• Next L&S conference is on May 1 - 3 in Sydney. Click here for further details.

2008 April Conference

Two conferences were held in 2008. We had a record number of applications for the 30 places at each conference. The students who attended were undergraduates, post graduate students and people who have just started in the workforce. The groups included people from different political persuasions and with varied interests. As usual one of the great things about these conferences is the tolerant and open discussions that take place. Everyone’s opinions were listened to and robust argument took place with good humour and serious argument. The conferences included sessions on Political Philosophy, Law and Economics. The final session is a policy area that pulls together all the theoretical discussions and discovers how they work in the real world. In 2008 the lecturers looked at welfare reform and education. Lecturers included Professor Chandran Kukathas from the LSE, Professor Geoff Brennan from ANU, Professor Suri Ratnapala from UQ, Professor Sinclair Davidson from RMIT, Professor Peter Saunders from the CIS, Dr Darryn Jensen from UQ and Andrew Norton and Jennifer Buckingham from CIS. The conference was very well received by the students with comments such as the following: ‘Exceeded all expectations. What a pity you can only do it once!’ ‘I sincerely believe that L&S is such an important vehicle in providing alternatives to what many students find unsatisfying in university. I think it’s the only place where Classical Liberal ideals are discussed and debated in an environment that is tolerant to them.’

2008 Ross Parish Essay Competition

The 2008 Essay Competition has been completed. Results will be announced soon.

The essay competition was established in commemoration of a longtime supporter and academic advisor of CIS, and a promoter of the benefits of the free market, Ross Parish.

Click here for more information and to read the winning essays from 2007.

2008 Advanced Liberty & Society Conference

The Advanced conference runs every second year for people who have attended an Introductory Conference, are working or at a higher level of study and want to pursue the ideas in their workplace and life. The group that was selected to attend are now working in policy areas in government, in the business sector, working for politicians or completing higher level university degrees. The conference was held during the first weeks of the financial crisis which lead to serious discussions about the free market. The lecturers involved were:
Professor Ian Harper - Access Economics and Head of Fair Pay Commission
Dr John Hirst – Historian at La Trobe University
Hon Ruth Richardson - Principal of Ruth Richardson (NZ) Ltd
Dr Jeremy Sammut - Research Fellow Social Policy Program CIS
Jessica Brown - Policy Analyst Social Policy Program
CIS Guest Speaker: Dr John Lee on ‘China and democracy’
4 attendee papers were also selected to be presented. They ranged across areas such as Feminism and the free market, Duel Patents and State and Federal division of power.

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