Higher Education
Mark Harrison argues that despite major reforms since 1988, the continuing absence of price signals and market incentives...
FEATURE: Urban Consolidation: A Modern Urban Myth
The Australian Commonwealth Government's Building Better Cities program aims to increase urban residential densities. A summary...
FEATURE: Animal, trees and Morals
Some modern advocates of species preservation argue that mankind has absolute moral responsibilities in this area and that...
FEATURE: Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
In recent years, two-parent families have lost ground in the welfare state to other groups, especially sole-parent families...
COMMENT: For Feature: Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
Comment for feature article, Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
COMMENT: Further Comment on FEATURE: Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
Further comment on feature article, Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
COMMENT: Continued Comment for FEATURE: Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
Continued commentary on the feature article, Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
REJOINDER: for FEATURE: Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
James Cox's rejoinder for his feature article, Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
BOOK REVIEW: Delivering the Goods
Urban Goods Movement: A Guide to Policy and Planning by Kenneth Ogden (Ashgate, 1992).
BOOK REVIEW: Making the Post Competitive
The Future of Postal Services by Robert Albon (Institute of Economics Affairs, 1991.)
NOTES AND COMMENTS: Australia's Detention of Asian Refugees: No Rule of Law
The appearance of refugees in Australia has always been a matter of some controversy and has evoked varying responses from...
FEATURE: America's Bureaucratic Crisis of Education
American education can be revitalised only by abandoning the trend towards central bureaucratic planning and returning to...
BOOK REVIEW: The Threat to Liberal Education
Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus by Dinesh D'Souza (The Free Press, 1991.)
NOTES & COMMENTS: Disestablishing Public Education
C/CSA is a working example of a market solution to the national education crisis. While public education remains mired in...
Multicultural Citizens: The Philosophy and Politics of Identity
Although multiculturalism has been promoted for many years by Australia's main political parties, its meaning and implications...
FEATURE: Why Banning Drugs in Sport Does More Harm Than Good
The argument that the ban on drugs in sport fails all the tests that regulations must pass if they are to benefit society.
FEATURE: The 'Too Many Doctors' Myth
The Australian federal government's National Health Strategy Unit argues that Australia has too many GPs and that their numbers...
BOOK REVIEW: The Ecology of Knowledge
Unfathomed Knowledge, Unmeasured Wealth: On Universities and the Wealth of Nations by William Warren Bartley III (Open Court,...
FEATURE: The Maori Fisheries Act 1989 and The Restoration of Maori Fishing Rights
New Zealand's Maori Fisheries Act 1989 provides for the recognition of Maori fishing rights secured under the Treaty of Waitangi...
FEATURE: Student Fees and The Demand For University Places
Higher student fees need not be inconsistent with equity considerations.
BOOK REVIEW: Protection Without Tariffs
Technical Barriers To Agricultural Trade by Jimmye Hillman (Westview Press, 1991.)
BOOK REVIEW: Beyond The Information Society
Beyond Universities: A New Republic of the Intellect by Douglas Hague (Institute of Economic Affairs, 1991.)
SCHOOL'S BRIEF: Unemployment: Dimensions, Causes and Policy Responses
An exploration of the dimensions and causes of current unemployment in Australia, and canvasses some policy responses.
Welfare State and the Problem of the Commons, The
In this contribution to the CIS Social Welfare Research Program, David Thomson argues that the typical welfare state produces...
FEATURE: Some Social Consequences of Gene Improvement
Genetic engineering, social ethics and eugenics.
BOOK REVIEW: A Man-Made Disaster
The Excluded Americans: Homelessness and Housing Policies by William Tucker (Regnery Gateway, 1990.)
BOOK REVIEW: Information, Privacy and the Welfare State
Redistribution by Smart Card: Information, Privacy and the Welfare State: An Integrated Approach To The Administration of...
BOOK REVIEW: Law At The Margins
Law At The Margins: Towards Social Participation by Terry Carney (Oxford University Press, 1991.)
From Welfare State to Welfare Society
The legitimacy of the welfare state has survived the shift in recent years towards smaller government and a greater role...
FEATURE: A Species Worth Preserving
Perspectives on animal treatment and the environment.
FEATURE: Reforming Australia's Railways: The Privatisation Option
The inefficiency of Australia's railway is estimated to cost $5 billion annually. An assessment of the potential role of...
FEATURE: Sense and Nonsense About Soil Degradation
"Apart from soil erosion there is little evidence that degradation of farming soils is a serious problem in Australia."
CRITICAL REVIEW: Some Recent Studies of Australia's Foreign and Defence Policies
Security and Defence: Pacific and Global Perspectives edited by Desmond Ball and Cathy Downes (Allen & Unwin, 1990)Agenda...
