Social Policy
A free society rests on strong communities of self-reliant, involved and independently-minded people. Good social policy enables such communities to flourish. Bad social policy kills them, albeit often inadvertently, and with the best of intentions. This is why CIS has been working in the area of social policy ever since the 1980s.
The aim of this work is to inform public debate and to promote policies that will protect individual liberties, emphasise personal responsibility and strengthen community life. Good policies should help people take control over their own lives and enable them to contribute in a positive way to the society in which they live.
Publications
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The Power and the Responsibility: Child Protection in the Post-Welfare State Era
| 08 Sep 2010 | Occasional PapersGovernment-run child protection services in Australia are plagued by systemic problems, including a misguided emphasis on... Read More...
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FEATURE: Public Opinion Divided on Population, Immigration and Asylum
| 01 Sep 2010 | POLICY MagazineAustralians oppose asylum seekers arriving by boat but support the migration program.
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Healthy Stores, Healthy Communities: The Impact of Outback Stores on Remote Indigenous Australians
| 15 Jun 2010 | Issue AnalysisThe federal government’s initiative to improve remote community stores is crowding out the competition and not delivering... Read More...
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Defeating Dependency: Moving Disability Support Pensioners Into Jobs
| 28 Apr 2010 | Issue AnalysisJessica Brown, policy analyst with the CIS argues that the focus of reform efforts should be on encouraging some of the 750,000... Read More...
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Indigenous Education 2010
& | 20 Apr 2010 | Policy MonographsThe 2009 NAPLAN literacy and numeracy tests confirm the continued failure of Indigenous education. The government's 'closing... Read More...
Opinion & Commentary
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Graduates can afford to top up funding
| 08 Sep 2010 | The AustralianIn higher education, the key issue of funding rate per student remains unresolved.... Read More
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A small Australia limits our creativity
| 07 Sep 2010 | The Sydney Morning HeraldTo advocate a small Australia is to deny the opportunities for economic, scientific and cultural advance that can flow from ... Read More
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Little Gungaleeda girl: a preventable tragedy
| 01 Sep 2010 | The DrumThe death of the 'little Gungaleeda girl' is a tragic outcome of poorly resourced medical care in remote Indigenous communities, ... Read More
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In search of that last small step
| 31 Aug 2010 | The AgeIn abolishing controls on higher education student numbers, the two parties are coming very close to a reform that combines ... Read More
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Hospital boards trump bureaucracy
| 28 Aug 2010 | The Weekend AustralianThere are clear differences in the way the government and opposition will organise public health administration yet health ... Read More
Ideas@TheCentre
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Education key to living in two worlds
| 30 Jul 2010In his speech at the opening dinner of the Centre’s annual Consilium conference last week, Noel Pearson raised the point ...
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One rule for all: free speech and integration
| 30 Jul 2010At the Centre’s ‘Freedom of Speech’ forum on Thursday, July 29, writer-activist Ayan Hirsi Ali and The Australian’s ...
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Unhealthy economics of death
| 23 Jul 2010The ability to employ high-tech medicine to preserve life has outrun society’s current capacity to decide who should use ...
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A world away - Halls Creek, a remote town in WA
| 16 Jul 2010Inspired by the alcohol restrictions in the nearby town of Fitzroy Crossing, two local women lobbied to have the same rules ...
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Overcoming poverty of ambition
| 16 Jul 2010Study shows that children of the poorest parents – both in terms of income and education – can go on to become tomorrow’s ...