BOOK REVIEW: Dissecting the Green Society
Reconciling Economics and the Environment edited by Jeff Bennett and Walter Block (Australian Institute for Public Policy,...
FEATURE: Microeconomic Reform and the Welfare State
An exploration of the scope for reforming the welfare state through a greater reliance on means tests and on private provision...
FEATURE: Why Australia's Divorce Law Should Be Reformed
The law on divorce should be reformed to give effect to a 'democratic compromise' between liberal and conservative concerns.
REVIEW: A Framework For Family Policy
The Family in the Welfare State by Alan Tapper (Allen & Unwin, 1990.)
BOOK REVIEW: Missing the Major Villains
The Decline of the University by Philip de Lacey and Gabriel Moens (Law Press, 1990.)
BOOK REVIEW: Recurrent Anti-Capitalist Bias
The Selling of the Australian Mind by Stephen Knight (William Heinemann Australia, 1990) and The Temperament of Generations:...
NOTES & COMMENTS: Ending the Poverty Trap for Part-Time Workers
Unemployment has become a very real fact of life for many people in Australia today.
NOTES & COMMENTS: Crimes of 'Racist Violence'
The report of the National Inquiry into racist violent in Australia.
FEATURE: Difficulties of Dying
An examination of some of the ethical dilemmas that arise from the ability of modern medical technology to prolong life beyond...
BOOK REVIEW: Wood and Trees
Trends in Biomedical edited by Hiram Caton (Butterworths, 1990.)
Equalising People: Why Social Justice Threatens Liberty
In this Occasional Paper, David Green challenges the pursuit of social justice on three grounds: It is based on a shallow...
FEATURE: Misleading Impressions: The Recession in the Farm Sector and its Impact on Rural Australia
News from the bush tends to be all bad. Several primary industries and many individual farmers are coping well with the recession,...
FEATURE: The Forgotten Consumer: The Distorted Delivery of Child-Care Services
The persistences of informal child care in the face of increasing governent subsidies for child-care services suggests that...
FEATURE: Comparable Worth: An Evaluation Nightmare
Although the comparable worth method of wage-setting has so far made little progress in Australia, its chances of being adopted...
FEATURE: The Risks and Costs of Decriminalising Drugs: A Response to Robert Marks
In his article, 'The Case for a Regulated Drugs market' (Policy Autumn 1991), Dr Robert Marks argued that the costs of prohibiting...
REJOINDER: The Risks and Costs of Decriminalising Drugs
A rejoinder to David Hawks' article, The Risks and Costs of Decriminalising Drugs.
REVIEW ARTICLE: Some Recent Australian Studies of the Greenhouse Effect
Living in the Greenhouse by Ian Lowe (Scribe Publications, 1989.)
FEATURE: Business Ethics and the 'Social Audit'
In the first of two articles on business ethics, Norman Barry examines the argument that business corporations have 'social'...
FEATURE: The Rise of the State in Education: Part Two: The Abolition of Parental Fees
In the second of two articles on the growth of state involvement in education, Edwin West describes the defeat of attempts...
FEATURE: Ending Aboriginal Poverty
Aboriginal self-determination and land rights policies have done nothing to stem the growth in Aboriginal unemployment that...
FEATURE: The Case for a Regulated Drugs Market
Social costs of prohibiting drugs far outweigh the social benefits, and supports the Cleeland Report's (1989) recommendation...
FEATURE: The Rise of the State in Education: Part One: The Intellectual Background
In the first of two articles documenting the growth of state involvement in education, Edwin West traces the decline of the...
NOTES & COMMENTS: The Economic Case for an Open-Door Immigration Policy
A discussion of the Harrison rule and immigration.
NOTES & COMMENTS: Rejoinder to Clarke and Ng
A rejoinder to Clarke and Ng's The Economic Case for an Open-Door Immigration Policy.
FEATURE: The Green Movement: Its Origins, Goals and Relevance For a Liberal Society
Whereas mainstream environmentalists seek a balance between economic growth and environmental protection, 'hard' environmentalists...
FEATURE: Australia's Airline Deregulation: How Much Change?
"In November 1990 Australia's Two Airline Policy will be terminated and replaced by a less regulated market. An assessment...
FEATURE: Australia's Economic and Social Immigration Policies: A Labour Market Perspective
In the Winter 1989 issue of POLICY, Mark Harrison and John Logan proposed that Australia's annual immigration quota should...
FEATURE: The Health Effects of Smoking: Misreading The Evidence
Health promotion policies have popularised the view that smoking is a major cause of fatal disease. In the second of two...
BOOK REVIEW: A Role For Metropolitan Planning
London 2001 by Peter Hall (Unwin Hyman, 1989.)
FEATURE: Failing Families, Vanishing Australians and the Welfare State
Australia's fertility rate, like that of several other Western countries, has fallen well below the level needed to sustain...
FEATURE: The Lalonde Doctrine in Action: The Campaign Against Passive Smoking
In 1974 Marc Lalonde, Canada's Minister of National Health and Welfare, proposed that health promotion policy should ignore...
BOOK REVIEW: The Failure of Aboriginal Affairs Policy
Give and Take: The Losing Partnernship In Aboriginal Poverty by David Pollard (Hale and Iremonger, 1988.)
BOOK REVIEW: The Persistence of Inequality
Egalitarianism and the Generation of Inequality by Henry Phelps Brown (Clarendon Press, 1988.)
FEATURE: Putting Australian Railways On The Right Track
The Australian railway industry has begun to take steps to contain its huge deficits. Ken Ogden identifies the causes of...
FEATURE: Aid For Employment?
Lack of employment opportunities is a major source of poverty in many developing countries. A discussion of whether and how...
FEATURE: Criminal Choice: An Economic View Of Life Outside The Law
Unlike the dominant sociological approach to crime and punishment, the economic approach treats criminals as rational choosers...
The Education Monopoly Problem
Professor Edwin West explores the various mechanisms that have evolved in several countries for enhancing choice both within...
REVIEW ARTICLE: The Economic of Status: Robert Frank's "Choosing The Right Pond"
How much welfare would we forgo to retain our social status? A great deal, according to Robert H. Frank, whose book Choosing...
FEATURE: Improving Australia's Refugee Resettlement Policy
Australia has a good record for accomodating and resettling refugees. The case for a self-determining system of refugee immigration...
FEATURE: The Greenhouse Effect: Fact and Fiction
Dramatic articles and documentaries frequently warn of the dire consequences for mankind of the greenhouse effect if urgent...
BOOK REVIEW: Contracting-Out in the UK
The Politics of Privitisation: Contracting Out Public Services by Kate Ascher (Macmillan Education Ltd, 1987.)
FEATURE: The False Promise of Urban Consolidation
Urban consolidation is being promoted in New South Wales as a way of economising on infrastructure and housing costs. Tony...
FEATURE: The Failing Symbiosis: Labour Market Regulation and the Welfare State in Australia
'Symbiosis' is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as 'union between organisms each of which depends for its existence...
FEATURE: Cultural Regulation: Government Assistance to the Australian Film & Television Industry
Australia's film and television industry is riddled with protection and subsidies. Ross Jones argues that this does nothing...
FEATURE: Are There Any Welfare Rights?
The standard arguments justifying the welfare state in terms of a moral right to welfare remain controversial and inconclusive....
FEATURE: Depoliticising Australia Post
The recent revelation of Australia Post's plans to close many uneconomic post offices and to replace them with post agencies...
FEATURE: Long-Duration Unemployment: 'Losers' or 'Choosers'?
Regulation of labour markets and the operation of the welfare state in Australia interact to encourage the emergence of long-duration...
FEATURE: Welfare Reform Talk in the US
The US is a major source of new ideas on social policy. Peter Samuel provides an overview of the new welfare thinking, with...
CRITICAL REVIEW: Welfare versus Happiness: Charles Murray's 'In Pursuit'
Charle's Murray's book In Pursuit of Happiness and Good Government (Simon & Schuster, 1988), builds on the many insights...
FEATURE: How the Welfare State Undermines Constitutionalism
The welfare state necessarily operates by way of a mass of delegated and particular legislation and so undermines the general...
The Welfare State: Foundations and Alternatives
The central question for public policy in the 1990s is whether the state should retain its near-monopoly of welfare provision...
The Long Debate on Poverty
In The Long Debate on Poverty, Professor Hartwell analyses the debate on poverty and its historical roots; demonstrates the...
Social Welfare: The Changing Debate
David D. Green’s monograph Social Welfare: The Changing Debate, summarises the research findings and arguments of several...
Policies and Prescriptions:Current Directions in Health Policy
Australian governments have been involved in health care ever since the first doctors came on the ships with the first convicts. ...
Affirmative Action: The New Discrimination
Gabriel Moens finds that the philosophical and practical ramifications of such 'affirmative action' may be worse than the...
Free to Shop
Shopping hours and standards in Australia are far behind those of other countries. The trend of Governments in other countries...
The Rhetoric and Reality of Income Redistribution
In this survey of a variety of aspects of income redistribution, Gordon Tullock asks not that we should necessarily change...
Preventative Policing
In this companion paper to "Six Questions About Civility" (2002), Nicole Billante explores ways to combat the problem of...
